2 How was buy-in for this information management project achieved from the business units? What are the benefits and drawbacks of this approach? The headquarters of pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) makes a bold statement, towering over the M4 motorway on the approach into Central London. And with 100,000 employees and annual pharmaceutical sales of nearly $25bn, it has a massive requirement for storing information.

That need is managed by Arif Devji, UK director of IT Infrastructure, and the prime mover behind an ambitious project called ‘Sherwood’. This name comes from the lair of the English legend Robin Hood, who took from the rich to give to the poor. Mr Devji took funds from various GSK internal budgets and repaid the donors in huge IT savings.

When a new pharmaceutical product is distributed, GSK has to keep track of every consignment. If one patient experiences an adverse reaction to a drug treatment then GSK might scan through millions of records to locate and recall a particular batch of drugs. This is a global liability – a product shipped from London can be recalled by the US Food and Drug Administration. Mr Devji stresses that this places a weighty responsibility on GSK’s IT services. ‘We cannot say we will try our best. Lives are at stake here.