AstraZeneca simplifies outsourcing rules

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has simplified its approach to outsourcing by reducing the number of service level agreements (SLAs) and giving more delivery responsibility to the suppliers.

AstraZeneca has outsourcing contracts with a range of providers including BT, Cognizant and IBM across 61 centres globally.

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The company's CIO Richard Williams described new rules for its £680m, seven-year global outsourcing agreement with IBM.

Speaking at the FT Global Outsourcing and Offshoring Conference, Williams said the company has set detailed objectives for IBM but leaves it to the provider to decide how to reach them, focusing on monitoring outcomes rather than processes.

He said this approach had simplified the outsourcing process by reducing numbers of SLAs from "thousands to hundreds".

He said: "We are specifying exactly what we want at a granular level. Then from the supply chain upwards IBM decides how this is delivered. AstraZeneca has handed over the reins to IBM to deploy its expertise. Take storage for example we would say to IBM we need storage delivered here, it is up to you how you deliver it.

"We believe that this is an industry-leading approach and it maintains value for money. It allows AstraZeneca to focus on innovative ways for IS to bring better medicines to market and plan improvements to health."

Services provided by IBM under the deal include server and storage hosting, service desks, PC management, network and comms and computer operations support.

The contract extends to server hosting and storage for scientific, commercial and supply operations.