Merck KGaA Subsidiary Picks CA's CleverPath To Build Spanish Enterprise Information Portal
EDS Supports Merck Farma y Quðmica in Design and Deployment of Innovative Intranet Information Solution
03-Apr-2002
ISLANDIA, N.Y. and BARCELONA, Spain, April 2, 2002 - Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA) today announced that Merck Farma y Química (Merck), the Spanish subsidiary of global pharmaceutical and chemical leader Merck KGaA, is using CA's CleverPath Portal to build a comprehensive enterprise information portal.
Merck has more than 800 employees in its nationwide offices and a mobile sales force of 200 agents. The company needed to increase the productivity of its employees by providing them with a tool to automate administrative processes such as calendars, room reservations or inquires to the employee directory, creating a secure access point for corporate information, and establishing a flexible and scalable infrastructure for new services such as collaborative work, and integration with email and corporate applications.
"We were looking for a simple and easy-to-use tool that would help us to increase operational efficiency, accelerate business processes and allow us to fully leverage our diverse information resources," said César Maestra, Corporate Communications Director, Merck Farma y Química. "CA's CleverPath Portal enables us to achieve these critical objectives right away, while it will enable us shortly to extend information resources to the mobile workforce, as well as to partners, clients and suppliers."
EDS Spain, which facilitated the design and deployment of Merck's enterprise portal system, selected CleverPath Portal because of its proven power and flexibility, coupled with CA's strong support. "We liked CleverPath Portal technology from the very beginning," said Ana María Rodríguez, eSolutions Digital Enablement Service Line Business Manager, EDS Spain. "Since it is Java-based, CleverPath Portal can run in any platform and in any database - an important consideration in a heterogeneous enterprise environment. Its content and graphic presentation functionalities will allow Merck employees to customize content to their specific needs and preferences. Also, CleverPath Portal is a very complete and robust solution, belonging to a product family that will allow us to extend its basic functionalities in an easy, flexible and integrated way to support future expansion of the business."
Implementation of Merck's portal project has been quick and successful. Design of the information architecture, creation of all graphical templates, development of specific applications and the initial production launch were all completed within three months. All essential portal functions - including integration with existing information sources, personalization, keyword search and subscription - are in place and working flawlessly.
"Users are excited about the possibilities presented by our new portal, and we are looking forward to including additional business applications that will give our mobile sales force immediate online access to sales and order status, up-to-the-minute inventory availability, and valuable client information," said Maestra.
CleverPath Portal provides enterprise users with full, integrated access to all the corporate and market information resources they need via a familiar browser interface. With comprehensive personalization, collaboration and security features, CleverPath Portal delivers both the control that corporate managers demand and the ease-of-access that individual employees require. It thus serves as an ideal integration point for enterprise applications, as well as a superb vehicle for accelerating data and business processes throughout the value chain. As a 100% Java solution, CleverPath Portal enables organizations to accommodate their evolving IT infrastructures and evolve their portal-based information solutions with great flexibility to address changing business requirements.
"The ability to share corporate information and automate daily processes makes life easier for employees while significantly improving the operational efficiency and institutional knowledge of the business as a whole," said Stephen Savage, CA's regional manager for Spain and Portugal. "By taking advantage of CA's CleverPath Portal as the cornerstone of its state-of-the-art enterprise information infrastructure, Merck is effectively reinforcing its strong competitive position in the Spanish pharmaceutical market."
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