AstraZeneca to roll out Box to its entire workforce

28.01.2015
Medicine giant AstraZeneca will give its 51,000 employees access to Box to share files and encourage collaboration worldwide it said, following the vendor's successful initial public offering last week.

The choice to deploy Box is part of a larger strategy to supply its employees across 100 different countries with secure, user-friendly tools to boost productivity.

Alongside the deployment, AstraZeneca will sit on Box's customer advisory board to influence future decisions in Box's research and development.

David Smoley, chief information officer at AstraZeneca, said: "Technology is a key driver of innovation at AstraZeneca, and collaboration and mobility are two initiatives at the forefront of our strategy."

"Box has become the industry standard in this space and we've chosen it to continue our drive toward efficiency, security and simplicity for all our employees."

Smoley has previously discussed the firm's ambitions to shift from a predominantly outsourced IT model back in-house, in a bid to strengthen internal teams and cut spending.

But last year the pharmaceuticals manufacturer opened a Silicon Bay centre to attract West Coast developer talent - the type that are interested in saving lives.

Last year it deployed a cloud-based service desk for IT and finance from ServiceNow to allow the core IT team time to respond to day-to-day challenges.

Other companies rolling out Box include Eurostar, Network Rail, Gatwick Airport and Oxfam.

Box recently went public, with shares retailing at over $20.20 (£13.46) on the New York Stock Exchange last week, considerably higher than predicted. As of Friday last week it had raised $175 million (£115.23 million), surpassing its own expectations.

Image: Flickr/Sparky

(www.computerworlduk.com)

Margi Murphy