Base Technologies: Packaged and Customized Software

Merck uses varied packaged and customized software systems for managing everything from international operations to research and development.

Enterprise Systems

Application: Financial management

Product: J.D. Edwards Financials

Supplier: PeopleSoft (acquired J.D. Edwards in 2003)

Application: Supply chain management

Product: J.D. Edwards Supply Chain Management

Supplier: PeopleSoft

Application: Human resources

Product: PeopleSoft Human Capital Management

Supplier: PeopleSoft

Application: Procurement

Product: Ariba Buyer, Ariba Enterprise Sourcing, Ariba Analysis, Ariba Contracts and Ariba Invoice

Supplier: Ariba

Application: Call center

Product: Siebel Call Center

Supplier: Siebel Systems

Application: Sales force automation

Product: Mostly proprietary, but integrated with a customized version of Dendrite’s handheld computer software for field sales

Supplier: Merck internal development; Dendrite International Inc.

Application: Relational databases

Product: Oracle; SQL Server

Supplier: Oracle; Microsoft

Research and Development, Clinical Trials

Application: Electronic data capture

Product: DataLabsXC, integrated with Merck’s proprietary Clinical Trials System

Supplier: DataLabs; Merck internal development

Application: Adverse effects reporting

Product: Custom solution based on Microsoft InfoPath

Supplier: Merck internal development; Microsoft

Application: Rights management (used to protect the confidentiality of documents containing proprietary drug data)

Product: Windows Rights Management Services

Supplier: Microsoft

Application:Statistical analysis

Product: SAS Analytic Technologies

Supplier: SAS Institute

Application: Chemical experiment planning and tracking

Product: IntelliChem Synthesis

Supplier: IntelliChem

Application: DNA “gene chip” data analysis

Product: Rosetta Resolver Gene Expression Analysis System, Rosetta Luminator

Supplier: Rosetta Inpharmatics, a company Merck acquired in 2001

Systems Infrastructure

Merck’s clinical systems development group has been investing in Microsoft systems architecture, including

Windows Web servers and the BizTalk integration server.

Other significant elements of Merck’s systems architecture include Java and the BEA WebLogic application server running on Linux; IBM mainframes and AS/400 (i-Series) hosts; and Unix servers from Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems and IBM. For its next-generation computing platform for basic research, Merck recently selected five 32-way IBM p690 servers with a total of 3 terabytes of storage.