Capgemini sought to iron out Astellas' IT after merger
provide IT services to ensure the smooth sailing of pharmaceutical
company Astellas US, newly-formed after a recent merger.
Astellas was formed in 2005 when the Japanese firms Fujisawa Pharmaceutical and Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical joined together and Capgemini has already been working with Astellas and its predecessor companies for the past three years.
Under the new contract, Capgemini will consolidate and increase IT efficiencies within the enlarged firm and also provide strategic IT systems and support services that will help enable the pharmaceutical company's growth in the US.
"Among our top priorities are making sure we fully benefit from the merger and optimise both our organisation and cost structures to remain efficient in a growth environment," said Yoshihiko Hatanaka, president and CEO of Astellas.
Specifically, Astellas said it expects to Capgemini's involvement to allow it to "improve IT service levels, decrease base costs, and benefit from a variable cost structure to support growth and financial value by rationalising data centre and technical help desk capabilities, as well as leveraging global resources in areas such as application system lifecycle support."
To meet these objectives, Capgemini said it will use its Rightshore approach, which will allow Astellas to receive IT services delivered from a combination of locations coordinated around the company's specific business goals and desired IT staffing structure - some the company's IT operations will remain at existing company sites, while others will be moved to Capgemini delivery centres around the world.
In addition to the new IT outsourcing agreement, Astellas also awarded Capgemini the lead integrator role in its SAP implementation project for North America.
"This service relationship will enable all operations, whether on-site at Astellas or in centres operated by Capgemini, to attain consistent, high quality service levels," said Bob Pryor, head of Capgemini outsourcing services in North America.
"It will also give Astellas the ability to predict costs and delivery schedules, which in turn will allow the company to easily manage its growth."
Pharmaceutical firms are increasingly outsourcing their key enterprisewide processes such as IT, HR, finance, procurement and customer care, as well as specific functions such as manufacturing, research and clinical trials, in a bid to save money, increase efficiencies and manage regulatory compliance.
Capgemini, which provides a range of pharmaceutical and lifescience-focused IT services, such as customer relationship management (CRM), IT strategy & transformation, regulatory compliance, supply chain management and R&D programmes, came fifth in the first-ever listing of the world's top 100 outsourcing service providers, released earlier this year by The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP).
The list included companies from around the world providing the full spectrum of outsourcing services - not just IT - however, companies who specialise in these particular areas of outsourcing dominated the list - four large companies with a specialist life science/pharmaceutical division featured in the top five.
Number one was IT giant IBM, in third place was Accenture, while Hewlett-Packard and Capgemini slid into fourth and fifth positions.
