Spend less time searching for information and thus have more time for other work.

How Xerox askOnce can be used to help locate and retrieve research and data within biotech, pharmaceutical, medical and scientific organisations.

'Big drug companies need small biotech firms to survive. Currently, the average wonder drug, whether it reduces blood pressure or increases sex drive (or both), costs $20 million a year for ten years to develop. On average, the drug companies manage to bring one new drug to market per year. If they are to survive and prosper, however, they need to produce about five per year. So big pharma looks to the new biotech startups to help them speed up this process. Small biotech firms in European countries like Germany, Ireland, and the United Kingdom are determined to provide the technology. Andrew P. Madden, Red Herring.

Xerox Corporation has developed a technology that will boost bioinformatics (the use of computers to manage and analyse genetic data) and retrieve large amounts of data required by science researchers. Xerox researchers have identified that the problem facing scientists isn't just information overload; it's also the logistical difficulties of sharing data across an enterprise. Centralised information within a corporation, with different types of scientific data research, can be stored in different formats. askOnce has the search capabilities to give a corporation the tools to retrieve that data in varying formats from internal (intranet, Documentum etc) and external (subscriptions, internet) sources. The search capability is determined by a set of 'wrappers. The more wrappers a corporation embeds into their IT infrastructure, the more powerful and wider they can search.

Xerox askOnce search software was chosen in order to meet Organons requirements for uniform access and retrieval from a number of different information sources. Organon is a renowned global pharmaceutical company with a strong commitment to health care. The company develops and produces innovative prescription medicines for gynaecology, psychiatry, cardiovascular disease and immunology. The pharmaceutical researchers collect information in order to produce the required regulatory submission documents as well as to keep up with the latest research and thinking.

askOnce offers Organon access to multiple databases and is fully customised to individual company needs, enabling Organons 500 research staff to simultaneously search through 8 internal databases and 5 external systems. The number of databases that can be searched is unlimited. The user enters a single standard query in the askOnce search box -- this turns into a translated query in the format of the different underlying databases.

askOnce decreases new drug submission process time and reduces time to market with resultant competitive advantage.

Researchers need to spend less time searching for information and thus have more time for other work -- everything is on the desktop. If one assumes that each of the 500 researchers saves half an hour each day then one doesnt need to be a mathematical genius to work out that a considerable amount of time is saved each day, let alone each year!" Rene van den Bersselaar, Head of Special Projects at NV Organon.

To test Xerox askOnce search capabilities yourself go to http://demo.mkms.xerox.com:2828/askonce_en.jsp, please contact Kazara or visit www.kazara.com for further product and askOnce wrapper information.

Please visit the Kazara stand and experiment with Xerox askOnce at the XML and Webservices exhibition on 12th-13th March 2002, www.xmlwebservices.co.uk

Contact
Andrew Barker, Tel: +44 (0) 797 423 0588, E-mail: andrew.barker@kazara.com