Biometric Services and Its Uses

Biometric data is efficiently and successfully used in scientific research and is a core aspect of forensic science and an essential element of access control systems. It helps you to increase the security level and make authentication and identification processes simpler, convenient and fast. Previously the use of this technology was costly and because of this economic constraint the influence on individual data protection rights were limited. Biometric data alters irrevocably the association between body and identity, as they make the traits of the human body “machine –readable” and subject to further use. Biometric data can be processed and saved in multiple forms. There are times when the biometric data captures from a person is saved and processed in a raw format that helps to recognize its source, for instance the picture of a face, voice recording, picture of a fingerprint and many more. Sometimes, the raw captured biometric data are processed in a certain way that only selective traits or features are saved and extracted as a biometric template.


Multi-biometric systems use multiple sensors or biometrics to overcome the limitations of unimodal biometric systems. For instance iris recognition systems can be compromised by aging irides and finger scanning systems by worn-out or cut fingerprints. While unimodal biometric systems are limited by the integrity of theirs identifier, it is unlikely that several unimodal systems will suffer from identical limitations. Multi-biometric obtain sets of information from the same marker  or information from different biometrics (requiring fingerprint scans and, using voice recognition, a spoken passcode) Multi-biometric systems can integrate these unimodal systems sequentially, simultaneously, a combination thereof, or in series, which refer to sequential, parallel, hierarchical and serial integration modes, respectively. The interested reader is pointed to Choubisa for detailed tradeoffs of response time, accuracy, and costs between integration modes.


There are clinical research organizations (CRO) in India that provide a complete range of data management services in bio-equivalence as well as Phase I and IV clinical trials that are conducted in bio clinical laboratories. The biometric services provided by these clinical research organizations comprise the following:


Database Programming


* CRF Design (paper & electronic)

* CRF Annotation

* Database Programming

* Validation Checks

* Metadata Repository Management


Data Management


* Data Acquisition

* Data Reconciliation

* Discrepancy Management

* Medical Coding (MeDRA & WHODD)

* Database Lock

* Data Extraction for Reporting


Pharmacokinetic & Pharmacodynamic Studies


* Sampling Point Estimation

* Technical Document Review

* PK/PD Query Resolution

* PK/PD Subject Matter Expert

* Pharmacokinetic support across study engagement


PK/PD Reporting


* SDMS Data Extraction

* PK Data Analysis

* PK Summary Reporting


Biostatistics


* Randomization

* Sample size estimation

* Trial Design Inputs

* Statistical Analysis Plan

* Statistical Analysis

* Biostatistics Subject Matter Expert


Statistical Reporting


* TLF Programming

* CDISC Data Mapping (SDTM & ADaM)

* Clinical Data Repository

* Pooled Data Analysis & Reporting

* Safety (ADR) Reporting

* Patient Profiles & Data Cleaning Reporting


The main aim of biometrics companies or CRO’s offering biometric services is to be able to convert raw data to correct and reliable trial outputs that are compliant with selected regulatory policies. Furthermore, these companies and the biometric teams work in order to speed up the regulatory submission process and curtail timeline.


Read More About: Clinical Pharmacokinetic, Bioavailability, regulatory services

Crowdsourcing for a Better Future

Driven by innovation and the urge to do something productive most organizations today have become proactive with crowdsourcing. Entrepreneurs and start up ventures have realized when it comes to ideas and creative inputs, it's best to remain open minded and involve the global crowd. The ideas and feedbacks gathered in the form of open innovation contests and discussions help not only in generating new products but implementing certain projects that can change our lives for the better.

 

The Minnesota Idea Open is something that works on the same line. Established by the Minnesota Community Foundation, United States, this platform is for the Minnesotans to learn about the issues that are affecting their lives and coming up with ideas to resolve them. Each year this foundation focuses on one challenge, where individuals are encouraged to submit ideas that are later assessed by a panel of judges. The best three ideas receive $15,000 and any two other ideas receive a grant of $5,000 each. In 2012, the Minnesota Idea Open encouraged people to come up with fresh ideas to boost cross-cultural understanding. Approximately 600 ideas were submitted, of which the best three were implemented. The ideas included initiatives such as; a multi-cultural exhibit to solve public issues of racism and to bring together people of diverse faith and backgrounds to work together for a common goal, such as building schools or playgrounds.

