SAS to OEM Xythos WebFile Server
Xythos to manage document sharing and security in drug development process
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, February 24, 2003 - Xythos Software, the leading Internet file management software provider, announced today that it has signed a global OEM agreement with SAS, the leader in business intelligence.
Under the terms of the agreement, SAS will use the Xythos WebFile Server (WFS) as the file management platform for SAS® Drug Development and provide it directly to its worldwide customers in the pharmaceutical, biomedical and medical device industries. With Xythos, SAS customers will use the Internet to securely access, manage, process and share all biopharmaceutical research data, analyses, reports and documents in the system. Importantly, the integrated Xythos and SAS Drug Development solution will actively enable compliance with government regulations including 21 CFR Part 11, the FDA regulation governing electronic records and signatures.
Current SAS Drug Development customers will receive, at no additional cost, the Xythos-enabled SAS Drug Development platform in 2003.
"Today's drug development process requires secure access to all research data and related documents combined with 100% audit capability, and Xythos is the best choice for providing that technology to our SAS Drug Development framework," stated Andrew Fagan, research and development director for SAS pharmaceutical software development. "The standards-based architecture of the Xythos WFS allows simpler integration of file management functionality than the traditional database and document management options we evaluated."
Content management experts estimate that more than half of all enterprise information is stored in unstructured formats often unrelated to business process information, making it difficult to manage comprehensively or organize for compliance requirements. "The integration of our WebFile Server with SAS Drug Development is an excellent example of how Xythos is helping increase the value of file content by directly associating it with enterprise business processes such as drug research," remarked Xythos CEO, Ed Miller. "Xythos' robust implementation of the WebDAV standard and its open architecture are enabling our technology partners to rapidly incorporate Internet file management into enterprise applications, saving customers time and money."
In fact, XML-based WebDAV, an Internet Engineering Task Force-approved extension of HTTP, is gaining increased popularity among developers and users alike because it delivers the library services, such as file locking and logging, version control and file access permissions, once reserved for high-end document management applications alone. According to Kevin Dick, author of XML: A Manager's Guide, "a WebDAV server manages contributions, tracks changes, and enforces permissions," ensuring that information access and use can be controlled at the individual file level. He adds, "Taken to an extreme, WebDAV enables the replacement of traditional document management systems with a set of distributed WebDAV-capable servers."
SAS Drug Development helps close the gaps in the clinical development process by aggregating research data and documents from multiple, disparate sources and providing analytical and exploratory applications within a 21 CFR Part 11-enabling infrastructure. With SAS Drug Development, researchers can integrate not only their data sources, but also their pharmaceutical applications through an open architecture. This ultimately provides researchers with a single, secure, centralized information repository where research information can be organized for regulatory submission and mined for new market opportunities, product line extensions or strategic safety assessments.
About SAS
SAS is the market leader in providing a new generation of business intelligence software and services that create true enterprise intelligence. SAS solutions are used at more than 39,000 sites -- including 90% of the Fortune 500 -- to develop more profitable relationships with customers and suppliers; to enable better, more accurate and informed decisions; and to drive organizations forward. SAS is the only vendor that completely integrates leading data warehousing, analytics and traditional BI applications to create intelligence from massive amounts of data. For more than 25 years, SAS has been giving customers around the world The Power to Know®.
About Xythos Software, Inc.
Xythos Software is the leading developer of simple document and file management software for application developers and enterprise customers. The Xythos family of WebDAV-compliant products is licensed to over 1 million users at commercial, education and government customers around the world. To learn more about Xythos, call 1 888 4XYTHOS
- For further information:
- James Till, Xythos Software
- 415-248-9009
- jtill@xythos.com