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In this Edition
Feature I Upcoming Events I Client Support I Under Construction I Customer Corner I Product Spotlight
Tech Tips I Recent News I Employee Spotlight I Just for Fun
| Feature
TOPAZ on Target
Interview with TOPAZ President and CEO, J. Patrick Guider
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With the New Year underway, TOPAZ Quarterly sat down with President and CEO, J. Patrick Guider, to ask the top 10 questions on everyone’s mind about TOPAZ Technologies’ path forward into 2010 and beyond.
| 1. | What has been TOPAZ's approach towards completing the transition of the current GRANITE application to the new rich Internet application?
PG: The transition of the current GRANITE application to the rich Internet application has certainly had its share of challenges. The approach for this transition was multi-dimensional. Not only did we set out to build a new application on a new platform with new tool sets, we knew we had to change our development methodology from the traditional waterfall approach to an agile one. Our primary focus was not just replacing GRANITE, but refining, improving and simplifying it. This need for simplicity drove efficiencies that allowed us to take advantage of code libraries and helped us establish an infrastructure that will allow us to accelerate future project development while creating a cost-effective sustaining model for ongoing maintenance of these same products. Most importantly, TOPAZ is committed to building products that are database and browser independent. So, a tenet for redevelopment was the need to be compatible with Mac and PC platforms. Finally, we committed to provide truly global products with language independence and locale-specific system settings.
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| 2. | Why has GRANITE taken so long to retire and what has been done to ensure the forward momentum continues?
PG: The primary reason for the time required to retire GRANITE was the fact that we were building new products while trying to make them work with the old product in order to reduce the amount of friction while transitioning customers to the new product line. This approach was not cost-effective and will not be employed for future product releases. Another setback was the decision to move from Adobe Flex to Microsoft Silverlight. At the time TOPAZ initially chose Adobe for the front-end, it was the industry-leading product. After about a year of coding and effort, TOPAZ discovered that the deficiencies in this product outweighed the advantages. At that time, TOPAZ made a conscious decision to abandon the Adobe work, at the cost of 12 months and millions of dollars, in order to move to the Microsoft architecture which has proven to be the right decision.
We’ve already seen the benefits of code reuse. That, along with the solid architecture, will allow us to build upon not only the GRANITE product evolution but also a host of new TOPAZ products.
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| 3. | When will the full GRANITE replacement be ready?
PG: This is the million dollar question, for me, the multimillion dollar question. GRANITE redevelopment is driven entirely by sales and maintenance revenue. During the development process, we experience constantly shifting priorities based on customer demand and/or revenue generating opportunities. Therefore, the end date moves based on the priorities. If you held my feet to the fire, I’d have to say we anticipate completing it by the end of 2010. Animal Orders is slated to be completed by first quarter with Census and Accounting to follow. Training Records late in 2010. Again, this is based on current priorities, which can change. We are currently reaching out to our partners in the private sector, academia and government to collaborate with us on projects in order to gain velocity without compromising quality.
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| 4. | How will the transition to the rich Internet application from GRANITE be implemented for each current customer?
PG: Carefully, would be the best way to describe it. [pauses] I say this not in jest but to emphasize the importance of the question that you ask. This transition is not only a product change it is a tremendous opportunity for every organization to reevaluate their internal processes and reevaluate if the way they are doing things is the most cost-effective and efficient way to yield a quality program. Many things have changed in each and every one of our organizations over the years, yet we often get stuck in a rut doing the same things, day in and day out, until someone tells us, it just isn’t good enough. So we look at this as an opportunity to impact change in a positive way.
Follow Up to Question 4: Is there a single strategy or customized plan for each customer transition?
PG: There are no silver bullets. Our history over the years and cumulative experience with over a hundred different sites has illustrated that. In fact, the way we have designed the software takes that into account. After implementing our new products, each customer should feel like they have a customized product without paying the customized dollars that they are accustomed to investing in these projects. With our implementation strategy, a deliverable is a process review document which becomes a living document for your organization to use in order to assess change and provides guidance on how to implement it. So in short, each installation gets the attention it needs in order to meet the unique demands of each facility.
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| 5. | After GRANITE is retired, what is TOPAZ's next focus?
PG: There is no shortage of opportunities. As you know, we have already introduced three new products in the last two years. Human Protocols, Biosafety Protocols and RFID automated census tracking. We are in the process of expanding the Protocols modules to interact with a Conflict of Interest product. For animal-based research we are reviewing Post Approval Monitoring and IACUC Semiannual Inspections. Inventory for non-animal items and drug inventory are also in the pipeline.
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| 6. | What significant changes have been made in the company's structure, mission statement or strategic vision that has served as drivers of change?
