UCB: MANAGING INFORMATION

FOR GLOBALIZATION

AND INNOVATION

Tiffany WolfeBus 550

December 7, 2010

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WHAT IS UCB? Established in 1920 in Brussels, Belgium Expanded to the U.S. in 1930 2009 total global revenue € 3.1 billion Net sales

51% Europe35% North America14% other

Originally three sectorsFilm (1930-2004)Pharmaceuticals Chemicals

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THE THREE SECTORS Films

BOPP (biaxially-oriented polypropylene) and cellulose films for specialty packaging, labeling, graphic arts and industrial products.

Food and beverages, labels, security products, industrial membranes, health, and pharmaceutical industries

€ 396 million in sales in 2001 Chemicals

Polyester resins (molding and toner) Acrylic resins (hard plastics) € 677 million in sales in 2003

Pharma € 1.4 billion in global sales

Majority of sales are from Zyrtec3

VINCENT DAMIEN Job Titles

1991-Corporate Auditor1993-Management Controller of Pharma

Operations and business groups depend upon IT1996-Responsible for Pharma MIS1997-Responsible for central services

across Belgium HR, IT infrastructure

1998-Administrative and group IT Director2000-Administrative and IT/IS DirectorEnd of 2000- Member of the Senior

management Team

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ISSUES Information technology/information

system (IT/IS)OrganizationRedundancy Inconsistency Inefficiency

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DAMIEN’S IT/IS ORGANIZATION Role of IT/IS:

Information Technology Operations Establish an “efficient, robust, and strong

motorway” of information that would help support business processes, and improve the end users’ productivity.

Information Systems Development Understand business requirements and priorities Develop, implement, maintain, and support IS to

meet these requirements.

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GLOBAL VISION This global vision concerned:

Infrastructure Hardware/softwareCommunication

Created Global IT/IS Standards: To share experience and develop

synergies across the group To reduce heterogeneity, inconsistencies,

and hidden costs To improve communication and cost

effectiveness

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STANDARDS Single email system Standardized hardware and software

systemsOracle for database application Microsoft Office for desktop productivityCompaq desktop PCsNT 4 Operating System

Contract negotiationsGroup Contract IT/IS ManagerGroup vs. each sector; individually

Cost savings of € 2.7 million by 1999

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CHANGES IN IT/IS 1996

IT/IS activities were independently initiated within each sector and location. Inconsistency Redundancy Higher cost

2001Wanted to establish global IT/IS standards

Develop synergy across groupsAll report to Damien

Improve communication across groups Reduce inconsistency

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THE NEW DATA CENTER 1st step in improving operational support system Hub of the UCB global network Upgraded their computers Created a central computer room

Underground 300 servers ran production applications

From all sectors and geographies Back-ups were handled automatically by a new

robot-driven system Server operations and monitoring were

outsourced Several miles away from the nearest UCB facility

Back-up: original computer room10

HELP DESK SUPPORT In 1993, first began

No computersOne person covering the call centerOnly spoke one language

In 1998Six peopleStaff spoke two languages

In 2002Centralized databaseSupported 200 applicationsCall center staff spoke 7-10 languages

High turnover11

IT OPERATIONS Regional Operations

America, Asia, and EuropeReport directly to DamienUse corporate standards when appropriateLocal needs of various business groupsVariations in technology

Global OperationsConcentrated on infrastructure that applied to all

sectors and regions Such as WAN and corporate network standards

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IS DEVELOPMENT Global Development

Developing and delivering technological solutions in use by all sectors and regions, such as PeopleSoft

Sectorial DevelopmentDeveloping and delivering applications for

specific sectors, such as knowledge management for Pharma

Major Is Projects:Knowledge Management3R Portal Project

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KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Past

60% of all documents were in foreign languages All on paper

Present Now all written in English All critical documents are digital

They have staff dedicated to indexing and translating documents: Notes from physicians Published scientific papers related to drug

development- competitors UCB docs- research analysis and in house

research reports14

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT They had robust security Easy-to-use folder organization for storing

and retrieving their 90,000 documents Pharmaceutical industry

More money was spent on the creation of knowledge than on the equipment used to produce the products developed from that knowledge

Important because pharmaceutics is a knowledge-building process

Laws related to pharmaceutics, which vary by country, require companies to keep documents associated with the drugs for the life of the product plus five years 15

3R PORTAL PROJECT

Designed to provide access to key information through a customizable/personalized Web portal.

Two key layers:Corporate level of information

Everyone in the company had access to the same information

Single user name/password is needed for access to all network applications

Sectorial and functional layer Including site specific information relevant to specific

job responsibilities; individually tailored to the person’s job

Personalized Web portal to deliver appropriate information based on the identity of each person

Access could be denied to inappropriate information16

CONCLUSION Improved and changed IT/IS Now have the foundational building

blocks for a next generation knowledge management system

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QUESTIONS1. What does UCB stand for?

a. United Company of Belgiumb. Universal Company of Belgiumc. University of California, Berkleyd. None of the above

2. Which one was NOT one of the issues UCB faced?a. Inefficiencyb. Organizationc. Redundancyd. None of the above

3. Vincent Damien was….a. the great, great grandson of one of the founders of UCB.b. president of UCB.c. mostly responsible for reorganizing and restructuring

UCB’s IT/IS departments from 1996-2002.d. All of the above

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ANSWERS D D C

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REFERENCES UCB: Managing Information for

Globalization and Innovation article http://www.ucb.com/about-ucb/ http://www.ucb.com/about-ucb/history http://www.ucb.com/media-room/editori

al-guidelines http://www.ucb.com/rd/

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BACK-UP SLIDE Union Chimique Belge

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