AstraZeneca Invests Over $1.6M with Business Objects

AstraZeneca, one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, has signed a contract worth more than $1.6 million with Business Objects, a leading provider of e-business intelligence (e-BI) solutions, to increase the efficiency of information sharing to aid in the development of pharmaceutical products. AstraZeneca is using BusinessObjects, the integrated query, reporting, and analysis solution for the enterprise from Business Objects, to transform the way in which its pharmaceutical development teams capture, share and exploit critical scientific data. The transaction occurred in December 2000.

AstraZeneca has an annual turnover of almost $16 billion and develops, manufactures, and markets many of the world's most prominent pharmaceutical medicines. AstraZeneca is using BusinessObjects to capitalize on its consolidated worldwide research and development function by enabling scientists, project teams, and managers to undertake powerful analysis, query, and reporting of R&D data, to share this information with other development teams within the organization. As a result, AstraZeneca is increasing the efficiency of its R&D activity, helping to speed the delivery of breakthrough pharmaceutical remedies to patients across the globe. AstraZeneca plans to use BusinessObjects to support many of its primary R&D functions, including reporting on clinical trials, drug safety, and project budgeting. Business Objects is also providing AstraZeneca with training, implementation, and development support.

"We invest over $8 million every day in R&D and it is vital that we realize the true value of our data," said Andy Woods, head of IS for Development at AstraZeneca's Charnwood division. "Using Business Objects enables our research and development teams to access the information they need to undertake specific data analysis and to share this information across the entire organization in the form of easy to use reports."

"By delivering this capability widely across our pharmaceutical development teams we are empowering our people by turning them from information consumers to information power users," said Woods. "This change will contribute to delivering increased efficiency in our business and in our ability to realize the true potential of our R&D efforts."

"AstraZeneca joins the growing number of leading edge organizations that are benefiting from the availability of key information through the adoption of Business Objects as their e-business intelligence platform," said Tony Heyworth, UK marketing director at Business Objects. "AstraZeneca is now able to put relevant, accurate, and timely information into the hands of the right people where and when they need it."

About AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca is a major international healthcare business engaged in the research, development, manufacture and marketing of prescription pharmaceuticals and the supply of healthcare services. It is one of the top five pharmaceutical companies in the world with healthcare sales of over $15.8 billion and leading positions in sales of gastrointestinal, oncology, anesthesia (including pain management), cardiovascular, central nervous system (CNS) and respiratory products.

About Business Objects

Business Objects is a leading provider of e-business intelligence (e-BI) solutions. The company coined the term e-business Intelligence in 1998 to describe the intersection of business intelligence and the internet. Using e-business intelligence, organizations can access, analyze, and share information in intranet, extranet, and e-business environments. In intranets, the company's products provide employees with information to make better business decisions, and are used in environments ranging from workgroups of 20 users to enterprise deployments exceeding 20,000. In the extranet environment, the company is pioneering the use of e-BI in applications that allow organizations to build stronger relationships by linking customers, partners, and suppliers via the Internet. In addition, the company's products can improve the performance of an e-business by providing reporting and analysis against the ever-expanding amount of transaction and profile data that is collected each day throughout the World Wide Web.

Founded in 1990, Business Objects pioneered the modern business intelligence industry by inventing and patenting a "semantic layer" that insulates users from the technical complexity of database systems. Today, the company has over 13,100 customers in more than 80 countries. Business Objects can be reached at 408-953-6000 and www.businessobjects.com.

Contact Business Objects, Tara Verrek, 01628 764600, tverrek@businessobjects.com.