Reduce cycle time for distribution of International Registration Dossiers (IRD): Electronic system

The purpose of this project is to find an effective way of distributing International Registration Dossiers (IRD's) electronically. In late 2003 and early 2004 a project was put in to place to improve the cycle time and quality of documentation in order to help reduce registration times. The first phase was to focus on the actual submission and the documents that go in to the dossier to make it a high quality document giving the affiliates everything they needed. The first phase was completed in March 2004, but the need for electronic distribution of documents was identified during its completion. The second phase, will be finding an electronic system that all affiliates can access and navigate through easily. The international affiliates expressed the need for an electronic system since they no longer have the capacity to hold paper copies or CD's of the IRD's for reference purposes. An electronic format would suffice for archiving purposes, as well as for translation purposes and approval submissions. In order to fulfill the original benefits, phase 2 is critical to customer's needs and wants. Several different methods of distributing documents, paper, CD's and electronic storage and distribution program were evaluated to ensure that the outcome was of benefit. Pilots of both the CD and electronic methods will be conducted and VOC will be gathered to get feedback of what works or doesn't work in both methods. Phase 2 benefits such as speeding up the distribution of registration documents, by making the documents more accessible and reducing cost.