AstraZeneca has inked a big outsourcing deal with India's Infosys, which will maintain IT systems for manufacturing, supply chain, finance, human resources and more. It's a five-year, multimillion-dollar deal that Astra hopes will improve its operational efficiencies and help it bring new products to market faster.
The deal is part of AstraZeneca's overall restructuring, and, said Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan, will help the company focus on its "core competencies" rather than on the nitty-gritty of business processes. Said AstraZeneca's Global CIO Richard Williams, "The combination of Infosys' outsourcing expertise, technology leadership and proven record in rationalizing and standardizing business process were all contributing factors to our decision." No word on exactly how much money will be changing hands.
Astra's outsourcing to Infosys comes at a time when more and more pharma companies are looking to hand off parts of their operations to outside firms. Drugmakers increasingly use contractors to handle the nuts and bolts of their business, in everything from supply-chain management and bookkeeping to manufacturing to clinical trials. With the economy going south, drugmakers are likely to continue to look to outsourcing as one way to streamline their businesses and cut costs, even as contractors themselves watch their portfolios of business dwindle.
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