 

Recently, huge corporations and forward thinking companies have been making profits with this technique of mass idea capture. Apart from gathering new ideas and inputs, this technique helps companies to establish a deeper connect with the consumer and later to help in the funding of public work projects.

 

This is what Spacehive, from the United Kingdom has been doing with its crowd funding initiative to help communities rejuvenate and transform their local spaces. The company encourages people to suggest projects and then solicit funds and support for executing them. Whether it is on a plot of wasteland or a community center that needs to be spruced up, an individual needs to submit the idea to Spacehive and then take initiatives to execute the project. The website allows you to post the idea, a promotional video and even the fund raising objective. Post that one can promote the same and gather funds to carry it forward.

 

Therefore, idea management today has acquired a whole new dimension. It is no more a pen and paper approach being followed within the confines of a meeting or boardroom. The idea is to go all out in public and share with the crowd, the agenda, encouraging their views and opinions. This makes an individual feel worthy and boosts up an ambiance of knowledge sharing.


Read More About:  idea management softwareidea management servicesmanaging innovation, innovation products

 

Manage and Mitigate Risks with Enterprise Risk Management

Wikipedia defines Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) as “the methods and processes used by organizations to manage risks and seize opportunities related to the achievement of their objectives.” It actually provides a framework for risk management where the risk management process involves


* Identifying events or circumstances that pose a threat or contribute to an enterprise’s achievement of its objectives (risks and opportunities)

* Assessing and prioritizing these events and circumstances on the basis of likelihood and magnitude of impact

* Deciding on a risk management strategy

* Measuring and monitoring the performance of the response strategies


Thus, ERM helps enterprises to protect and create value for their stakeholders, including owners, employees, customers, regulators, and society overall.


Today most enterprises struggle with key areas of risk, such as counterfeiting, sales channels management, and channel pricing violations. By implementing effective ERM solutions enterprises can easily mitigate these risks. Here is a quick look at how brand protection software helps enterprises in protecting their brands from fraudsters, counterfeiters, and gray marketers.


In the pharmaceutical industry, the current scenario prevents law enforcement agencies from implementing effective measures. Their efforts go waste due to shortage of financial resources, a lack of coordination between countries, and weak anti-counterfeiting laws in some regions.


One of the major and growing sources of counterfeit medicines in the US as well as other countries is the pharmaceuticals purchased over the Internet. Since counterfeit pharmaceuticals hijack a legitimate manufacturer’s brand and profits, it also jeopardizes patient safety and population wellness apart from bringing about revenue loss to the legitimate manufacturer.


Brand protection software provides global enterprises with dynamic visibility into a broad variety of market intelligence data that can be used to identify suspect products and companies. This visibility enables a proactive response to intercept counterfeiting before it affects their bottom line. The following are some of its advantages.


* Analyze and prioritize the most likely suspects

* Investigate using the WhoIs (IP owner info) and IP ownership

* Document all activities associated with each case

* Investigation and enforcement services to shut down illegal operations

* Recover lost revenue


ERM solutions thus help manufacturers in the high tech, pharmaceutical and retail luxury goods industries to manage and mitigate risk across their enterprises.


Outsourcing and globalization have brought many benefits to high tech manufacturers, but there’s also a downside—enterprise risks are increasing.  Particularly if a company is outsourcing to a low cost region, there is greater risk of counterfeits, gray market sales, and lower than MAP sales.


Having worked with manufacturers in a number of industries including high tech, pharmaceuticals and luxury goods, and with enterprise and supply chain software, our management team recognized that providing an effective ERM solution meant filling the “white space,”  the gap between supply chain planning solutions and product lifecycle management software. That’s why we developed an advanced web mining and reporting technology that gives companies visibility beyond their enterprise, beyond their supply chain into the global, open market, and provides them with prioritized, actionable data.


