SmithKline Beecham (SB) has selected iOra Mobile Intranet to make sure that those of its more remote offices involved in pre-clinical drug tests can access its intranet with a virtual 24-hour up-time.

For SB, it is important that staff working in all of its locations have access to standard operating procedures and protocols whenever they need it while they are conducting pre-clinical safety studies. The solution that IOra is providing to SB – iOra Mobile Intranet – will ensure that these remote offices always have access to up-to-date information.

One of SB’s intranet-based applications, SA-Docs, delivers the procedures and protocols to all the staff online. Dr Anil Dhiri, senior informatics analyst within the safety assessment department at SmithKline Beecham, commented: "Access to the latest information is vital to ensure that drug trials can be completed reliably and to schedule." By using iOra Mobile Intranet, SB’s mobile users can have access to the intranet content remotely, even when there is no connection to the server.

IOra Mobile Intranet works by managing information using a publisher metaphor. Information to be published is placed in a single ‘Publication’ folder on the intranet. For example, ‘Publication’ folders might be created for ‘Sales’, ‘Legal’, Health & Safety’, and so on. Initially these are also installed on the remote PC.

Amendments to each publication can be published as often as necessary. These are highly compressed for high-speed transference over the internet. Software running on the remote PCs transparently downloads the amendment files and uses them to keep its version of the publication in question in line with the content on the intranet server. In the same way the information content on other remote PCs and sites can be kept synchronised with the same central server.

Paddy Falls, CEO and co-founder of iOra, commented: "IOra Mobile Intranet is an ideal solution for organisations like SmithKline Beecham where there is a requirement for central control of content, with access for remote and mobile employees who are intermittently connected."

In addition to compressing the amendments, iOra Mobile Intranet also encrypts them for secure transmission over the internet. Sensitive information is also password-protected to prevent unauthorised access. "We have chosen iOra Mobile Intranet as it provides a virtual 24-hour up-time for this important application," said Dhiri. "It will also allow us to manage the content on a single server, and ensures that our intranet content is securely accessible at all times."

IOra Mobile Intranet uses iOra’s patent-pending Epsilon Technology. IOra claims that Epsilon can update information over the internet up to 100 times faster than competitive products, including those most commonly used to update remote sites, for example transfer by email or download by FTP. This is especially advantageous when the remote link is a low-bandwidth or wireless connection.

IOra also claims that the software is compatible with all applications running on 32-bit Windows operating systems, so no application changes or programming are required to use it.

http://www.iora.com/