Business Situation

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All over the world, doctors are controlling risk and providing improved outcomes of their cardiac and neurological patients with the help of devices manufactured by St. Jude Medical. Headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, St. Jude Medical is a medical device company that is dedicated to developing medical technology and services that put more control in the hands of physicians, and that advance the practice of medicine and contribute to successful outcomes for every patient.

St. Jude Medical relies on the Internet to communicate with key audiences that include customers, patients, employees, and investors. The company publishes a corporate Web site (www.sjm.com), micro sites related to specific marketing activities, sales–force extranets, and internal Web portals, intranets, and collaboration tools. The St. Jude Medical public–facing Web sites include product and procedure information, aimed primarily at patients, while the company's marketing sites, internal Web applications, and extranets are generally targeted toward the St. Jude Medical sales force along with physicians and hospitals.

"Providing value to our customers extends throughout the fabric of St. Jude Medical," says Allen Brinkley, Manager of Application Development at St. Jude Medical US Sales. "A big part of that is effectively delivering information to both our internal and external customers."

To maintain trust and credibility with its core customer audiences–cardiac doctors and care centers–St. Jude Medical needs to be a source for reliable, unbiased clinical information. St. Jude Medical has provided that information largely through the relationships its sales representatives develop with physicians and hospitals. They respond to requests from doctors for clinical trial reports, clinical study results, presentations on conditions and procedures, and, of course, information about product features.

"The relationships our sales reps have developed directly with physicians and hospitals have been very successful, and that will be maintained as a core part of our business model," says Andrew Urbanski, Manager of the Enterprise IT Web Services Department at St. Jude Medical. "The challenge we face as we grow bigger is to find ways to strengthen those relationships while making the sales force more productive."

To help grow its market share, St. Jude Medical needs to arm doctors and hospitals with the information that will help them make the decision to use St. Jude Medical products. It wanted to provide that information to physicians online and on demand, so its sales representatives could spend more time to focusing on building and maintaining their important relationships, and respond more efficiently to basic requests from existing customers.

Solution

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St. Jude Medical decided to strengthen the relationships its sales representatives have built by providing its core customers direct access to information and services on a single online portal. The company has used the Enterprise Search and Web Content Management technologies in Microsoft® Office SharePoint Server 2007 to develop the St. Jude Medical Professional Web site (www.sjmprofessional.com), where doctors, medical professionals, interested consumers, and media can go to find a wide range of information in many dynamic formats about St. Jude Medical products and related conditions, procedures, and clinical data.

To develop the Web site, St. Jude Medical worked closely with two partners. Sogeti, a Microsoft Global System Integrator with Local Professional Services and Global Delivery capability, provided solution architecture and technical consulting expertise throughout the initial proof of concept. Brilliant Blue, a marketing, branding, and advanced systems consulting agency, helped St. Jude Medical build the visual design and site structure, crafted the overall user experience of the Web site, and developed the site in depth through to production and maintenance.

"Using detailed research, custom development, and comprehensive assessment, Brilliant Blue helped St. Jude Medical integrate its Web site with Office SharePoint Server 2007 to develop a solution that provided an excellent user experience and the ability to rapidly search and find information specific to the needs of busy medical professionals," says Peter Ashworth, CEO of Brilliant Blue.

Before choosing Office SharePoint Server 2007, St. Jude Medical evaluated several other platforms for the Web site, including solutions from EMC Documentum, IBM, Interwoven, Oracle, and other vendors. St. Jude Medical was already making wide use of the search and content management capabilities in Office SharePoint Server 2007 to develop its intranet sites, and determined it could use the infrastructure and training investments it had made for its internal portals to contribute to the development, maintenance, and growth of its new external Web site. "By selecting Office SharePoint Server 2007, we could take advantage of current and planned skill sets within our various business units," says Brinkley.

According to Urbanski, other key factors in moving forward with Office SharePoint Server 2007 were cost and the ability to have search capabilities integrated with a Web content management solution.

