GeneEd has contracted with several large biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to provide e-learning courses. New customers include Amgen, Organon Pharmaceuticals, and Amersham Biosciences, as well as the Baylor College of Medicine. The software provider's offerings encompass R&D, clinical research, regulatory and compliance training, sales force and product-specific instruction, physician education, and patient education and outreach.

ClearForest, which develops data management and mining software, has launched an alliance partners program to provide technical, marketing, and sales support for its technology and integrator partners. Recently signed on is Ness Technologies, a global IT services provider for life sciences companies. The two companies will combine ClearForest's content extraction and analysis software, for text mining and other knowledge management capabilities, with Ness's IT solutions for drug discovery, clinical development optimization, and business intelligence.

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Companies

Dow Corning has achieved a 163% return on its investment 3.8 years after installing a human resources system from software provider SAP, according to a study by Gartner Group. The software helped Dow Corning integrate its operations, streamline enterprisewide people management, and increase efficiency and productivity. Operational cost savings, from cutting redundant activities and personnel, resulted as well. Human-resources-related business processes were reduced from a cycle time of 10 days to three. The system supports more than 40 manufacturing and services locations, 7,500 users, and 50,000 materials, using nine languages.

Syngenta is using Cognos ReportNet for generating reports in its research and technology operations. The open architecture software helps users create business reports that contain scientific data, including complex chemical structure diagrams. It will be rolled out to more than 800 global users. As the company's new reporting standard, the software replaces many other packaged and homegrown reporting systems that were in use.

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Services

Elemica, the network for intercompany transactions in the chemical industry, has joined the Open Network for Commerce Exchange (ONCE), a business-to-business alliance of electronic trading networks. Separately, Microsoft has released a version of its BizTalk tool kit for Elemica users. The tool kit works on top of the software provider's BizTalk Server 2002 and provides directions for creating connections to Elemica. Founded in 2000 by 22 chemical companies, Elemica now has more than 140 companies connected and more than 500 trading pairs enabled.

SpecialChem has launched a new portal, SpecialChem4Coatings, for paint, coatings, and inks users and formulators. It joins established SpecialChem sites for plastics additives and the adhesives and sealants industry. The new coatings site offers a network of experts for information and technical assistance, Web-based seminars, a library of industry news and articles, and a related product database.

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ALSO OF INTEREST

• DuPont has joined EurActiv.com, helping to sponsor the website's new policy section on science, research, and technology. The site tracks the activities and policies of the European Union in a wide range of areas, including science and the environment.  

• Rohm and Haas will use G-Log's "Command and Control Center" software to support its global logistics and transportation systems. It expects to achieve a rapid return on its investment and significant cost savings through load consolidation, operational efficiencies, and the replacement of legacy systems.

• Crompton has signed a three-year contract with LRN--a provider of legal, compliance, and ethics education services--for online employee training. LRN will offer programs to keep employees up-to-date on legal and compliance issues that impact the chemical industry and will create a customized course based on Crompton's own code of conduct. 

• Dow Reichhold Specialty Latex has launched a new website with expanded access to technical product information and new search capabilities. A news section about advances in latex technology has also been added.

• GlaxoSmithKline has licensed part of Ingenuity Systems' biological pathways database. The drug company will use the database in its internal development of genome-scale computational systems to understand disease.

• Xiameter, Dow Corning's website for no-frills silicone product purchases, has expanded into South America. Online purchases in the region will be sourced out of the company's Campinas, Brazil, plant.

Chemical & Engineering News
Copyright © 2003 American Chemical Society

RELATED E-BUSINESS STORIES CHEMICAL E-BUSINESS: ARE WE THERE YET? A couple of years after the tech boom, chemical firms strive to make e-business just business [C&EN, Feb. 10, 2003] E-COLLABORATION Companies are exploring software packages to create internal and external online workplaces [C&EN, Sept. 9, 2002] E-CONSOLIDATION Shakeout in trading sites and network hubs brings needed clarity to chemical e-commerce [C&EN, Feb. 25, 2002]

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