Big Data in Pharma: A Canadian High Tech opens its doors

TORONTO, Nov. 28, 2012 /CNW/ - TH!NK Business Insights is a new data solutions provider to manufacturers and distributors in the Canadian pharmaceutical industry.

Employing a state-of-the-art, Oracle-based data warehouse, TH!NK will launch its first offering, TH!NK Sales, in January of 2013. This product will track shipment data from manufacturers and wholesalers to pharmacy outlets and hospitals. It will offer valuable insights into sales trends and market share with improved speed, reliability and value.

"We have responded to a resounding call from the industry for an alternative provider of pharmaceutical data here in Canada," says Andy Burgess, CEO.  "TH!NK not only provides an alternative, but our initial product offering will offer speed, accuracy and value unrivalled in the marketplace".

Planned future solutions will include prescribing trends, drug utilization insights and related analysis imperative to stakeholders wishing to forecast, monitor resources and plan drug development.

"The health care sector in Canada will be the primary focus for TH!NK", said TH!NK Business Insights President, Tom Zelenka.  "Providing information that will assist stakeholders in making better and faster decisions is critical in today's competitive pharmaceutical landscape".

TH!NK's leading edge technology includes several features that deliver significant benefits for customers:

• Intelligent rule-based, daily ETL process automatically verifies data integrity and hygiene at time of data intake and enables the delivery of data to customers within 10 days of month end
• Separate data staging area and built-in integrity monitoring tools to detect data anomalies ensure reliable and high quality data for customers
• An advanced OLAP data model provides real-time data slicing and dicing so customers can receive customized dashboards and ad hoc reports
• Sophisticated BI analytics algorithms generate timely trend detection and product forecasting
• Embedded trend alerts highlight unusual sales patterns automatically and make analysis faster for users
• Data architecture provides pricing by province that will generate true integrated provincial level pricing for compensation planning and administration, allowance payments and other critical decisions
• Multi-zone cloud-based hosting and redundant database architecture with instant roll-over technology eliminates delays caused by a system failure

TH!NK's Chief Technology Officer, John Ching, is excited about the potential to combine "modern BI technology with Big Data" and is keen to point out this important differentiator.  "New technology allows TH!NK to embed trend insights, quality checks and most important, efficient and flexible access.  The bar has just been raised for the users of pharmaceutical data".

TH!NK Business Insights has offices in Toronto and Montreal.  The company secured private venture funding in June 2012. The executive team includes:  Andy Burgess (previously the CEO of Somerset Entertainment, a TSX-listed company) is the Chief Executive Officer; Tom Zelenka is President; Mark Maciw is Chief Operating Officer; Terri Power is Chief Commercial Officer; and John Ching is Chief Technology Officer.  Combined, the executive team has over 70 years of industry-related experience.

SOURCE: TH!NK Business Insights