Advice Pool - Internet and Businesses Online

It's now widely accepted that web-site is essential for any kind of business over Internet. However, before embarking on website design - spend some time on planning. Why do you need a web-site ? What are your expectations from it ? What is the target audience ? How do you blend your organizational goals with website goals ?

To help you in your thinking process - here's a checklist of issues and considerations that could be helpful in your planning. This is a general che

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

cklist, there may be special issues related to your business. You may add or subtract from this list to construct your own website design plan.

There are essentially four issues - that you should address before starting work on your web-site. These are:

What is the purpose of this web-site or, to put it differently - ask yourself 'What exactly am I expecting from it ?'
What kind of hosting solution should I consider
What will be the content and

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

how to manage it

How to promote the web-site

Purpose of Web-Site Design of web-site is critically dependent on your business goals. Web-sites are used for various purposes, such as:

Pure Dissemination of information. For example, web-sites of very large corporations, Newspapers, Government organizations, Educational institutions, Business associations etc
Extension of existing services, such as banks using web-sites fo

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

on-line transaction processing. Customers can enjoy many services from home without physically visiting bank premises

Marketing products and services - where it acts as online brochure. Most companies use web-sites for this purpose

Selling Products on-line - where it not only markets products but also acts as store-front for selling products and services, popularly known as e-commerce.

Customer service where customers use web-site for troublesh

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

ooting, lodging complaints, request information etc. Examples are web-sites of hardware, machinery, equipment manufacturers

Facilitating interaction among a group on subjects common to all group members - such as discussion boards, consumer activist forum etc.

Above is merely an illustration - there are many other applications (such as BLOGS) and more will emerge in future. Important point is to decide the purpose of your web-site - which may be one of

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

bove or a mixture. A helpful tip is to write the purpose clearly on a piece of paper and discuss it with your design team. Use feedback from your friends, colleagues, technical team and customers to evaluate and if necessary, change your web-site plan. It is better to develop a plan first as mid-course changes are always expensive and time consuming. Hosting Solution for Your Web-Site Web-Site is composed of html files, computer programs, databases, Java

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

Scripts etc. Once this stuff is placed on a special kind of computer called server - your web-site becomes part of World Wide Web (WWW), visible from any part of the world. Such servers are called 'Host' in Internet lingo and the process called hosting. Hosting Solution means zeroing on a suitable server that will host your web-site. There are two broad issues that will largely determine the nature and extent of your web-presence - one is technical and the other financial

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

Technical Considerations Apart from technical specifications of host - you need to consider following

Over 90% of servers that constitute WWW are either Windows or Linux/Unix based. Windows and Linux are a kind of computer software called "Operating System". In internet lingo - they are called platforms. So, your first job is to select the platform for your web-site host.
While static html files will work perfectly from both kinds of s

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

ervers, computer programs and databases are largely platform-centric. So, if you are going to use databases and software - better select the platform first.

Linux is considered more robust and faster than Windows. Besides, it is far more capital-inexpensive as most databases and software for this platform are available free (called open source in Internet lingo). However, it is easier to find a Windows programmer than Linux, as most teaching schools use Windows.

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

o maintenance cost of Linux software may get higher than that of Windows. Financial Considerations Apart from selecting hosting platform, you also need to decide the extent of your web-presence - mainly dependent on financial consideration. Based on budget and other considerations - there are essentially three options in your web-presence:

Your web-presence is part of a larger web-site - like a rented room in a building
Hire a V

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

irtual server - like owning an apartment in a high-rise building

Dedicated Server - like owning a house or bungalow

Part of Larger Web-site Like a rented room, in this mode you hire some web-space from a larger web-site (not host). Your internet address (URL in Internet lingo) looks like

http://www.large-website.com/your-humble-presence
http://your-humble-presence.large-website.co

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

m The later (also called sub-domain or micro site) is little more prestigious and may suit some businesses. While such web-presence is inexpensive, convenient and maintenance free, it may not suit your purpose in long term for following reasons:

