Friday, October 24, 2008

COGNIZANT SIGNS $95M DEAL WITH ASTRAZENECA

S Shyamala, Chennai
Financial Chronicle The Hindu Business Standard

Cognizant Technology Solutions announced a five-year agreement with pharmaceutical-major AstraZeneca on Thursday.

The company will provide application maintenance services in research, clinical development and sales and marketing.

AstraZeneca is a global pharmaceutical major with healthcare sales of $29.55 billion (about Rs 1.4-lakh crore). The five-year contract is worth about $95 million. The agreement will further expand Cognizant’s long-standing relationship with AstraZeneca, a company release said.

Cognizant will adopt an “outcome or effect-based” model to provide the services by leveraging its global delivery network, talent pool and best practices.

This will ensure a predictable service model, reduce the overall cost of IT ownership and deliver year-over-year efficiency improvements.

Richard Williams, global chief information officer of AstraZeneca, said in a statement: “Our strategic partnerships will enable us to streamline operations efficiency, raise standards and deliver world-class services. The selection of Cognizant will allow us to leverage their global operations to meet the needs of our business and increase our focus on our core business — to make the most meaningful difference to patient health through great medicines.” Cognizant signed an agreement with AstraZeneca in March to provide centralised data management services.

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