The site includes two basic components, a public site with information communicating the purpose and value of the site, along with basic information about St. Jude Medical products, and a registration/secure–access component targeted toward physicians that offers a wide range of detailed information and services. St. Jude Medical used Office SharePoint Server 2007 to build specific features into the site including a physician locator, practice–development tools for doctors, and query tools that enable users to find content in many downloadable formats, including PDF documents, Office PowerPoint® presentations, and Flash video presentations.

St. Jude Medical integrated Office SharePoint Server 2007 with mapping technology to develop a physician locater on the site where doctors can find expertise and experience on conditions, procedures, and St. Jude Medical products. Doctors can register to be included in the physician locator, and can apply to submit clinical information, peer–reviewed literature, and other searchable resources to the site.

Because users have differing levels of access depending on how they are registered on the site, St. Jude Medical developed an interesting search capability using Office SharePoint Server 2007. "When a user performs a search, one or more results may not be available at their level of access," says Urbanski. "If so, the search result will indicate that the information is available on the site, and provide a short abstract and a link to a page where they can register for full access to the documents. We used Office SharePoint Server 2007 to develop a very powerful use of search."

Benefits

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Using Office SharePoint Server 2007, St. Jude Medical has been able to develop a public facing Web site that will be much more than a sales and marketing tool. St. Jude Medical has built a platform for doctors to communicate more effectively with their peers as well as with St. Jude Medical, where they can submit and search for clinical data, expertise, and information to help them and their patients make more informed decisions. Site visitors can use the site search features to find information about St. Jude Medical products, clinical trial results, peer reviewed literature, even video presentations of surgical procedures.

St. Jude Medical will be able to use the sjmprofessional.com site to build upon the long term relationships and model of trust it has with its customers. "We will be providing our physician customers with the information they need to be successful," says Urbanski. "At the same time, we're giving our sales representatives a tool to get that information directly to their customers, and offering our internal business users a familiar, consistent platform to work with."

Stronger Customer Relationships

The St. Jude Medical Professional site will serve over 10,000 physicians. By providing a single portal where existing and potential customers can quickly and easily find reliable information not just about its products, but also independent clinical data and expertise, St. Jude Medical can strengthen its relationships and build trust and credibility with its core customer base. "We're building a place that doctors will come back to because they trust the information," says Urbanski. "It provides them value by saving them time and improving their access to key information."

More Flexibility, Increased Collaboration

Separate business units at St. Jude Medical use Office SharePoint Server 2007 to create content and route it through divisional approval channels. This provides product manufacturing divisions autonomy to create pages on the Web site in real–time, and empowers the programs and educational departments at St. Jude Medical to continually update pages with new information. "None of this was available in our old content management solution," says Jill Altman, eMarketing Specialist at St. Jude Medical. "It's clear that the shared responsibilities of our teams have lead to better collaboration and more consideration of the Web as a marketing channel."

More Productive Sales Force

By providing a central location for information physicians can use to make decisions about St. Jude Medical products, the company will enable its sales representatives to be more efficient and productive in their conversations with their customers. "If a physician needs information or wants something to give to her patient, a sales rep can always provide it," says Urbanski. "But now, the doctor will be able to get it instantly online, without having to schedule a sales visit. That's going to allow our sales reps to be more productive and focus on higher order, strategic conversations with their clients. They can even access key product information and supporting collateral during client appointments."

Improved Patient Care

With sjmprofessional.com, St. Jude Medical will provide doctors a better way to discuss treatment options with their patients. They can go on the site to get detailed information, or show the patient a Power Point presentation or even a video of a procedure.

Using Office SharePoint Server 2007, St. Jude Medical will create a cascade of benefits. The company will get specific product information to its customer, the doctor, who can provide better service to the patient, who will ultimately benefit from more informed decision making.

"The decision to build our Web site with Office SharePoint Server 2007 will allow our IT teams and business experts to deliver information and business processes to our customers in a more effective and controlled manner now and in the future," says Brinkley.