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There’s an ongoing debate about utilizing APIs vs EDI for trading partner communications within the supply chain.  EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) was first created in the 1940s-1950s as a set of messaging standards so supply chain partners could easily communicate with one another.  In a standard EDI process, a company sends an electronic file that conforms to an agreed upon format, for that message’s purpose, directly to the recipient’s computer.  Today, EDI is transmitted over the internet and encrypted using what’s generally called B2B Gateway software to establish a secure connection between trading partners.  This includes common transmission protocols such …

The word “insight” means different things to different people and is defined as “the capacity to gain an accurate and deep intuitive understanding of a person or thing”. Some think of eye catching charts and visuals are the best way to gain insights. In fact, data visualization tools are just one piece of a comprehensive business intelligence strategy. You have to be sure the data supporting the visuals is complete and of high quality first. Dirty or incomplete data can turn your “insight” into a trap that could have devastating impacts on research, treatment or operations, a textbook “garbage in, …

Over the past two days, I attended and presented at the 3rd Annual Patient Registries Summit in Philadelphia. It was attended by a wide variety of organizations representing healthcare, pharma and specific disease and patient advocate organizations. Some highlights below: Alex Cole of Alexion Pharmaceuticals  spoke about global regulatory perspectives on registries. A key point as organizations build data repositories was to differentiate between clinical trial registries and specific disease registries, noting that the first is developed with the analysis in mind while the second is developed not knowing what analysis will be required once available. That’s a really important distinction as it …

The previous blog in the series on digital transformation in Life Science and Healthcare sectors covered how data experts allow for peace of mind across the organization knowing that they have followed the best practices to avoid a data breach. This one is about how data experts can enable greater FOCUS across an organization. Data Scientists today are not focused on what they have been trained to do and the data science role did not pan out the way that we all envisioned it would ten years ago. When the data science buzzword began its meteoric rise in the early 2000s, we …

Growth. This is the single-word answer to a question that many organizations consider self-evident. After all, data has taken a front seat in today’s businesses that it’s hard to find an individual who disagrees with the notion that the ability to leverage data is a key success factor for most businesses. The amount of data we collectively generate 24/7/365 continues to grow, and with it our desire and actual ability to utilize data for various purposes. As the value potential of data grows, so does the business around making this happen. The big picture can be segmented using the idea …

Identity theft, specifically the theft of cardholder data, harms both businesses and consumers. For businesses, identity theft leads to chargebacks that reverse revenues and incur additional costs for handling the chargebacks. According to statistics, financial losses due to identity theft amount to more than $50 billion every year. Identity theft can also deal a significant blow to a business’s reputation and credibility, negatively affecting its long-term profitability and even longevity. As a response to identity theft, merchants are required to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS), which strengthen card security and protect cardholders from identity …

At Liaison, we’re excited about a new report published by 451 Research, a preeminent information and technology research and advisory group. In our view, the Market Insight report, “Liaison seeks to replace legacy middleware with ALLOY integration and data management,” is right on target. It accurately describes our business strategy, showing that savvy analysts “get it” —  Liaison’s ALLOY Platform is perfectly positioned for this moment. The report talks about our belief that marketplace factors are driving enterprise adoption of new solutions to “integrate, harmonize and mine multiple data sources in real time to deliver the insight necessary to compete …

If you bought a single bitcoin at the start of 2017, you would have paid roughly $1,000. Assuming you did not spend it, that single bitcoin would have grown six-fold to $7,000 today. With such an enormous rate of growth since it was conceptualized in 2007, bitcoin is riding on a huge wave of investors with a market capitalization reaching over $100 billion. While financial experts and investors are still divided on bitcoin’s long-term viability as well on what exactly it is—whether it is an asset,  currency, or commodity—what is not up for debate is the tremendous potential of the …

In its 8th year, I once again attended Georgia’s Health IT Leadership Summit, a room filled with several hundred Health IT professionals with the interest of sharing ideas around improving patient care through IT progress. Shahid Shah, “The Healthcare IT Guy” opened up the day with inspiring thoughts about “How the Rise of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Will Impact the Role of Clinicians”.  With systems integration key to moving from data silos of electronic information that exist in EMRs and wearables to a world of harmonized data, we’re making progress. The question becomes can we skip basic data analytics, push …

It’s not too late to catch up with the digital revolution. But enterprises can no longer afford to wait now that industries are being disrupted at a much faster rate. According to Gartner, “Digitalization is the use of digital technologies to change a business model and provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities…” This definition highlights the two key elements of utilizing digital technologies — such as Big Data, e-commerce, and the IoT — and the objective of creating business advantages and benefits. Digital Operational Excellence: 3 Examples of Digital Transformation According to Forrester, transforming business operations through “digital operational excellence” …