PG: The use of rich Internet applications in the market has significantly changed our approach to software development. From an organizational perspective, we recognized that in order to leverage the new technology tool sets available to us we needed to have a group specifically focused on the product and the end user. The development of a Product Management team was initiated with the goal of designing the user interface, ensuring the requirements meet the user needs and ensuring that what development builds meets user expectations. The use of an agile methodology has also given the company flexibility within our product development projects. Rather than long waterfall type processes that took months or years, we now develop in short, iterative cycles, sometimes as small as two weeks. This provides the ability to maintain priorities while retaining flexibility and sustaining our strategy, to deliver high quality, regulatory-compliant software. TOPAZ’s vision remains the same: to become the software provider of choice to the biomedical research community much like Microsoft is the provider of platform choice for the world.
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| 7. | TOPAZ has been an industry leader in Animal Facility and Regulatory software, but with recent forays into human research and biosafety, where do you foresee TOPAZ expanding in the next five years?
PG: Short term, there are many goals within our current markets, conflict of interest, post approval monitoring, semiannual inspections, non-animal orders and inventories are just a few. We are currently looking for forward thinking organizations who embrace technology to collaborate with. It is our goal to work with industry experts in order to accelerate our development while ensuring first time market acceptance of these new products.
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| 8. | How has the recent economic downturn and consolidation of the pharmaceutical industry affected TOPAZ?
PG: Certainly no organization has been without impact. We have seen many organizations freeze budgets. The good news is that we foresee these opportunities being there in the future when we start to experience the economic thaw. Consolidation of the pharmaceutical industry is a double-edged sword. We have seen it both help and challenge us. The most significant impact of mergers is the shutdown of sites that have been longstanding partners for years. This impacts our organization from a recurring revenue position; however, in some cases the acquisitions have led to the addition of sites. So, it remains to be seen how it will play out.
Follow Up to Question 8: What actions has TOPAZ taken to mitigate these changes (losses due to economic turndown)?
PG: TOPAZ recognized in 2008 that an economic down turn was on the horizon and adjusted expenses during that time. Our early changes enabled TOPAZ to operate without staff reductions throughout 2009. We hope to see the market pick up early in 2010 so that we can accelerate our projects.
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| 9. | I'm interested in participating in beta test programs, are there any programs at TOPAZ?
PG: Yes, we are working with customers all the time. If you would like the opportunity and can share your talent and time, please contact our Product Management Department and we will provide you with an opportunity to be a beta site. Do understand, this is a commitment and there are certain requirements that must be met in order to be a beta test partner.
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| 10. | Looking forward into 2010 and beyond, what is TOPAZ’s biggest challenge and what trends do you foresee regarding this challenge?
PG: I am very optimistic about 2010. The rich Internet applications that TOPAZ is producing are second to none in the market. Our tool sets, interface, attention to detail, and compliance tools remain unmatched in the industry.
Our primary competition continues to be those organizations that choose to invest millions of dollars on in-house development only to abandon those projects after time, resource and/or cost overruns. These in-house applications cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, annually, to maintain without a guarantee the resources will be there to stay.
We have begun to see a shift in the market where our clients are realizing that their focus should be on providing medical research and not on developing software. This is good news. Rather than compete with our customers, we can collaborate and provide them more time to conduct research while enabling TOPAZ to mitigate their compliance risk and provide ongoing cost efficient support of software applications. In essence, we both win! |
| Upcoming Events
Industry Event Calendar |
TOPAZ is kicking off the New Year by attending and exhibiting at numerous industry events. As always, we value the opportunity to connect with you face-to-face. If you are attending any of these events, please stop by our booth to visit with members of our team.
2010 ABSA Spring Seminar and Certification Review Course
March 15-18 I New Orleans, LA
PRIM&R 2010 IACUC Conference
March 22-23 I Baltimore, MD
2010 International Conference on Biocontainment Facilities
March 25-26 I St. Petersburg, FL
LAMA/ATA Annual Meeting
April 7-9 I Clearwater, FL
Texas Branch AALAS
April 7-9 I San Marcos, TX
Turnkey Conference 2010
April 14-16 I Baltimore, MD
CALAS
April 24-27 I Quebec City, CANADA
ACLAM Forum 2010
May 2-5 I Newport, RI
NAIM Annual Conference
May 6-7 I New Orleans, LA
QUAD Symposium
May 10-12 I Mohegan Sun, CT
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Live Webcast
Simplifying the Protocols and Reviews Process for Biosafety
Date: Friday, March 12th
Time: 11am EST / 10 am CST
Register Today»
Please join us for our upcoming webcast and discover how TOPAZ Technologies’ Biosafety Solution simplifies the protocols and reviews process, automating operations to compile, track and manage complex research study data and prevent and protect against regulatory compliance violations.
This webcast will discuss ways to:
• Automate and enhance communication between the PI and the committee
• Integrate, simplify and streamline collaboration
• Automate the tracking and record keeping for all protocols and associated documents
• Simplify the review process
Register Today»
| Client Support
Remote Control
New Remote DBA Plus Contracting Service for 2010 |
Client Services is pleased to announce an upgrade to the Remote DBA Contract Services for 2010. Remote DBA Plus has replaced the previous Remote DBA Contract Service, and includes enhanced features that expand beyond database services for maintenance and installation or upgrades.
