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"Hell, there are no rules here -- we're trying to accomplish something."

- Thomas A. Edison

Zero Downtime Upgrades

Congratulations! The upgrade was a complete success. Usin

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

g the latest techniques in zero downtime upgrade ingenuity, your IT staff was able to complete the "big rollout" of the new version of your software with no downtime to the end user.

There are many tricks that can be used to do

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

n upgrade with zero downtime. The most common is the "High Confidence Upgrade" where the upgrade is done in place on existing live servers. This requires testing and re-testing to the point where confidence is high that the upgra

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

e will complete error-free and without interruption of service.

If you have the budget, a better option is the "Orphan Upgrade" where new software is installed and tested on separate, often new hardware. The actual upgrade cons

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

ists simply of redirecting the firewall or load balancer to make the new servers become the live servers. Should something go wrong, the old servers with the old version are still available. If it does work, the former live serve

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

s become "orphaned" and are used to stage the next version and the process repeats.

So if the upgrade was so successful, why is your helpdesk phone ringing off the hook?

Fuzzy Downtime

Your precious zero downt

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

me upgrade changed the UI, as most major upgrades do. Sure your application works, but it sure doesn't work like it did before. Any upgrade that breaks the UI is a temporary degradation of service. Since this brownout is not qua

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

ntifiable we call it fuzzy downtime. And now your users are calling to let you know about it.

You say improvements, your customers say confusion. You say upgrade, your customers say I want the old stuff. All metrics report your

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

application to be working quite well thank you very much. Yet user productivity is off. Complaints are up.

Should you really care? Complete the following survey concerning your attitude about the impact of UI upgrades on end use

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

s:

a) Users are a bunch of whiny babies who should learn to adapt

b) We will do hand-holding as needed but we're not really concerned

c) We sent an email telling users about the upgrade

d) We carefully and systematically prep

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

red users for this upgrade. We informed them numerous times in advance of when the upgrade was coming. We provided sneak peaks and training on the new interface. The new UI offers improved help features, better search and disambi

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

guation pages. We also planned for a temporary increase in helpdesk staff to assist with the expected increase in support requests.

If you answered "d", well done! If you answered "c", you get an honorable mention. If you answe

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

ed "b", your users must be geniuses. If you answered "a", stop reading this article immediately and click over to www.cuteoverload.com for some quick therapy before returning.

And if you are wondering what that disambiguous word

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

was, please read on.

Disambiguations

Wikipedia uses disambiguation as a way to resolve ambiguity. Disambiguations are pages within Wikipedia that lead to different topic pages that share the same term in their

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

title. If you search for "bugs" on Wikipedia, you get a disambiguation page asking if you were looking for the plural of "bug" or Bugs Bunny or something else. The disambiguation page lists several possibilities and allows you to

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

choose.

Could your fuzzy downtime problem be minimized through the use of disambiguation pages? Most certainly it can! For starters, when a user clicks on "help", do you really know what they want? Provide a disambiguation page

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

or clarification. For example:

You are looking for help. Did you want to. . .

Contact us for technical support?

View our FAQs?

Look at our Top 10 Knowledge-Base Articles?

Browse our O

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

nline Help?

Search for Something in Particular?

Disambiguation pages can help users adapt to the new look and feel of your software. Once you embrace the concept of disambiguation pages, you realize they empower t

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

e user. Clever use of disambiguation pages can even be used to promote premium features or additional services.

If you have online software, you already know that change is inevitable and constant. Handling the change event is i

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

portant and zero downtime upgrades are a great way to do it. But the release itself is only the first step. Every manager should look for new ways to help users cope with the added complexity and ambiguity each new release brings

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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Many companies adopt the management practices of successful companies without understanding why the practice succeeds where it is and whether it will succeed in their own companies. That's magical thinking just like the cargo cults used in the period right after World War II.

Without a sales letter to guide your potential buyers on your Web site, you leave them bored, uninspired, without enough information to make that decision to buy. Your Web site and ezine must entertain, inform, and give enough benefits to convince your readers to order your book.

The vanguard of free web hosting is starting to offer up an impressive array of bells and whistles. Obligatory banner ads and limited access to back-end development are giving way to no banner ads and full-featured packages. If it's not important that your web host have an uptime guarantee then nowadays you can have your cake and eat it too.

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