Roche Speeds New Products with Collaboration

June 9, 2003

To improve knowledge sharing and teamwork enterprisewide, Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche has implemented Livelink software from Open Text (www.opentext.com), Waterloo, Ontario. Several years ago, Livelink was implemented and integrated into the daily work routines at Roche's headquarters in Basel and in offices in many other countries. Livelink will now be rolled out globally in an enterprisewide deployment.

Roche's Livelink-based platform, which is called ShareWeb, supports the lifecycle of team projects. Livelink helps improve efficiency at each stage of new pharmaceutical product development, from conception to marketing. The software provides a single point of access to training information, compliance programs and a range of documents relevant for teams during the routine processes of daily work.

Prior to implementing Livelink, Roche used a global shared drive system as well as more conventional methods for managing documents. Livelink has replaced the global shared drives, eliminating maintenance while also reducing project timeframes.

The launch of ShareWeb made access to documents independent of formats. According to Roche, knowledge from previous projects is always available, up-to-date and ready for reuse; international teams can be assembled faster and new team members take less time to familiarize themselves with project priorities and goals.

Leveraging Livelink's support for XML, Roche also uses ShareWeb as a content management system for sections of its pharmaceutical intranet, bridging the gap between global team collaboration and improved visibility of knowledge creation. In addition, the Livelink solution is said to support collaboration with external business partners. ShareWeb's Web-based architecture is essential to this external application while satisfying Roche's high security standards.

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