Read More About: brand management

Creating A Competitive Advantage With Continuous Innovations

Innovation is rapidly becoming an enabler that strengthens and focuses the corporate strategies, and over time has become a key element  to many corporate goals and strategies. While innovation is based on new ideas,  ideas alone do not and cannot guarantee innovation. Continuations and successful innovations are required to survive in all businesses beginning right from  being a startup, and increasing in importance as the business grows.

 

Innovation is a special tool for entrepreneurs. Doing new things, or doing old things in a new way, is how entrepreneurs can exploit change as an opportunity to succeed in business. Successful innovation turns ideas into money, and enhances customer value. Although innovation is no easy feat, continuous  innovation is the only sustainable competitive advantage. Innovation is    hard, because people by nature resist change, and company cultures are most comfortable with the status quo. Yet survival in today’s world of rapid business change requires that you keep one step ahead of your competition. Innovation is what gives life to your business initially, and keeps it alive in the long run.

 

Continuous innovation creates tremendous value and still drives competitive advantage in many companies and industries. Successfully building a strong culture of continuous innovation also represents a huge opportunity for an organization to attract the best talent, to lower costs, to continuously add new revenue streams, and to better achieve competitive separation.

 

Like the long-established affordable, luxurious soap brand, Lux has retained its unrivaled popularity since 1925 by continuing to evolve, embracing consumer trends for new sensual fragrances, colors and textures. “We have to keep reinventing Lux – just like any beauty icon – to ensure we stay at number one,” maintains Unilevers Global Vice-President . Bringing glamour into the world of the Lux consumer by provoking the senses – sight, smell and touch – like never before, Lux is continuously strengthening the bond with current users while getting lapsed users to reappraise the brand, and staying ahead of the market.

 

In today’s competitive scenario, the key to success is to have an out of the box thinking with innovative ideas. Organizations that are stagnant in their approach cannot survive in the world of stiff and cut-throat competition. Even if you think up a bunch of ideas on a regular basis, it is necessary to test those ideas against reality.  Ideas need to be  game changers and  a part  of what makes it possible   is playing to your strengths and testing your ideas. The ability to renew existing solutions or change them to fit the current market trends with idea management solutions, can set your enterprise apart and turn your business as pioneers in the field, while also looking to provide a delightful customer experience at all times.

 

Read More About: management idea, idea management system, innovative management solutions, innovation products

 

Brand Monitoring and Brand Management to protect Brand Reputation

Brand monitoring is the practice of “strategically and regularly investigating online resources in order to discover and when necessary react to references to your companies’ trademarks and potentially the trademarks of your competitors.” Brand monitoring is very important in today’s hypercompetitive business environment where fraudsters stop at nothing to make money. Hence, brand monitoring is the only effective means to protect one’s brand name from losing its credibility in the market.


The advent of the Internet has provided fraudsters with ample opportunities to involve in counterfeiting and other illegal and fraudulent activities. This puts brands at grave risk of losing its hard-earned reputation, image, and name. Counterfeiting and gray marketing actually wipes out marketing investments that runs into millions, erodes the brand and its reputation, and breaks customer trust.


According to leading research agency Gartner, "IT needs to really help marketing and communications, legal counsel, corporate risk management and the line of business, understand how to better monitor, manage, and measure online reputation and to immediate problems faster when they occur." Hence, today Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) solution providers have come up with effective brand monitoring solutions that help to identify counterfeit suspects and gray market violators quickly for effective enforcement actions. It searches the Internet 24/7 for violations, prioritizes and analyzes the violations and presents the details in an easy-to-use dashboard. The following are some of the benefits of deploying brand monitoring solutions.


