Infosys the information technology major has now launched a cloud-based version of its Clinical Trial Supply Management (CTSM)  solution. The new solution helps life sciences companies enhance efficiency of clinical trial processes by driving greater collaboration between pharmaceutical companies and contract research organizations (CROs). The product demonstration is being held at Sapphire Now conference being held in Orlando from June 3 to 5, 2014.

The  CTSM is designed to improve the productivity drug development process, ensure timely supply of drugs to patients at reduced costs. As a result, enterprises can price products competitively while adhering to the stringent standards required to bring products safely to consumers.

According to a recent Gartner study the end-to-end business processes for CTSCs tend to be highly fragmented, as span multiple functions and involve multiple enterprises. Clinical trials are growing in scale and complexity, driving a need for business processes and systems that integrate the end-to-end activities, decisions and information across business functions.

According to Manish Tandon, senior vice president and Global Head Life Sciences & Services, Infosys, the new cloud-based version of our CTSM solution helps life sciences enterprises gain critical competitive advantages through cost savings and productivity gains via efficient management of their clinical trial supply chains. It is a solution that benefits from our experience in the sector, leveraging the power of SAP technology, and delivered through a cloud-based service.

In fact, Infosys stated that the new CSTM is an enhancement to the existing on-premise version: CTSM Add-On Suite 2.2 by Lodestone which provides a complete set of tools to manage all aspects of complex clinical trials. The on-premise version of the solution has been successfully managing clinical trial processes at a number of large global pharmaceutical companies across the US and Europe.

The company enlisted the key advantages of the new cloud-based CTSM solution stating that it helps to increase visibility across the clinical trial supply chain. It also enhances the manufacturing and warehouse efficiencies to ensure compliance. For example, enterprises can respond faster to changes in demand based on actual enrollment and patient turnaround during trials.

The solution integrates easily with existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, incorporating business processes and other unique requirements of clinical trials. It is available on a pay-per-use basis, and would help pharmaceutical, biotech companies and CROs eliminate the need to invest in or manage expensive infrastructure dedicated to clinical trial management

With mobility-enabled transactions and remote access capabilities, the solution facilitates real-time data entry for faster decision making.

The intuitive user interface helps users easily perform key business functions using version 5 of SAP’s user interface and encourages wider adoption of the solution.

The CTSM Add-On Suite 2.2 by Lodestone has been certified by SAP as powered by the SAP NetWeaver technology platform. The on-premise solution is now owned by Infosys, following its acquisition of Lodestone in 2012.