Like rented office, the address is temporary. If large-website.com decides to throw you out or closes down its business - you will have to look for another place and consequently another URL. This c

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

uld be suicidal as your customer will not be able to locate you and all your money spent on search engine promotion will go down the drain

You will never be able to use business e-mails like sales@your-company.com

There may be severe restrictions on bandwidth usage

There are many other reasons against such web-presence, but the most important is poor cost benefit ratio. This kind of web presence might have been cost effective during initial days

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

of Internet when web-hosting was a costly affair - but is no longer so today. Falling price of web-hosting has made this option mostly redundant. Virtual Server This is perhaps the most popular and cost-effective option today where you enjoy fair amount of independence and a permanent Internet address (URL) for a moderate price. Like apartment in a large mansion - you get space earmarked for you in a server or host along with many others like you. Unlike

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

apartments - you will never lose your Internet address (URL) as domain name remains same even if you change server or hosting provider. You will enjoy almost all facilities that a dedicated server or bungalow owner gets like business e-mail, own programs, databases etc. Your web-site will look and act like independent of anyone though in reality it is not (it is part of a server) - hence the name virtual server.

The disadvantages of this mode of web-presence are

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

>Beware of cheap service providers who cram hundreds of web-sites in a single server choking processor efficiency and bandwidth. Your web-site in such a server will be slow to respond, resulting in lose of customers. Research has shown that a typical website visitor does not wait beyond 20 seconds for a web-site to load. Make sure your web-site does not keep visitors in a queue - else all your investment goes down the drain.

Stingy service providers may not inves

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

in server resources or user-friendly web-administrator software resulting in slow server and time consuming web site administration

Over enthusiastic hosting service providers may impose unreasonable service restrictions

One can not grow beyond a certain limit. An apartment owner can not build extra rooms.

Like apartment owner - you should not do anything that might cause inconvenience to other apartment owners such as too many visitors, too mu

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

ch use of common facilities etc.

All said and done - this is an excellent option for all "Small and Medium Enterprises" who take necessary care to select a suitable hosting service provider. True, there are limits in such web-presence but in reality - it may take quite some time for you to reach that limit. Till that time - it is cost effective to use virtual server. Dedicated Server As the name indicates, you get a whole server

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

to host your web-site - no sharing of resources. There are almost no limits in usage and everything is good in this mode except cost. You need to spend quite a lot for a dedicated server and hire highly skilled technical professionals to maintain it. Normally, a small or medium enterprise may not need a dedicated server, not at least in the beginning. Conclusion Apart from above basic issues, there are others relating to content and promotion. Nature of c

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

ontent determines, to a great extent, internal working of a web-site. For web-sites where content changes rapidly (such as newspapers, commodity prices etc.), static html files may not be sufficient. Databases may be required in such cases for storing dynamic content. Promotion in search engines is another issue that will surface once basic issues are resolved. One should be aware of all these issues and considerations in the design phase and earmark resources accordingly

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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Organisations that regularly take a good hard look in the mirror at themselves tend to avoid the worst of sudden changes in fortune. They may choose to do so at their annual retreat or at an annual challenge session where the executive team complete a “what if” analysis to see if their strategies and tactics are still suitable to achieve a goal which is still appropriate. Organisations when facing the implications of a sudden change in fortune that complain about their bad luck start or continue the steady decay into irrelevance.

Many lawyers are cutting costs due to competition. Yes, even lawyers have competition these days even though they seem to have an unlimited number of people to sue. This is because there are so many lawyers each year graduating from Law School and despite what you think the Bar Exam is really a piece of cake; lawyers just complain about it to make you think they are smart.

So you want to market your company on the Internet. Everyone has a web site. You want a web site - or you already have a web site. There’s just one problem. Your site has been up for awhile – without sales. STOP and heed the red light.

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