DBMS Consulting to implement Sun Microsystems’ infrastructure and Oracle Life Sciences Applications to optimize SIRO’s clinical trials and clinical data management operations

MUMBAI, India, February 19, 2008: SIRO Clinpharm Private Limited (SIRO), one of India’s leading clinical research organization (CRO), has decided to implement a new IT framework comprising Oracle’s Life Sciences Applications (OLSA) and other Oracle applications running on Sun Microsystems’ (Sun) hardware platform. This IT infrastructure will be implemented by DBMS Consulting (DBMS), a member of the Oracle Partner Network. This new IT system is expected to bring about greater efficiency and increased customer focus in SIRO’s operations. The new system will touch and impact over 500 SIRO clinical researchers involved in more than 150 clinical studies.

Established in 1996, SIRO offers end-to-end clinical research services, with clinical trials management and clinical data management as its core operations. SIRO required a solution that was robust, with industry best practices that could scale up rapidly to meet the company’s growth demands. SIRO will implement Oracle’s Life Sciences Applications as a complete electronic information environment, for gathering and reporting clinical data. Besides reducing errors, Oracle’s Life Sciences Applications will enable SIRO to speed information gathering and reduce the need for paper documentation.

Dr. Chetan Tamhankar, Chief Operating Officer, SIRO said, “We have growing at an aggressive rate for the last three years. To sustain our aggressive growth plans, we are looking at both organic and inorganic growth options across the globe. Oracle Life Sciences will help us achieve this by delivering a powerful combination of technology and comprehensive business applications, and key functionality built specifically to address the nuances of the CRO industry.”

“SIRO will use the new IT infrastructure to provide better efficiencies and better feedback to clients. The application suite will also help us integrate our expanding global operations. We will be able to track, monitor and ensure optimum utilization of our resources across locations. We found the combination of Oracle’s Life Sciences Applications and Sun hardware best suited to our rapid growth requirements and our needs for continued regulatory compliance. DBMS’ domain knowledge and Oracle implementation skills gave us the comfort to embark on this ambitious project,” said Mr. Vishnu Banka, Senior Vice President, Finance and Corporate Strategy, SIRO.

“All ten of the world’s top CROs use Oracle Applications,” said Mr. Nitin Paranjpe, Director for Applications Sales, Oracle India “SIRO’s new IT infrastructure with Oracle Life Sciences Applications provides them with a greater competitive advantage in providing clinical research services to the global life sciences industry.”

“We are committed to the Life Sciences space in India and the greater Asia-Pacific region, and believe that our vast global experience will transform all of our Oracle Life Sciences Applications customers into market-leading enterprises, not only in a business process outsourcing capacity, but also as preeminent 'best-in-class' leaders,” said Mr. Sunil G. Singh, CEO of DBMS Consulting.

"The CRO industry has unique technology requirements in data mining, data warehousing, and enterprise application integration functions. This discipline requires systems that offer them robust performance and are scalable to address the exponential growth in their data. Sun Microsystem's infrastructure platform supporting an Oracle solution will help SIRO Clinpharm to optimize their technology infrastructure and respond to regulatory and competitive pressures, and enable greater use of tools to automate collection, searchability, transmittal, and storage of data," said Mr. Rajesh Rege – Director Sales, Sun Microsystems. "Sun products & technologies are compliant with regulatory mandates for harmonization of data exchange and this will continue to power the transformation of research into radically improved medical care," he further added.

Oracle's Life Sciences Applications for clinical development provide a streamlined system for managing large volumes of patient data collected during clinical trials. These applications offer features for modeling clinical studies, capturing and managing clinical data, managing clinical trials, and capturing and reporting adverse events.

SIRO will be using Sun’s Intel offering for application servers, RISC (UNIX) based solution which projected the best scalability, reliability and availability along with Solaris’ 10 operating system for database layer and Sun blade servers with Intel Quad Core processors for consolidating their existing edge servers into one window management. For storage, SIRO will use Sun’s SAN solution along with SL48 tape library for backup. Sun was the single vendor that could provide x64 platform for App layer, RISC systems for Database layer, primary and secondary storage and backup solutions.

SIRO estimates market size of the CRO industry in India at USD 2billion by 2011. Since the CRO business model is heavily reliant on project, trial and data management, it presents a healthy business opportunity for IT infrastructure and software solution providers.

About SIRO
SIRO Clinpharm Private Limited (SIRO) is a India’s oldest and most trusted Clinical Research Organization (CRO), offering full scope services, conducting clinical trials in the Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology and Medical Devices sectors in compliance with International Standards. SIRO is one of the first CRO’s in India, which caters to the needs of pharmaceutical companies across the globe. SIRO’s Clinical Research team carries out comprehensive and independent management of Phase I to Phase IV clinical trials in accordance with the requirements of regulatory authorities and the International Conference on Harmonization of Technical Requirements (ICH) for registration of Pharmaceuticals for human use and guidelines for Good Clinical Practices (GCP). For more information click on www.siroclinpharm.com.

About DBMS Consulting
DBMS Consulting is a global leader for all implementation, configuration, validation, training, customization and integration services for the Oracle Life Sciences Applications (OLS) As a dedicated Oracle Certified Partner with presence in India, China, Singapore, the United States and Canada, DBMS Consulting has focused exclusively on Oracle's Life Sciences solutions over the past 11 years, deploying or supporting over 60 of the most successful OLS users globally, including many Pharmaceuticals, CROs, Biotechnology companies, Medical Device Manufacturers, Academic and Government Institutions located throughout India, Asia Pacific, and the rest of the world.

About Oracle India
Oracle entered India in 1987 and set up an India Development Centre in 1994. Today, Oracle has two India Development Centres as well as Indian hubs for Oracle's global support, consulting and financial services operations. Through its extensive network of more than 400 channel and alliance partners under the Oracle PartnerNetwork, Oracle India markets the complete range of Oracle products and services across India. Oracle India has more than 6,700 customers in the telecommunications, banking, insurance, manufacturing, life sciences and utilities industries, across the government and private sector. Oracle India is a major partner for E-Governance initiatives of Central and State Government bodies in India. The Oracle-HP E-Governance Centre of Excellence, Oracle Asia R & D Centre and Partner Solution Center are located at Oracle India’s head office in Gurgaon, near New Delhi. Oracle’s Retail Centre of Excellence is located in Bangalore.

About Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems develops the technologies that power the global marketplace. Guided by singular vision --(The Network is the Computer) -- Sun drives network participation through shared innovation, community development and open source leadership. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at http://sun.com