In August 2000, building off meetings in previous years, the Center for Pharmaceutical Management (CPM) of Management Sciences for Health (MSH) identified the need for a dynamic pharmaceutical stock software to ensure the effective management of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies in resource-limited settings.

The goal was to find a commercial software product that could be readily adapted for this purpose and would be suitable for use in a variety of settings; from single practice sites (e.g., hospital pharmacies) to large central medical stores.

The software needed to be stable, easily supported, user friendly, and meet a broad range of requirements.

After a 15-month evaluation of more than 125 commercial software products, MSH selected 3i Infotech's Oracle-based program, ORION™, to serve as the foundation for a drug management software suite. The base ORION™ product is a program that has been used to facilitate stock management at more than 600 sites in 23 countries.

The steps involved in developing the software included the following—

• Reviewing and evaluating country drug management software needs
  
  
• Determining best practices for drug management in resource-limited environments
  
  
• Adapting existing functionalities of the ORION™ product
  
  
• Testing, piloting, and fine-tuning the adapted software product