INFIONIC: Answering Every Question Arising From Man, Machine and Material
While considering pharmaceutical industry, traceability and product costing should be key components when selecting and implementing management systems. The reason is simple: Companies engaged in research, clinical trials, and manufacturing must keep accurate records in an environment where research and manufacturing locations are dispersed around the world. And for manufacturers and those outsourcing to them, comprehensive record keeping is a matter of immense importance. For example, in a situation of fixed billings for a specific amount of material output, the only way to ensure accurate profitability statements for a customer or a production run is to have an automated data capture system. Particularly, companies seek industry- specific systems that mirror their business processes, making the system easy to configure and implement. Also, since every organization is built on a foundation of man, machine and material, managing the life cycle of all the three simultaneously becomes a tedious task. As an answer to all such challenges spanning research to commercialization to post launch activities, Hyderabad headquartered Infionic was brought into existence. After starting off as a services company with primary focus on the pharmaceutical industry, Infionic in 2011, switched to an enterprise product based company with the focus shifting towards process oriented industries. The company works towards building simplified ways to manage the man, machine and material components of any organization and in doing so, it introduces a dependable correlation and link between the method in which data flows to & fro these three elements and across rest of the functions. Allowing the data to flow seamlessly, Infionic aims to give every company contextual data and 360 degree enterprise information in an easier and a faster visual. The company also, has put in efforts to develop ‘Infionic One’ suite, which is an end to end product that ties all the key functions of an organization and helps consistent information flow across manufacturing, operations, sales, human resources, regulatory etc. and most importantly, to the executive management of the firm. Being an enterprise product company, Infionic is inclined on linking cross-functional data coherently across departments for quicker decision making and simplifying processes. The company narrows down the focus on project, program, and portfolio management for evaluating and determining the realistic cost of a project and product through man, machine and material management.
Infionic’s data-driven methodology is incorporated into the company’s costing model to give an accurate product costing
All inclusive Infionic One
Costing remains one of the most important aspects of a project management. Since the data about cost components for a project is maintained in the respective ERP systems of a particular organization, Infionic team was integrating the product with each company’s ERP system. This led the company to realize that none of the companies have an ERP system that captures all the data in a structured way. Viewing a huge opportunity ahead in this situation, Infionic ended up coming up with the solution called Infionic One. Infionic One is a web-based, mobile-enabled enterprise-wide suite that caters to all functions within an organization. It renders an organization into a technology and data driven organization that promotes and enables decision making process driven by facts and figures. Infionic One also triggers collaborative work environment and supports globalization by bringing together skill-sets across geographically diverse teams. Infionic One comprises of four integrated modules that enables uninterrupted data flow and knowledge sharing within an organization- Customer Relationship Management, Enterprise Resource Planning, Project & Portfolio Management and Human Resource Management.
Infionic One for Pharmaceutical Industry
As far as Pharma companies are concerned: there exists a need to have a lot of traceability within the operations. Irrespective of the part a company caters to the drug development cycle which includes – companies focusing on R&D, manufacturers of APIs or Formulations, CROs, CRMs or Sales focused companies – Infionic’s enterprise wide suite assists management of the entire operation chain. The company’s integrated suite -Sales to Project & Portfolio Management to ERP to HRM – helps an organization to become a data & technology driven organization that helps to run the operations in an optimized and efficient way. By giving a one stop solution, Infionic is able to give the control and view of the entire operations of the pharma company on a single standard platform. This in turn enables the company to drill down as much information as required from top to bottom and throughout; thus ensuring the much sought after transparency and traceability. For any manufacturing company in the Pharma vertical, the initial stage of any particular production starts from lab scale and then gradually grows through kilo-scale and eventually commercial-scale varying the cost of production across all the stages. It is of utmost importance for the pharma manufacturing companies to keep track of the progress across the stages and their cost variations as well.
“We are one of the unique organizations who assist companies to track the entire complicated process manufacturing life-cycle in one tool”, says Subramanyam S.P (Subbu), Founder & CEO, Infionic. To elaborate, Infionic One reaches for an out-of-the-box approach towards managing the manufacturing process. Right from the instant the product profile is created, to managing the shop floor data, to total quality management, the product’s user friendly screens ensure that the data generated during the various aforementioned stages within the manufacturing process is captured accurately and in real-time. In order to keep track of manufacturing overheads, Infionic’s data-driven methodology is incorporated into the company’s costing model to give an accurate product costing. The companies therefore get a better visibility into the process which eases the work for making meticulous and factual commercial quotes, better control over the operations and therefore reduced delays. Also, the client company can produce better customer satisfaction because the exact knowledge of the process allows answering customers’ questions at any given point of time. All these factors alas lead a company to kick-start new revenue growths.
Project Management Solution
Infionic One also ensures rich functionality to manage all aspects of Portfolio and Projects within an organization. The product ties the data in a hierarchical manner from projects to programs and finally to portfolio. Infionic team through this product maintains the flexibility to define non-portfolio related programs like capacity expansion and infrastructure development to ensure that all resources (time, people, and money) spent in an organization are tracked. “Project management solution is in other words people’s management. Project management is about managing the man, machine and material components. We are able to manage any project irrespective of the vertical. Whether it is a people based project like the one in an IT company; or R&D project management where one is more interested in deliverables and milestone as opposed to the cost. We build for a more complex scenario and therefore we are able to solve all scenarios including the easy ones of course. Hence, we are built to manage all components in all non-portfolio related problems”, explains Subbu. Infionic One also empowers the sales force with an effective and user-friendly sales management tool that provides all the relevant information. It also provides a platform exclusively for the sales force to view and prioritize the prospects, opportunities and sales activities while simultaneously enabling the executive team to generate and view key sales reports. Understanding the issues faced by sales teams in using a technology tool, Infionic team has eliminated all such major challenges related to usability in Infionic One while also ensuring the sales process’ effective management.
