But today, thanks to drainage and government tax incentives, Latina is home to advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing. And Pfizer is master of this domain. Pfizer's Latina plant manufactures a wide range of pharmaceuticals, including antibiotics, animal-health drugs and products like Norvasc, the most-prescribed agent in the world for cardiovascular illnesses like angina and hypertension.

At its processing plant on the outskirts of the city, Luca Minchella works as a business analyst in manufacturing information management systems. Minchella is a 10-year veteran at Pfizer. "We produce more than 125 million boxes of product per year," he says. "This is one of Pfizer's most advanced facilities. It's a model for the rest of the company."

As a CIM (computer integrated manufacturing) facility, the plant uses advanced technology throughout all aspects of the operation to raise efficiency. Executives like Minchella analyze data as the manufacturing process proceeds, allowing Pfizer to measure the actual time and materials involved in production against projections.

As an integral part of the technological mix, Pfizer uses Databeacon reporting and analysis software from Ottawa, Canada-based InterNetivity to track the relationship between plant production runs and budgets.

Databeacon, which is Web-based and runs on any standard browser, allows users to graphically analyze information taken from statistical tables in HTML and extrapolate it into color charts. The charts can then be sorted and analyzed to identify commercial trends and make comparisons to help managers comply with Pfizer's rigid quality-assurance standards.

Data Deliveries

Pfizer Italy has been using Databeacon for nearly two years, and according to Minchella, it has generated time and money savings for Pfizer from day one. Like most industrial plants, the Pfizer facility gathers a huge amount of data. But in the days before Databeacon, users who needed a specific chunk of that data depended on the IT department to extract it and deliver it in a usable form.

On average, it would take an IT specialist between one and two days to extract production data from a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, then create an entirely new sheet for the end user. With an IT department of just 10 people responsible for a 250-person network, the strain on resources was significant.

"We knew we had to do something," Minchella says. "We tried to develop an application ourselves using Java, but we had no success at all with that. Then we looked at an Oracle product, but it was far too complicated for our end-users. It was too hard to transform data and offered a limited number of cells. Also, it didn't work with a browser."

That's when the Pfizer team saw a Databeacon demonstration. It was impressive but, according to Minchella, revelation dawned when the plant's IT manager, Bruno Piva, took an evaluation copy home with him. With no previous database skills and no formal Databeacon instruction, Piva was able to build his own analytic tool, at home, on his personal computer. "It's so simple," he said the next day. "I did it. And if I did it, anyone can do it."

"Before Databeacon," Minchella says, "people would come to us and we'd have to take someone off a priority project so they could build an Excel spreadsheet. Now, I just direct the person making the request to a Web site." The Java client and data can be saved to the hard drive, then analyzed using tools in the client's software, or exported to spreadsheet or PDF format for analysis or for use in presentations.

Minchella adds that the staff at the plant is enthusiastic about using the technology. Not only do team members get reports in a matter of minutes rather than days, they can manipulate the information themselves without IT assistance. As a result, employees are making greater use of available data than ever before.

"They are very happy," Minchella says. "And I'm happy, too. For me, Databeacon has been a perfect solution. Now when people come to ask us for something, I don't have to get my staff to do the work. I just say 'click here.'"

InterNetivity recently released version 5.1, the GUI Edition, which costs $90,000 for a dual-processor external Web server. Nathan Rudyk, InterNetivity's vice president of marketing, explained that e-marketplaces can use the software tool to publish data from their commercial communities.

Easy Access

The e-marketplace or its members can access data simply by clicking on a URL to get the Databeacon Java client and compressed data file. The entire transfer takes 15 to 20 seconds with a standard broadband connection, says Rudyk. The Enron Online energy exchange is among recent clients who have implemented Databeacon. The product has also been bundled into offers from supply chain management software vendors WebPlan and Fashionchain, which target e-hubs.

Back at Pfizer in Latina, Minchella is looking beyond the factory walls. Once a month, he is required to submit a data report to Pfizer's head office. The information is all in the plant's database, but extracting and preparing it takes him at least two days and often three. Minchella's plan is to save those two or three days by getting the head office hooked on Databeacon, too.

"One day, I hope to do that," he says. "I'd like to be able to say to the head office, 'Just click here.' --56

RICHARD BROWN is a senior editor AT line56.