A centralized global automation group in a decentralized organization

In the latter part of the 1990s, many companies have worked to foster a 'ma trix' style culture through several changes in organizational structure. Th is type of culture facilitates communication and development of new technol ogy across organizational and global boundaries. At Glaxo Wellcome, this ma trix culture is re ected in an automation strategy that relies on both cent ralized and decentralized resources. The Group Development Operations Infor mation Systems Robotics Team is a centralized resource providing developmen t, support, integration, and training in laboratory automation across busin esses in the Development organization. The matrix culture still presents ch allenges with respect to communication and managing the development of tech nology. A current challenge for our team is to go beyond our recognized rol e as a technology resource and actually to in uence automation strategies a cross the global Development organization. We shall provide an overview of our role as a centralized resource, our team strategy, examples of current and past successes and failures, and future directions.