* Automated monitoring of Internet activity through intelligent search agents

* Retrieval of information down to the product and individual listing level (based upon client specifications)

* Application of both technology-based and human analysis to insure data integrity

* Protection of revenue by identifying and shutting down sites selling gray market, pirated or counterfeited good

* Reduction of false warranty/guarantees and customer support claims

* Finds new targets and networks that sell counterfeits

* Locates large players


With e-commerce facilitating the growth of counterfeiting and gray markets, global brand management has become even tougher for manufacturers. Maintaining a strong brand worldwide is the key to increasing and maintaining a strong customer base. Hence, enterprises need to deploy brand monitoring and brand management solutions to combat any kind of reputation erosion


International brand management solutions


Companies are struggling to answer the question of ‘how to protect their intellectual property in a rogue world—particularly when outsourcing to low cost regions?’ The New Momentum solution for brand management gives you the ability to:


* Find new targets and networks that sell counterfeits

* Locate large players

* Better model to find consistent trends


Get the New Momentum MAP Monitor solution which will help defend your brand from channel violations. It is a superior automated solution which will monitor online pricing and deliver prioritized, actionable data regarding violations to your Inbox.


Read More About: Anti-Counterfeiting

Advanced Solutions Make Protection from Phishing Easy

It’s a fact! Data breaches can happen to anyone, be it individuals or  businesses. Once considered a crime that went after just individuals, Phishing can potentially harm greatly businesses as well. Besides the negative implications of being associated with a Phishing scam, even as a victim of the scam, businesses can now unintentionally enable criminals who can rather easily use a company's Web site to engage in criminal activity. With the term "Phishing" becoming so widely known that it's a wonder such fraudulent schemes are still effective.


Phishing is a method of network attacks that have become so prevalent that it creates a strong need for any organization to have effective anti-Phishing capabilities to protect itself.  Although Phishing attacks vary in their severity and effectiveness, some can be truly disastrous for an organization. Therefore, good anti-Phishing solution should be a priority in a company’s security procedures. Even though law enforcement have demonstrated that it is serious about cracking down on phishers, spammers and other nefarious cyber-criminal activity, it is now time for security organizations to launch an anti-phishing program to protect customers and employees from any attacks.


Emphasizing security and educating employees about potential scams is the best  way for business owners to reduce their risk of falling victim to Phishing attacks. There is perhaps no precautionary measure that is more important than educating your staff about Phishing scams and other prospective data and security breaches. Protect your privacy and guard your organization against Phishing fraud. Most security breaches aren't caused by complex computer hacking but by what we call social engineering attempts: Manipulating a member to volunteer passwords or information they'd otherwise keep secure. However, protection from phishing is possible thanks to an anti-phishing tool that help companies to enhance their security levels through comprehensive user behavioral analysis.


Many solutions use a simulated  Phishing attack and generate an instant behavioral analysis, after which a prioritized action plan is created to reduce possible threats due to such attacks in the future. Imitating a Phishing attack within the organization and measuring how people and process respond helps in designing remedial measures to alleviate Phishing risks, educate people and modify processes. Such processes reduce the risk of a genuine, future attack. It makes good practice not to depend on end-users to run malware checks, detect and eliminate these increasingly sophisticated threats. Understand how to spot common phishing scams and successfully protect your employees by implementing a comprehensive anti-phishing  solution that can aid the organization in containing potential phishing risks.


Read More About: Simulated phishing attack, phishing protection, anti phishing software, phishing awareness

Storage Server Solutions to Ensure Optimal Functionality

Intended to be reliable, secure, and fault-tolerant, with superfluous storage alternatives, storage servers can automatically back up your desktop and laptop systems, ensuring that critical data is never lost. The infrastructure of your data center  therefore  has the capacity to filter the relevant information and store them in a secured location so that it can be accessed quickly whenever there is a requirement. If your infrastructure is not flexible it will be impossible to make changes as per the changing demands in the market and you will have to suffer losses. A flexible infrastructure ensures that all your applications collaborate and integrate producing optimum results and provides you opportunities to earn more revenues.

