The business scenario in the pharma industry is in constant evolution, empowering customers to access unlimited information. The digital revolution has caused a drastic shift of power from the hands of business heads to the demands of customers as today’s highly competitive environment provides enough impetus of choice. Hence, a requirement is built for diligent insights into consumer behaviors, to get an added advantage. This combined with the need for a comprehensive system that collects apt information with systematic channels is what has brought innovations like cloud migration into prime focus in the pharma industry.
Pharmaceutical companies are one of the major beneficiaries of emerging IT technologies like cloud computing. From innovative ideas for developing new drugs to improving customer engagement, pharma companies are increasingly resorting to digital technologies and tools to make their works easier. Cloud computing has revolutionized the Pharma world by facilitating easy access to data and helping companies develop innovative products like personalized medicine.
Here are some major advantages pharma businesses get by moving to the cloud:
- Improved Flexibility – Cloud-based services are ideal for organizations with fluctuating demands as it customizes its services accordingly. If the needs increase it’s easy to scale up the cloud capacity, facilitated by the service’s remote servers and vice-versa.
- Data Security – Security risks such as hacking, data theft, and identity theft often set an organization back by crores due to loss of not only the equipment but the sensitive data in it. Cloud computing provides greater security at such an occurrence. Due to parametric nature, only those who have set the functions can access it thus protecting data from external theft.
- Improved Efficiency – Cloud computing enables automation of business processes that helps in reducing redundancies resulting in better performance. Cloud-enabled real-time monitoring further aids in making better business decisions. With early access to a wide range of data, businesses can gather actionable insights about the performance systems and plan their future strategies accordingly. This makes business decisions and processes more robust and clear.
- Mobility – Due to collaborative and streamlined operations of cloud computing, one needs only a sound internet connection to access business data, while working upon it. This helps in the smooth functioning of business meetings and plans across countries.
- Cost Reduction – A large number of cloud users across the world have noticed that using cloud-based software and infrastructure helps them achieve significant cost reduction. It demands less development and testing resources. As a result, you spend less on support and maintenance of applications. Studies have shown that cloud-based application can cost 50% lesser than traditional software for over 10 years.
- Competitiveness – Cloud, single headedly has brought the cost of innovation down. Today even a pharma start-up can build a product or service for its customers in a cost-effective and scalable manner.
- Decentralization – When a pharmaceutical company goes global, its workforces and clinical trials need to become decentralized which also requires its IT infrastructure to be decentralized. Developing exclusive data centers can be very expensive and distract the firm from its core business objectives. Whereas, cloud computing improves web performance for users in remote locations without having to build additional data centers.
- Seamless and Automatic Software Updates – The central management, distribution and updating of software via the cloud ensure that pharmaceutical firms can take advantage of advanced features faster in cloud environments while eliminating the headaches of declining computer systems.
- Virtualization of Research – The cloud gives pharma companies the capability to connect all the various parties involved in its research systems and enables them to collaborate in more effective ways. These functionalities are a great boon to drug researchers and indicate at the cloud’s immense potential to revolutionize clinical trials.
The cloud’s ability to help pharmaceutical companies collaborate more closely, collect and analyze data from diverse sources, and expedite the clinical trials required to bring a drug safely to market, however, are having tremendous practical benefits. What they all need is an expert cloud solution provider like ACI Infotech, who can help them build cloud strategy, implement them effectively and migrate from on-premise infrastructure to the cloud and one cloud to another seamlessly.