Planning, aligning lagging
And without a measuring stick of some kind, it's very difficult to assess how far we'sve really come and what remains to be accomplished. It's also difficult to separate perception from reality. But this week, I'sve come across a research report from First Consulting Group (FCG) (www.fcg.com) that offers a report card of the life science industry's progress in e-commerce.
According to FCG, the conclusions are based on a five-stage model of Internet maturity developed with Cisco Systems to assess how far industries have come in this area. The nice thing about FCG's measuring stick is it's the same one they use to assess progress in other industries.
The study finds that U.S. pharmaceutical firms are making progress in some key areas, but lagging in others.
For instance, although drug companies claim that B2C applications are a top priority, most are lagging in the area of interactive or transactional functionality compared to health care providers and health plans. In addition, the authors contend the industry has only taken tentative first steps in exploring the Web as an effective and less costly means of forging direct relationships with consumers and physicians.
Participating life science executives indicated that the most important business driver behind their B2C e-health initiatives was patient/consumer satisfaction. Competitive advantage, revenue growth and MD satisfaction/retention tied as the next most important business drivers. According to FCG, this pattern is typical of early efforts focused on market visibility in all industries.
The study also finds that B2B applications, including online research tools, electronic communication and clinical trial data analysis are quickly becoming standard business practice, while we'sve been slower to adopt applications that change basic business processes and relationships.
Although most life science companies appear to have developed an e-business strategy over the last six to 12 months, most are still in the process of deciding which initiatives will provide the most value and which Internet, hand-held or wireless e-business firms they should strategically align with, said Martin Holzman, VP at FCG.
What's the bottom line? Well, according to Holzman, we'sre still planning and aligning. And to me that means, compared to other industries, we'sre still lagging.