 

With the introduction of cost-effective options in the market, leading service providers in storage server solutions can deliver high reliability with the best performance, that are also energy efficient. The methodologies and technologies used helps in configuring the software and OS to deploy at optimal layers and offer any function that your organization. There are several service providers that offer storage serverfacilities providing their users a complete personalization, quick turnaround time and unparalleled reliability at a competitive price.

 

As they are essentially pre-configured, most storage servers are usually very easy to implement in most network environments. The traditional server is configured to achieve numerous functions. As the information is centralized, it is the storage server that offers the backup support. With the help of a centralized server, the expense of retrieving or maintaining data becomes much simpler.  As every business expects to expand successfully, choose a server that’s scalable and can grow with you. Operating as a central repository for all of your documents, images, contacts, and other important files, a storage server make it easy for employees to share data and collaborate. It can host a company intranet, for sharing information with employees quickly and economically.

 

Consider your options well, and choose the method that best suits the needs and budget of your business. Invest in a good storage server solution that offers expert services to optimize your data center, improves efficiencies, and increase service levels, while simultaneously reducing overall costs. The solution you opt for needs to offer a complete range of customized rack-mount scalable storage servers for a wide array of applications counting data backup as well. Efficient unified storage solutions help eliminate impediments, optimize file server utilization, and enhance performance, while also simplifying migrations and IP storage management.

 

Read More About: data centre solutions, custom computer solutions, high performance computing cluster

 

Address People Risks with Anti Phishing Software

Today social engineering is the most widely used tactic to convince people to part with personal information. Social engineering is defined as the art of utilizing human interaction (social skills) to breach some level of security or compromise information about an organization or computer systems without the victim even realizing that they have been manipulated. One of the most common methods used by cybercriminals to steal personal information such as credit card number, social security number, account number or password is phishing. Phishing attacks include fraudulent emails, text messages and websites designed in such a way that they appear to come from well-known and trusted businesses, organizations, sites and services asking for personal and financial information. Here is an example of what a Phishing scam in an email message might look like.


Dear valued ABC Bank user,


Recently there have been attempts of identity fraud targeting our customers. Therefore, we are conducting account information verification processes. During the process, we found that we could not verify your information.


Therefore, to ensure a secure online banking experience and to prevent unauthorized access to your bank account, please visit http://www.abc-bank.account-infoupdate.com.

We request you to please follow the link above and update your account information. If you do not do this within 24 hours of receipt of this email, your account will be temporarily closed. Sorry for the inconvenience caused. Thank you for banking with us.


Sincerely,

ABC Bank


The success of these kinds of hoax emails lies in the fact that these mails are intended to generate a prompt reaction from the victims so that they do not have time to think over it. Without realizing the fact that legitimate organizations would never request personal information via email, most people fall for it.


Though several solutions are available to protect enterprises from technology attacks, they are more or less ineffective when it comes to the two most vulnerable areas- people and process. A strategic Phishing attack specifically targets these two areas, as the attackers are well aware that these are the most difficult zones to guard.


Hence, what is required is a Phishing diagnostic solution that goes beyond process and technology to address people risks. This anti Phishing software ensures protection from Phishing by mimicking a Phishing attack and then measuring how people and process respond. Based on the findings, remedial measures are designed to alleviate phishing risks, educate people and modify processes. This helps to reduce the risk of a genuine, future attack. The following are some of the benefits of a good anti Phishing tool.


* Helps understand user behavior and effectiveness of the People controls across the enterprise

* Assists organizations quantify the potential risks of social engineering

* Provides flexible reporting capabilities with integration back into the organization's key performance indicator framework

* Provides a roadmap for building security awareness and training within the organization

* Identifies weakness within People, Process and Technology links, allowing prioritization of remediation efforts through effective benchmarking and maturity analysis

* Generates a “Teaching Moment” that provides a safe, customized learning experience for users


Thus, a best of breed anti Phishing tool provides increased employee awareness and knowledge that helps to protect the sensitive information.


