The South African arm of international healthcare group, Smith & Nephew, is to keep up to speed with the latest regulatory information, improve response times and move onto the Web in a recent series of Lotus Notes- and Lotus Domino-based initiatives. The Group is also evaluating its overall IT structure and will soon deploy a globally-accessible wide area network. Cliff McCormick, IT manager at Smith & Nephew`s Durban operation, says NotesMail is set to become the global remote mail standard. Smith & Nephew is implementing a process internationally using Notes; a database of abstracts is being replicated from the research and development office in York, England. Abstracts detail existing and new pharmaceutical developments within the Group worldwide. McCormick says other databases should come on-line soon. Smith & Nephew has also ported several core business processes to Lotus` groupware platform, the most popular of which is the generation of screening reports. "When we receive a new product, several departments - including quality assurance, quality control and marketing - must screen it," says McCormick. "Previously a paper-based tracking process left us with inaccuracies. Departments can now collaborate on the report and track its progress down to a user level. It`s possible to identify hold-ups or problems and solve them. There has been a major improvement in efficiency." A product complaints tracking system, a process which went live at the beginning of this year, has also impacted the company`s business. Shep Cockcroft, partner in PCI Systems, a Lotus business partner and developer, says the application has drastically reduced product complaint internal response cycles. "Previously complaint frequency had to be manually extracted from one system and entered into another. Notes now conducts this process automatically," he says. "The cycle time from the original capture of the complaint through the final sign off and response used to take approximately 30 days. It can now take as little as seven. That`s tangible benefit." Other Smith & Nephew business processes now conducted via Notes include key accounts management and PC inventory for the IT department. A Notes-based help desk has also been launched. Speculating on future developments McCormick says Smith&Nephew is to develop a Web site that will reflect the local operation`s business - a site set to be driven by Lotus Domino. The Group can already be found on the Web at www.smith-nephew.com, with other countries to come on line soon.
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