Nextphase International Inc. has released a version of its ctSeries software for online clinical trial data management using the Microsoft Corp. Tablet PC platform.
Nextphase, based in Austin, Tex., exhibited the new software during recent Tablet PC launch events. The ctSeries Tablet PC Edition allows health-care professionals to electronically collect clinical trial data in examining rooms as they talk to patients, said Mike Currie, Nextphase CEO. He expects Tablet PCs to be popular in health care. The devices are smaller, lighter and easier to use than laptops, Currie said. The Nextphase software features drop-down menus for easy use with stylus data entry, database connectivity and the company’s TrialView Management Dashboard for measuring and monitoring clinical data. The Tablet PC version is priced according to the clinical trial size and protocol needs. The software system uses standard Internet browsers for study activity and a central Oracle Corp. database for storing trial information with all trial activity kept online.
Salesforce.com goes wireless
Salesforce.com Inc. has launched a wireless edition of its online CRM offering, which is designed to allow users to access customer data in real-time via wireless devices.
The new Salesforce.com Airforce Wireless Edition allows users to connect directly to the Salesforce.com CRM system via any e-mail-enabled or wireless browser device, so there is no need for a local database and no synchronization requirements, according to officials from San Francisco-based Salesforce.com. “A lot of our customers tend to be travelling salespeople,” said Kaiser Mulla-Feroze, senior product marketing manager at Salesforce.com. “They love our system, but one of the issues is how can I get access to Salesforce.com when it is not convenient to hook up my laptop to a live connection? We want to give our customers a suite of mobile options.” In addition, instead of simply replicating its online edition for wireless devices, Salesforce.com leveraged natural language querying and custom fields to tailor the application for handheld screens, Mulla-Feroze added. “What companies have done is basically try and replicate whatever application that they have on a wireless device. When people are on the road, they expect a very different user experience. You want to use a fetch metaphor to get what you are looking for in the fastest possible time,” Mulla-Feroze said. The Airforce wireless edition will be available Dec. 2 at no cost to Salesforce.com Enterprise Edition subscribers and for US$195 per user per year for Professional Edition customers.
