Zero.com is an Australian software development company specializing in developing innovative software systems for enhancing the productivity of sales and marketing functions of Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Manufacturers, as well as Healthcare Organizations such as hospitals, hospices, and diagnostic centers.

HISTORY

In the early 1990’s when the personal computers were using DOS as the operating system and computers with 286 and 386 processors were perceived as powerful computers, ZERO.COM came in to existence in this scene as Lancom Technologies by acquiring an existing software development company which had developed application software for Doctors and Pharmacies. These applications were written on a proprietary language and could run at a “lightening” speed on an XT computer with 8088 (8 bit) processors. The founders of Lancom Technologies came from Pharmaceutical background with a vision to create software for the Pharmaceutical Representative with one focus: to assist them in their day to day work.

PRISMS (Pharmaceutical Representatives Interactive System Management Software) Version 1 was a DOS based Electronic Territory Management System (ETMS) and was launched in Australia in 1992. Bristol Myer Squibb and Lundbeck Pharmaceuticals were the first 2 companies to use the software.

Prisms 3 and Prisms 4 were launched to keep pace with new technology: Microsoft Windows 3 operating system. The Architecture of Prisms at the time was Client server Architecture: typically the users would have a piece of the database-pie for their territory in their Lap Top computer with the whole pie (National DB) residing on the server. This was also known as distributed data base architecture.

Companies that licensed Prisms 3 and later 4 included Commonwealth Serum Laboratories (CSL Australia), RPR Australia, Faulding Pharmaceuticals and Ego Pharmaceuticals, Australia.

In 1995 we launched IMAGES; an interactive detailing software for Pharmaceutical representatives. Faulding Pharmaceuticals and CSL were the first two companies to adopt this technology.

Recognising the need for data visualization of Sales data, we designed, developed and launched Sales Audits Graphical Enhancement ( Sage ) software. This led to a Joint Venture agreement with IMS Health to promote our products (including Prisms and Images) in Australia and New Zealand. At its peak over 40 companies in Australia were using Sage. On June 24 1998 IMS Health acquired Walsh International globally. The terms of this agreement did not allow any affiliate of IMS health to market a competitive product. All companies using PRISMS were given the choice to stay with Prisms or stay with IMS Health’s new product offering from Walsh International. All companies decided to stay with Prisms. The JV with IMS was restricted to Sage and continues to be in place to this day.

In 1999 we launched Prisms 5 – our web based Pharmaceutical CRM using Oracle 8i as its database engine. Compared to Prisms 4, Prisms 5 is robust, scalable, and highly secure. In simple terms, in one sweep it wiped out all the weaknesses of a distributed database at the same time added power of central data processing and the robustness of the Internet communication protocol.

Prisms 5 has been in continuous use by some of our pharmaceutical clients since its launch in 1999.

The need for multilingual support and the versatility of the Microsoft .net framework convinced us to go back to the drawing board and redesign Prisms. Prisms 6 is flexible enough to be adopted for use in any Industry, has multilingual support, written in .net it uses Microsoft SQL as its data base engine.

Prisms 6 is licensed by Abbott Pharmaceutical to be used in 22 countries of Pacific, Asia and Africa region. By the end of 2007 Abbott Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, UAE and South Africa were subscribing Prisms 6. Most of the other affiliates are preparing for the roll out in 2008.

In June 2004, we launched ENVISAGE, which is a web-based Business Intelligence, Analysis and planning tool for enhancing sales force effectiveness.