The newly introduced Remote DBA Plus allows you to convert basic Remote DBA hours to DBA Consulting Service hours for more flexibility and greater support coverage. This conversion distributes the original 50 hours of service provided by the contract to 36 hours of Basic Remote DBA Services, valid for items covered in the previous Remote DBA Contract Service, and 14 hours to DBA Consulting Services, which can be used for database-related items such as data correction, application upgrades or basic script generation.
Current users of the Remote DBA have been automatically upgraded to Plus for 2010! Remote DBA Plus is available for $12,500 per year. Call Client Services today to inquire about Remote DBA Plus.
| Under Construction
Census and Sensibility
TOPAZ Develops GRANITE Husbandry Replacement |
The TOPAZ Enterprise Census module specifications and estimations have been completed and the first phase of development is underway. The Census module will serve as a sensible replacement to the current Husbandry portion of GRANITE, offering several significant improvements over its predecessor. As with all new products, Census will work with existing TOPAZ rich Internet applications in the growing Animal Product Suite to manage your facility needs. Notable capabilities include: Cage and Animal creation, Barcode and RFID scanning capabilities, Animal Transfers (with Reporting), and a new dynamic user interface for managing your facility census. Keep an eye out for updates via TOPAZ Quarterly.
| Customer Corner
Emory University
Customer Quote |
“The ease of use and convenience of TOPAZ Technologies Animal Protocols Software is impressive. Managing our IACUC protocol process in one central location is expected to significantly increase our overall efficiency and simplify IACUC compliance management.”
David L. Knight
Director Institutional Animal Care & Use Committee, Office of Research Administration
Emory University
| Product Spotlight
TOPAZ Enterprise 5.4
Introducing new features, functions and an updated user interface! |
We are pleased to introduce the latest version of our enterprise solution, TOPAZ Enterprise 5.4. Featuring an updated layout to the user interface, the newly-released version provides more space for protocol completion, enables better performance with data-intensive protocols and allows users to access protocol information faster. Specific updates include a repositioned toolbar and improved scrolling, as well as dynamic feature updates which allow users to turn off question numbering and collapse and expand entire protocol forms or sections. Additionally, TOPAZ Enterprise 5.4 is equipped with a number of performance enhancements designed to maximize productivity and increase operational efficiency in small and large operating environments. The 5.4 release has been performance tested for use with 10,000 staff and thousands of large protocols! Want more information on our newest release? Contact TOPAZ for more information.
| Tech Tips
Missing Data Got You Vexed? Why Not Try To Reindex… |
In Version 5.x of Protocols, the application keeps indices of information that it needs in order to display certain windows and dialog boxes. In rare cases, these indices may not have the latest information in them. As a result, expected information may not show up in some lists or dialog boxes. One solution is to manually reindex the database by having your server administrator run (double-click) the index.bat file in the \BIN directory of the application on the web server. This process should only take a few moments to run, and alerts you when it is complete. Reindexing is a good first step towards finding expected data and losing frustration. If you still have issues resolving this, or any other concern, call Client Services for assistance.
| Recent News
TOPAZ Technologies and Tecniplast USA Launch RFID Mobile Census
New RFID-Based Cage Census Solution Streamlines Animal Facility Census Management |
TOPAZ and Tecniplast USA recently announced a joint solution, the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) Mobile Census, developed to increase the speed and efficiency of the animal census process.
The RFID Mobile Census, which uses radio waves to identify and track objects from a few meters away, allows facilities to scan any laboratory animal cage, with the wave of a wand, and incorporate collected data into any animal management software. With this RFID-based cage census solution, research facilities can scan hundreds of animal cage cards to capture and verify corresponding animal census data, in a few seconds. This RFID-based cage census solution data is then available for upload to the facility’s animal management software.
Read the full press release»
Learn more about the new RFID Mobile Census»
| Employee Spotlight
Welcome Katie Phillips! |
TOPAZ would like to welcome, Katie Phillips, Solutions Consultant. She joined TOPAZ in September of 2009 and is responsible for new business development and account management in the Sales Department. In her role, she meets frequently with current clients and prospects, discusses their needs and business challenges and provides ideas for resolving them. In addition, she works closely with the product development team and acts as the voice of customers and prospects so that TOPAZ’s solutions continue to evolve and stay in alignment with the needs of the Biomedical Research industry.
Prior to joining TOPAZ, Katie spent six years consulting with clients to develop customized solutions and create and implement comprehensive customized training programs. Katie has a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas in Austin.
Just for Fun
LAR and Order Comic Series
As promised … the continuation of our LAR and Order comic series.
Starting the New Year off on the right foot …
Kicking the New Year off … right?
To be continued … Stay tuned.
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©Copyright 2010. TOPAZ Technologies. All rights reserved.
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