Reliant Pharmaceuticals Accelerates Enterprise-wide Communications; Improves Productivity with Centra’s Live Web Collaboration Applications
LEXINGTON, Mass. (December 10, 2002) – Centra (NASDAQ: CTRA), the leading provider of software and services for real-time communication and collaboration, today announced that Reliant Pharmaceuticals, LLC, an emerging specialty pharmaceutical company, has successfully deployed Centra’s Web collaboration application to address enterprise communications needs across the organization. Delivered conveniently through Centra’s ASP service, Reliant Pharmaceuticals has been using Centra to train and communicate with its dispersed sales organization, collaborate with business partners, and accelerate rollout on a number of enterprise applications, including the company’s new 401K plan and a spend management application. Reliant is also working on programs to conduct online marketing focus groups using Centra.
“The ability to respond more quickly to market changes, shorten cycle times for business processes, and empower employees with the tools they need to enhance performance continue to drive our technology purchasing decisions at Reliant,” said Ron Calderone, CIO of Reliant Pharmaceuticals. “Centra delivers on all these points, enabling us to effectively reduce costs while improving productivity. Centra has also met every one of our criteria for enterprise-wide communications – providing flexibility and scalability through its ASP service, superior ease of use, and proven integration of IP voice and data over slow Internet dial-up connections.”
The pharmaceutical industry is an intensely regulated and competitive market, where reducing time to market for new products is critical to success. With hundreds of sales professionals on the road, Reliant Pharmaceuticals needed a more effective way to disseminate company announcements, product information, and improve overall communications to the field and with business partners. Centra enabled the company to eliminate the need for travel and minimize the impact of taking sales
personnel out of the field.
“We rely on the Centra application to help us in key areas of the company, accelerating every aspect of the sales process – from helping new recruits get oriented to the job, product and application training, to online management meetings and any other critical communications we need to initiate with the sales organization,” said Vince Angotti, vice president of sales for Reliant Pharmaceuticals. “With Centra, our sales reps can devote more time to generating business, they are better informed, and can respond more quickly to the needs of prospects and customers – that’s a powerful asset to us in this industry.”
Centra to Facilitate Marketing Focus Groups
Reliant Pharmaceuticals is extending the use of Centra to its marketing organization to reach physician populations through targeted, online focus groups. With Centra, the marketing organization will be able to quickly and cost-effectively recruit participants from any geographic region and organize online events to test messages, support product introductions, and obtain timely feedback that can be tracked and recorded for future use.
“The speed and ease with which we can deliver online focus groups to engage and understand our target audiences enhances our impact as a marketing organization, and strengthens our ability as a growing pharmaceutical company to better market our products, react to potential roadblocks, and expand our brand,” said Jim Misner, director of marketing for Reliant Pharmaceuticals. “We are piloting Centra for this purpose, and plans are underway to roll out a full program for online focus groups within the next few months.”
Scaleable Software Solution for Enterprise Collaboration Centra’s scalable application suite provides workflow modules for sales, marketing, and training that enable more efficient and cost-effective business communication over the Web. CentraOne(tm) brings together voice, video, data, and graphics in easy-to-use interfaces for Web conferencing, meetings, and virtual classrooms that can be deployed on-site or accessed through a secure global service network. Centra integrates with existing infrastructure to help organizations align enterprise IT strategies with key business processes to enhance productivity, lower costs, and drive revenue. Centra’s solutions are available in 13 language editions and in 29 countries worldwide.
“At a time when CIOs are facing unprecedented pressure to consolidate IT spending, the technologies they invest in must provide a clear value proposition to the business, deliver fast ROI, and offer a lower cost of ownership and risk to the organization,” said Tony Mark, Centra’s president and COO. “Reliant Pharmaceuticals is demonstrating the value of Centra for its business, and joins a long list of leading customers who have been among the earliest adopters of our Web collaboration technology.”
About Reliant
Reliant Pharmaceuticals, LLC, an emerging specialty pharmaceutical company, is dedicated to improving patient care by providing clinically proven safe and effective prescription therapies. Reliant Pharmaceuticals, located in Liberty Corner, New Jersey, is a rapidly growing pharmaceutical company developing and marketing branded, patent-protected pharmaceutical products to primary care and targeted specialty physicians in the U.S. The privately held company is owned primarily by the Pritzker family business interests, Bay City Capital, Alkermes, Inc., management and members of its Board. Reliant employs over 100 marketing, clinical, regulatory, and support staff at its headquarters, as well as a sales management team that oversees a national sales force of 750 full-time professionals. For more information, visit www.reliantrx.com.
About Centra
Leading with an undisputed track record of helping millions of users to increase revenue and improve overall business performance, Centra enables global corporations, government agencies, and universities to drive greater productivity and lower costs through the industry’s most extensible enterprise software application for real-time business communication and collaboration. Today more than 950 organizations across every industry and market sector choose Centra, including Cadbury Schweppes, Citigroup, AT&T, Procter & Gamble, McKesson, Merck, Nationwide Insurance, Sysco, and Stanford University. Centra’s products are bolstered by a vital ecosystem of strategic partners, including Deloitte Consulting, EDS, Microsoft, Siebel, Cisco, and Oracle. Headquartered in Boston, Centra operates throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia. For more information, visit www.centra.com
Centra Software, Inc. 430 Bedford Street, Lexington, MA 02420 * http://www.centra.com
phone 781-861-7000 * fax 781-863-7288
