Frost & Sullivan defines dynamic publishing as a value chain of software products that enable the creation, repurposing, publication and delivery of content across a variety of medium.

Dynamic publishing has broadened the horizons of organizations across all markets, allowing them to unlock the power of their content. It can be provided as an on-premise client-server model or vendor-hosted as software-as-a-service (SaaS). Dynamic publishing plays an integral role in the shift towards organizational enterprise content management (ECM), integrating with software including marketing process optimization solutions (MPOS) and digital asset management (DAM).

The Advantages
Key benefits of dynamic publishing include:

• Workflow efficiency and content flexibility: Reductions in time and overall costs associated with traditional publishing methods remain the most critical benefit of dynamic publishing for organizations. Dynamic publishing solutions enable organizations to reduce overall time allocated to content creation and update, as content can be edited at the source. Edits are automatically reflected in all usages of the XML content, including PDFs, factsheets, marketing collateral, web content or mobile content, eliminating the need for editing, updating and republishing or reposting to multiple documents or content channels. Dynamic publishing solutions can be tailored to fit each organization's unique usage requirements on the basis of content users, organizational workflows or existing software infrastructure.
  
  For example, multiple content creators can work in a collaborative environment on a single document. Content components can be locked for certain users on the basis of editing rights, reducing errors or the insertion or deletion of unnecessary content. Organizations with brand specifications greatly benefit from having the most current product overviews and photos, which can easily be repurposed for marketing efforts, corporate communications or regulatory compliance — the effect being greater accuracy, reduced redundancy and clearer messages. Time savings result in cost savings and increases in productive time for organizations, as time utilized on content maintenance can be redirected to more productive and profitable tasks.


• Easy customization: One-off content creation provides organizations the ability to create unique dialogues with regional markets or individual buyers. For many organizations, this concept remains out of reach due to both time and resource constraints. Dynamic publishing addresses this dilemma, as organizations can generate audience-specific offers using templates, or they can reuse XML for content across various media channels. Additionally, regionally focused content can be translated and repurposed with respect to cultural or regulatory requirements. All of this can be done while retaining the integrity of the original content.

Overview of SPL and PIM
The FDA and the EFPIA aim to transform the health care industry by simplifying product information submission and update processes via:

• Structured Product Labeling (SPL), a document markup standard approved by Health Level Seven (HL7) and adopted by FDA as a mechanism for exchanging product information.
• Product Information Management (PIM), a project that was initiated in 1999 to develop a new way of handling product information. Its membership has been drawn from EMEA, Member State competent authorities and EFPIA members. It has gone through several phases, which have culminated in the publication of the PIM standard.

Traditional Challenges Faced by the Pharmaceutical Industry
The highly regulated pharmaceutical industry is plagued by the maintenance of content. Submitting thousands of documents annually, health care organizations are challenged by the manual generation and maintenance of content. Intensive in both time and human resources, the process is error-prone and subjects organizations to the risk of non-compliance or inaccurate information, which lead to problems ranging from submission rejections to serious legal complications.

Using Dynamic Publishing to Streamline the Process
The application of a dynamic publishing solution greatly enhances both the integrity of product-specific information and reduces the costs associated with the maintenance and submission of product labeling and regulatory information. Easy-to-use cut-and-paste functionality from approved label files prevent the inclusion of errors. Additionally, formatted templates can only contain required fields, assuring that the correct information is put into a specified location.

Through the automatic conversion of content into XML-based SPL and PIM, content generation and submission is greatly simplified. XML can be repurposed for usage needs outside of the scope of regulatory materials for product brochures or supporting documents. As updates to the original text will reflect across all publishing usages, up-to-date product information is more achievable than ever. This content retains integrity across all media channels while decreasing label submission cycle time. Information can be easily exchanged with regulating bodies, including the FDA and EFPIA, and labeling and drug listing content can be validated prior to submission, aiding in any last-minute corrections.

Mukul Krishna is global director, Digital Media Practice, at Frost & Sullivan. Visit www.frost.com for more information.