- Global Sites
- 12
- Duplicates Eliminated
- 100%
- Researchers Served
- 8,000+
Background
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and nutrition, operating major research facilities across 12 countries.
Each research site had developed its own processes for acquiring scholarly content, resulting in a complex web of subscriptions, purchasing agreements, and fulfillment workflows that operated largely independently of one another.
Challenge
With research operations distributed across 12 countries and multiple time zones, Bayer faced unique challenges in coordinating content access at a global scale.
Geographic Fragmentation
Each site maintained independent subscription agreements and purchasing processes, with no cross-site visibility into what had already been acquired.
Systemic Duplication
Teams in different countries were purchasing the same articles independently. The waste was significant, but without a unified system, there was no way to detect or prevent it.
Compliance Complexity
Different jurisdictions had varying requirements for content licensing and usage rights, making it difficult to ensure consistent compliance across all sites.
Inconsistent Experience
Researchers at different sites had vastly different experiences accessing content, depending on local infrastructure and subscription portfolios.
Solution
Bayer selected Article Galaxy as its global content access platform, rolling out the system across all 12 research sites in a phased deployment that prioritized the highest-volume locations first.
The platform's centralized library and real-time deduplication engine ensured that once any article was accessed at any site, it was immediately available to researchers everywhere — eliminating the systemic duplication that had plagued the organization.
“We discovered teams in different countries were purchasing the same articles independently. The waste was significant, but we had no system to catch it.”
Phase 1. Pilot Deployment
The rollout began with the three highest-volume research sites, allowing the team to validate workflows and refine configuration before expanding globally.
- Consolidated holdings data from all major subscription agreements into a unified database.
- Configured cross-site deduplication rules and access sharing policies.
- Trained local library teams on platform administration and reporting.
Phase 2. Global Rollout
With the pilot validated, Bayer expanded Article Galaxy to all remaining research sites over a 6-month period.
- Onboarded remaining 9 sites with standardized configuration templates.
- Implemented multi-language support for user-facing interfaces.
- Established global reporting dashboards with site-level drill-down capability.
Results
Zero Duplicates
Real-time deduplication across all 12 sites eliminated duplicate purchases entirely, redirecting significant budget to new content acquisition.
Global Visibility
For the first time, Bayer had a single view of all content access and spending across every research site worldwide.
Consistent Experience
Researchers at every site now have the same one-click access experience, regardless of their location or local subscription portfolio.
About Bayer
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and nutrition, founded in 1863 and headquartered in Leverkusen, Germany.
With approximately 100,000 employees worldwide, the company's products and services are designed to help people and the planet thrive by supporting efforts to master the major challenges presented by a growing and aging global population.
