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2005 is predicted to be the year of voice over IP (VoIP) solutions for a growing number of corporate enterprises - both large and small.

If you have been con

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

sidering the benefits of implementing VoIP, you are certainly not alone. In its just-published "2005 Telecommunications Report," Harris Interactive found that

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

Examples of combination products may in

87% of business decision-makers are familiar with VoIP and, of that number, 12% currently use it in their organizations.

So what's the big attraction?

Cost

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

mainly. But lowering company telecom expenses is just one aspect of the lure of implementing VoIP solutions. Other advantages include the potential for value-

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

dded services and the capability of more advanced features made possible through the integration of voice and data (e.g. videoconferencing, advanced voicemail

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

Combination pro

features,etc.)

Sounds good, but here's the rub...it's also been estimated that up to 85% of corporate networks are simply not ready to handle VoIP.

Combini

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

g voice with data is a tricky proposition. After decades of getting used to near-perfect sound quality delivered over traditional voice networks, even the sli

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

ghtest delays in voip can be very annoying.

Before diving in to a full-blown VoIP solution, it is advisable that you conduct a voice over IP readiness assess

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

ent of your existing network. This assessment will provide you with two very important pieces of information:

The capability of your existing data network to

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

deliver high-quality voip calls, and; the ability to evaluate the quality of these calls during a wide variety of traffic scenarios. Keep in mind that mo

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

t data networks were not designed for VoIP, so chances are that some upgrading of your existing network will be necessary. One critical requirement for VoIP t

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

Following aspects would a

work is QoS. (Short for Quality of Service, a networking term that specifies a guaranteed throughput level). For QoS to work, the routers and switches that m

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

anage the data traffic flow in your network must be able to prioritize VoIP data packets via QoS.

4 Steps to a Successful VoIP Readiness Assessment

1

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

Conduct a complete inventory of your existing network. Identify routers, switches and links in your network and store their configuration data in a database.

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

This step is crucial before you can move to step 2.

2. Determine the current CPU, memory and bandwidth of your network devices, routers and switches. This i

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

formation will give you a "baseline" of your existing network infrastructure and current capacity.

3. Simulate and compare VoIP usage scenarios to estimate t

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

he call capacity of the network.

4. Determine how well VoIP will perform on your network by measuring simulated VoIP traffic and calculating call quality bas

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

d on a Mean Opinion Score (MOS).

We have recently added a VoIP bandwidth calculator tool to help you determine various codec, MOS, and bandwidth scenarios.

.

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

While VoIP can ride over the highways that your data currently does, it is a new application with new rules. A VoIP readiness assessment will give you the inf

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

rmation you need to incorporate a VoIP solution without unnecessary hassles and expenses due to lack of proper planning and research.

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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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