Read More About: Simulated phishing attack

Manage Data Growth With Unified Storage Solutions

If you are in the IT sector, then you do not require an IT analyst to tell you that are witnessing data expansion challenges. You would rather get to know about it by attending your daily work. However, owing to the huge data expansion, data has significantly changed over the past few years. This in turn has redefined the impact of the storage server system in addressing data expansion challenges.

 

Server Virtualization stands to be one example. The virtual workload has gathered the average business data as workloads have increased and there is a greater amount of baseline OS data than ever before. This comprises the OS volumes and also the mediums use to secure the data. The demand for IO too has ballooned and essential challenges around tasks like data security have cropped up. In case of greater IO requirements, IO for shifting back up data security is restricted. However, instead the IT vendors have resorted to certain essential security tool snapshots and replication that can secure local information with less IO overhead.

 

In this regard, unified storage solutions can address both the file and block requirements within a single system and has risen quickly to become a serious contender in the storage market. Regardless of the stored data being filed or block, a unified storage solution can offer a single management point for snapshots, storage volumes, replication and more. The resulting view significantly changes the way storage is provisioned, purchased and managed. Furthermore, in the midmarket unified storage systems appear to have positioned themselves for fast dominance with a group of vendors throwing down attractive contenders for the SME’s and SMB’s.

 

Today service providers specializing in data center solutions have come up with unified storage solutions that with backup and recovery allowing you to minimize backup expenses enhance security and streamline data recovery. The deduplication storage solutions significantly minimize the percentage of disk storage required to maintain and secure enterprise information. By recognizing redundant files and data as they are stored, unified storage solutions can offer a storage footprint that is 10 to 30 times smaller on an average than the original data set. Furthermore, the backup data can be effectively replicated and retrieved over the existing network for simplifying disaster recovery and consolidated tape operations.

 

In addition to this, storage consolidation too is an aspect of unified storage systems and is a concept of sharing and centralizing unified storage sources amidst various application servers. Consolidation provides a common landscape to assign and manage increasing demands for data storage enhancing the storage utilization and minimizing administrative attempts.

 

Read More About: custom computer systems, data centre solutions, high performance computing cluster

 

Clinical Trials & Their Trends in India

A couple of years back the Indian clinical research industry had witnessed turbulent times. The chances of expecting India gaining importance for the global biopharmaceutical industry and the advent of a competent innovation oriented local industry was offset by a downswing in the regulatory environment and media news that reflected an unfavorable image of the industry. On the brighter side, such challenges stimulated the industry into proactive action and acted as a catalyst for the industry, regulatory authorities and other main stakeholders to join hands on a common platform to discuss on concerns essential to the industry.

The pharmaceutical industry in Asia is expanding Indian pharmaceutical companies are estimated to lead the region and significantly contribute to the expansion of the regional market for the contract research by developing biosimilars, medical devices, therapeutic equivalents, Clinical Trial Phase I to IV studies focusing on verticals such as clinical pharmacokinetic and bioavailability along with a growing number of NBE’s and NCE’s. Such regional innovation efforts are underpinned by heavy investments in the research and development during the past four to five years a few of which has already begun to yield new chemical entities from the region. However, these companies are more likely to be in the favor of home country as a location for clinical trial development initiatives.

India’s potential to become an innovation hub for clinical trials and medical studies depends on an evolved medical research ecosystem and proactive attempts to address the medical loopholes. In this regard, there needs to be attempted for safer and better healthcare in India that includes increasing the level of competency of the Indian healthcare workforce, to make India an innovation hub and grow the services revenue from India. In order to attain this objective, it is essential to have a holistic medical plan created by the stakeholders comprising the academia, media, organization and industry bodies that concentrates on a stronger regulatory framework that covers both policy and governance, professional healthcare education. It also includes promoting a culture of innovation, a positive media environment and efficient public awareness.

With India’s focus on the expansion in service industries that are based on knowledge oriented businesses the widely available talent and government assistance, the clinical research industry prospects are promising. Hence, one can be sure that the industry will keep on expanding aiming to offer better health care services and making safeguarding patients their main objective.

Read More About: biometrics companies, regulatory services