AstraZeneca has productivity down to a science

AstraZeneca is a global $26B biopharmaceutical business that focuses on the discovery and development of prescription medicines. Through their work, they improve the quality of life for those suffering from cardiovascular, metabolic, respiratory, autoimmune and neurological diseases.

As a large enterprise in a highly-regulated industry, AstraZeneca relied heavily on a combination of on-premise storage and infrastructure. But David Smoley, CIO at AstraZeneca, had a different vision that involved developing an IT strategy that put collaboration at the forefront. A strategy that allowed users, patients and medical professionals to share data and make the most of new science, creating a lean, fast-paced and creative environment.

“We’re trying to drive change through innovation. We continue to reinforce our strategy with leading-edge cloud solutions.”

- David Smoley, CIO, AstraZeneca

Taking a big step forward with Box

To support their collaboration and business efficiency needs company-wide, Smoley and AstraZeneca deployed Box, enabling 65,600 users spanning more than 100 countries to work together in harmony.

His goal: make IT twice as good at half the cost with an incredibly productive workforce. Smoley recognised that the cloud is much more efficient with much less need for capital or infrastructure, and that his company would be more efficient by automating processes. He deployed cloud-based enterprise tools that are natively integrated with Box, including Workday, Salesforce, Office365 and DocuSign at AstraZeneca. Smoley also brought IT back in-house and created technology labs in Silicon Valley, Shanghai and Cambridge, England — a stark contrast to the nearly 70% of IT outsourced to third-party vendors previously.

Currently their employees rely on Box as the single place to store and share content both inside and outside the company. It’s a powerful ally that drives productivity across the organisation and gives teams the flexibility they need to innovate.

“It’s a big step forward from the way we’ve collaborated in the past,” said Smoley. “Prior to Box, this would’ve been done through emails back and forth. You couldn’t control versions and it took up an awful lot of space.”

In addition, they ensured compliance with industry regulations like HIPAA and internal policies through enforcement of multiple DLP policies in Box.

“Box has been fabulous supporting compliance with laws and regulations and tracking violations,” Smoley told Forbes. [1]

Mobile productivity that really works

According to Smoley, one of the greatest use cases with Box is for AstraZeneca’s field sales team. More than 8,000 sales representatives across the globe use iPads to access the most up-to-date sales assets like presentations, datasheets, contracts and more.

With everything stored securely in Box, field representatives can easily access any file they need — and be confident it’s the most recent version. With the seamless Box and Office 365 integration, it’s easy to open and edit Office files on the go, keeping every team productive wherever they are.