Migrating to UC Platform Brought Gains for Biocon

In November this year, India's first biotechnology company will turn 31. Starting as a joint venture in 1978, today Biocon has grown to a robust Rs 1,600 crore (US$346.4 million) company, with a reputation for ground-breaking research and products.

Highlights

-- The company was looking for seamless integration with other apps and achieving a future path for unified communications

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In November this year, India's first biotechnology company will turn 31. Starting as a joint venture in 1978, today Biocon has grown to a robust Rs 1,600 crore (US$346.4 million) company, with a reputation for ground-breaking research and products.

Highlights

-- The company was looking for seamless integration with other apps and achieving a future path for unified communications

-- The migration has increased the efficiency of people in communicating with others which has resulted in business gains.

The company has five subsidiary companies in its stable: Syngene International, a custom research organization, Clinigene International, a clinical research organization, and Biocon Biopharmaceuticals, a joint venture with CIMAB to develop and market a range of monoclonal antibodies and cancer vaccines. In addition, there is AxiCorp, a Germany-based pharmaceutical marketing company and, NeoBiocon a research and marketing pharmaceutical company in Abu Dhabi.

Combined, Biocon, Syngene and Clinigene have approximately 3,600 employees. Communication between these employees and the companies is crucial for the business and the research its products are based on. So when Radhakrishnan G., GM-systems, Biocon, decided to migrate the company's communication platform, it was not a decision he could take lightly.

"We needed a uniform communications platform across the divisions of the company. We were looking for seamless integration with other apps and achieving a future path for unified communications," he says.

The Rs 3 crore migration process faced the hurdle of migrating users from the existing mail platform without losing any e-mails, archives, folders and contact data. "The challenge was to achieve minimum downtime for each mail user and simultaneously provide training on the new platform," says Radhakrishnan.

Using, a migration tool that transfers all mail boxes and related data, he planned the migration so that it did not coincide with office hours. To meet the issues of change management, Radhakrishnan trained users in batches before the migration and also opened a round-the-clock helpdesk facility at different campuses.

His hard work paid off when executives in the field started communicating using the company's e-mail ID thereby ensuring authenticity and building a better brand image. "The migration also increased the efficiency of people in communicating with others which has resulted in business gains. Savings to the IT budget were in the range of Rs 1 crore apart from achieving operational and technical efficiencies," he says.