Impacts on R&D and HR processes
Projects typically have clear defined goals, a transparent cost structure and a schedule with a planned completion date. However, these characteristics apply less to R&D projects, making their management more complex. While the goal may still remain to complete defined research successfully and develop a new product, the research part of the project means the work is new and subject to unexpected developments and results. Instead of a rigid project management structure with an emphasis on controls and verification, R&D project has to be capable of continuously adjusting to new situations with the involvement of all stakeholders. With a clear understanding of the difference, Infionic One enables everyone in the R&D organization to operate on a standard platform. While R&D leads the research & development, a company needs to work closely with other functions (portfolio prioritization, commercial development etc.) to achieve the end goal of launching the product on-budget and on-time. This product from Infionic brings all the functions together to give the senior management and portfolio group a holistic view that enriches the company’s decision making capabilities. Infionic ensures that decisions are data-driven and that accurate information is available in real-time for right decision making process.
People are the primary foundation of any organization. Hiring and retaining the right talent is what HR managers have a hard time doing and hence, here too, decision making becomes really important. Infionic’s product not only helps the HR team manage the core HR processes but also facilitates the client to proactively address the risks associated. Infionic One brings in all HR process data on a centralized platform thereby enabling better visibility and enhanced workforce planning capabilities.
Recognized by a plethora of Ranking magazines amongst the top 10 and top 20 Enterprise Software providers, Infionic strongly believes that there are 3 parameters on which the success of any software can be measured – Optimization, Flexibility & Usability. The company has been consistent in raising its standards to provide even better- affordable, cost effective, vertical customized and faster enterprise software, in order to assist CIOs in achieving data integrity for the organization.
Benefits in Pharmaceutical business processes due to Infionic One:
• Improved margins based on better pricing due to good understanding of costs
• Reduced Stock-outs due to increased coordination in supply chain
• Higher compliance due to transparency in operations
• Improved quality and adherence to quality plans
• Increased employee productivity and employee satisfaction
Business processes supported by Infionic One includes
• Portfolio & Project Management
• Research & Development
• Product Launch
• Manufacturing Operations
• Infrastructure Development
• Procurement & Inventory Management
• Product Costing
• Sales & Marketing
• Personnel Management
• Knowledge Management
• Decision Support system
Project Management Solution
Infionic One also ensures rich functionality to manage all aspects of Portfolio and Projects within an organization. The product ties the data in a hierarchical manner from projects to programs and finally to portfolio. Infionic team through this product maintains the flexibility to define non-portfolio related programs like capacity expansion and infrastructure development to ensure that all resources (time, people, and money) spent in an organization are tracked. “Project management solution is in other words people’s management. Project management is about managing the man, machine and material components. We are able to manage any project irrespective of the vertical. Whether it is a people based project like the one in an IT company; or R&D project management where one is more interested in deliverables and milestone as opposed to the cost. We build for a more complex scenario and therefore we are able to solve all scenarios including the easy ones of course. Hence, we are built to manage all components in all non-portfolio related problems”, explains Subbu. Infionic One also empowers the sales force with an effective and user-friendly sales management tool that provides all the relevant information. It also provides a platform exclusively for the sales force to view and prioritize the prospects, opportunities and sales activities while simultaneously enabling the executive team to generate and view key sales reports. Understanding the issues faced by sales teams in using a technology tool, Infionic team has eliminated all such major challenges related to usability in Infionic One while also ensuring the sales process’ effective management.
Impacts on R&D and HR processes
Projects typically have clear defined goals, a transparent cost structure and a schedule with a planned completion date. However, these characteristics apply less to R&D projects, making their management more complex. While the goal may still remain to complete defined research successfully and develop a new product, the research part of the project means the work is new and subject to unexpected developments and results. Instead of a rigid project management structure with an emphasis on controls and verification, R&D project has to be capable of continuously adjusting to new situations with the involvement of all stakeholders. With a clear understanding of the difference, Infionic One enables everyone in the R&D organization to operate on a standard platform. While R&D leads the research & development, a company needs to work closely with other functions (portfolio prioritization, commercial development etc.) to achieve the end goal of launching the product on-budget and on-time. This product from Infionic brings all the functions together to give the senior management and portfolio group a holistic view that enriches the company’s decision making capabilities. Infionic ensures that decisions are data-driven and that accurate information is available in real-time for right decision making process.
People are the primary foundation of any organization. Hiring and retaining the right talent is what HR managers have a hard time doing and hence, here too, decision making becomes really important. Infionic’s product not only helps the HR team manage the core HR processes but also facilitates the client to proactively address the risks associated. Infionic One brings in all HR process data on a centralized platform thereby enabling better visibility and enhanced workforce planning capabilities.
Recognized by a plethora of Ranking magazines amongst the top 10 and top 20 Enterprise Software providers, Infionic strongly believes that there are 3 parameters on which the success of any software can be measured – Optimization, Flexibility & Usability. The company has been consistent in raising its standards to provide even better- affordable, cost effective, vertical customized and faster enterprise software, in order to assist CIOs in achieving data integrity for the organization.
Benefits in Pharmaceutical business processes due to Infionic One:
• Improved margins based on better pricing due to good understanding of costs
• Reduced Stock-outs due to increased coordination in supply chain
• Higher compliance due to transparency in operations
• Improved quality and adherence to quality plans
• Increased employee productivity and employee satisfaction
Business processes supported by Infionic One includes
• Portfolio & Project Management
• Research & Development
• Product Launch
• Manufacturing Operations
• Infrastructure Development
• Procurement & Inventory Management
• Product Costing
• Sales & Marketing
• Personnel Management
• Knowledge Management
• Decision Support system
