Background

The client, GenericsWeb, is an Australian-based company, operating in the sphere of the pharmaceutical industry and Patent Intelligence since 1999. The company’s core product, Ark Patent Intelligence system, provides a rich database of pharmaceutical patents with the ability to search for specific information, structure it and visualize in a convenient way. This helps generic drug manufacturers reduce intellectual property violation risks and plan ahead when developing new products.

The first version of the product, available prior to the start of our cooperation, has been very simplistic and had major performance issues. Thus, AltexSoft has become involved in the creation of the Ark Patent Intelligence system from the early stages of its development.

Business Challenges

The client was looking for a modern, scalable solution to replace the previous version of the software. Our goal was to implement a user-friendly web interface for a rich database of patents and relevant information.

The core features of the system were: Patents and SPCs (Supplementary Protection Certificates) analysis, advanced search, reports generation and data visualization. Additional functionality, such as team collaboration possibilities (commenting on the items and sharing notes between the users within one company), was implemented on top of the basic system capabilities.
Therefore, the major challenges for our team were:

  • Providing an efficient way to interact with large amounts of structured data
  • Optimizing the performance and speed of the product
  • Setting up a streamlined delivery process and largely improving the time to market for new updates
Leighton Howard

Leighton Howard,Founder & CEO at GenericsWeb, Australia

After trialing a few different outsourced software developers without success, we were delighted to learn that AltexSoft takes a different approach. Not only do they have depth of talent and experience, but they also promote ownership of the projects and look after their staff to maintain tacit knowledge on the team. The team always takes time to fully understand the scope of the project and does not over-commit in terms of time or technical outcomes. All of this leads to high quality delivery of projects in a timely fashion which end users will love.

Value Delivered

Working on the project, our team accomplished the following:
  • 7-ark-patent-intelligence_1

    Developed a Custom Search Engine

    Ark Patent Intelligence system allows users to work with large amounts of aggregated data easily. The built-in custom search engine, developed by AltexSoft, can handle the complex queries on INNs, patents and patent families, litigations and SPCs (Supplementary Patent Constraints) and provide accurate data selection according to the search criteria. Having more than 20 advanced filters, such as patent status, category, constraints, biologic categories and country coverage, the search is very flexible and allows users to find exactly what is needed.
  • 7-ark-patent-intelligence_2

    Increased Front-End Stability and Performance

    Being a feature-rich product with complex logic, Ark Patent Intelligence had major performance issues. To be able to swiftly display all data in a browser without sacrificing user experience, our team used a content delivery network (CDN) for static content loading. Moreover, JavaScript performance optimization allowed us to reduce the memory use and contribute to the speed and efficiency of the system.
  • Fareboom

    Instant Upgrades and Streamlined Delivery Process

    Setting up continuous delivery process allowed us to roll out updates and improve the product regularly with no downtime. All additions to the system have been implemented without any inconveniences for users or losses for the client. Along with a thorough QA cycle, which included unit testing and manual testing, this ensured excellent quality and reliability of the software.
In September 2015, GenericsWeb was acquired by QuintilesIMS, formerly known as IMS Health, a global healthcare information, services and technology provider. Ark Patent Intelligence system has been able to expand its reach and currently serves tens of thousands of users worldwide.

Approach and Technical Info

The basic version of the product was delivered within 18 months by a dedicated engineering team of 8.

Technology stack included PHP, Zend Framework, Doctrine 1.2, PHPUnit, jQuery, JavaScript, HTML5, CSS and Jenkins for continuous integration.

Services provided within the project framework: Engineering Services.

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