Morello from Mediasurface chosen by AstraZeneca for its Australian websites and Global Web Content Management System

  • Morello from Mediasurface (UK, AIM: MSR) has been chosen by AstraZeneca as the sole platform of choice for their Global Web Content Management System, with www.astrazeneca.com.au one of the first go-live sites
 3rd October 2007 - Morello by Mediasurface has been chosen by AstraZeneca, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies, as the sole platform of choice for its new Global Web Content Management System, in one of the largest content management projects ever undertaken. One of the first country sites to go live is www.astrazeneca.com.au.

Mediasurface were short-listed along with four other competitors after a lengthy pre-qualification process. The tender involved working closely with AstraZeneca to produce a 300 point 'proof of concept' as well as successfully delivering a pilot project that built a handful of websites to demonstrate the functional and usability benefits of Morello. Morello will replace AstraZeneca's two existing bespoke WCM systems and a handful of agency based WCM systems as part of their global e-service integration strategy (ESI).

Lawrence Flynn, CEO of Mediasurface said, "We are delighted that Mediasurface has been selected to partner AstraZeneca on this massive global project. It illustrates that our goal of combining an intuitive, business focused interface with enterprise strength technology is a real winning formula."

Kay Wesley, Global Director - eMarketing for AstraZeneca said, "Morello offered the best total solution by meeting our key business criteria and new business innovation requirements in a way that some more established Enterprise Content Management (ECM) players could not.  By combining a genuine focus on empowering the business user with intuitive features such as Instant Site (that allows us to rapidly deploy new enterprise websites in a controlled and compliant manner) Morello will help AstraZeneca maintain our industry lead in the online arena."

The depth of the project is significant. AstraZeneca have over 250 content managed sites worldwide, which are a mixture of corporate and country sites, product and therapy sites, community initiatives and charitable causes, with varying numbers of authors and levels of traffic. The ESI programme is a complete integration led by sales and marketing, and wholly supported by IS. An integral part of this project was giving AstraZeneca's e-Marketers and business users control of the web sites that they managed and were measured on.

Morello will enable AstraZeneca's eMarketing team to create a de-centralised editorial community that delivers:
  • A friendly, easy to use WCM system designed from the e-marketers perspective which empowers the user community to create and manage their websites
  • A very powerful multi stage workflow management
  • Wide support for foreign languages including Chinese and Japanese from both a content presentation and an editorial contribution perspective
  • A flexible and scaleable approach to handle a wide variety of rich content including movies, PDF's and flash content
  • A flexible modern architecture based on common standards
  • The ability to support thousands of editors

Other key requirements of Mediasurface were the ability to provide 24/7 global support, locally to the European, Asian, Australian and American regions and the ability to integrate into AstraZeneca's larger Global Sales and Marketing Information Systems initiative including integration with AstraZeneca's Siebel CRM solution.

"Morello has enabled us to complete our programme of rationalisation, bringing together our previous disparate systems under one, global technology that will enable seamless online relationships and a better experience for our customers and stakeholders. We will gain associated benefits from a cost, control and consolidation perspective and created a new global standard for our websites", continued Wesley.

About AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca is a major international healthcare business engaged in the research, development, manufacture and marketing of prescription pharmaceuticals and the supply of healthcare services. It is one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies with healthcare sales of $26.47 billion and leading positions in sales of gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, neuroscience, respiratory, oncology and infection products. AstraZeneca is listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (Global) as well as the FTSE4Good Index.

About Mediasurface
Mediasurface develops, markets and implements Web Content Management (WCM) software that helps businesses take full advantage of the capabilities of the web by transforming the complex task of managing websites into straightforward activities.

Its enterprise strength solution Morello has changed the face of content management and is used to power sophisticated intranets, extranets, websites and other digital channels for many of the world's leading companies.

Immediacy is an intuitive website and intranet management solution for medium sized organizations and corporate departments that makes it easy for anyone to create and maintain high quality websites.

Pepperio is a one-stop-shop package for SME’s exclusively offered by Mediasurface's network of accredited Pepperio partners, allowing smaller businesses to easily run a professionally designed website for a low fixed monthly fee.

Mediasurface operates through wholly owned subsidiaries and partners across Europe, the USA, India and the AsiaPacific region. www.mediasurface.com

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this news release include forward-looking statements that may involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results may vary significantly based upon a number of factors including, but not limited to, risks in product and technology development, market acceptance of new products and continuing product conditions, both here and abroad, release and sales of new products by strategic resellers and customers, and other risk factors detailed in the Company's most recent annual report and other filings with the AIM.

For further information on Mediasurface, please contact:
Grant Butler Coomber
+44 (0) 208 322 1922
mediasurface@gbc.co.uk

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