- Researchers Served
- 10,000+
- Avg. Delivery Time
- <30s
- Annual Savings
- $1.2M
Background
Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, with research operations spanning multiple continents and thousands of scientists requiring daily access to scholarly literature.
The organization had long relied on a patchwork of subscription access, interlibrary loan, and individual purchases to meet its researchers' content needs.
Challenge
Boehringer Ingelheim found itself navigating the familiar challenges facing large pharmaceutical research organizations: managing access across thousands of researchers, controlling costs, and ensuring compliance across multiple jurisdictions.
Workflow Complexity
The existing system for accessing content outside the library's primary subscriptions was cumbersome, requiring users to navigate multiple steps across different platforms.
User Experience
Faculty and researchers who had long enjoyed seamless access to journal collections suddenly encountered barriers that could affect research productivity and satisfaction.
Resource Allocation
Unfulfilled requests were routed entirely through manual processes, creating an unsustainable workload for staff and separating collection development decisions from acquisitions.
Limited Data Visibility
The library lacked insight into usage patterns and costs, making it difficult to make data-driven decisions about which titles warrant continued investment.
Solution
Through collaboration with Research Solutions, Boehringer Ingelheim adopted Article Galaxy as its centralized content access platform. By connecting all subscriptions, open access routes, and purchasing channels through a single system, they were able to provide researchers with one-click access to any article.
The platform's intelligent routing engine automatically identifies the most cost-effective access path for each request, checking existing subscriptions first before falling back to token-based or individual purchases.
“On the articles we order, we see almost immediate delivery, which translates into significant time-savings for our researchers.”
Phase 1. Strategic Implementation
Instead of rushing into full deployment, Boehringer Ingelheim began with a carefully controlled rollout focused on configuring the platform for their specific subscription portfolio and approval workflows.
- Workflow Integration: Article Galaxy was embedded directly into existing research tools, creating a seamless user experience.
- Threshold Configuration: The library established purchase thresholds and notification systems, enabling real-time monitoring.
- User Communication Strategy: The team prioritized messaging around access assurance, promising users they would receive requested content within minutes.
Phase 2. Expansion & Optimization
Building on initial success, the team expanded coverage by activating journals from additional publishers and customizing holdings to match perpetual coverage dates.
- Expanded content coverage by activating journals from additional publishers.
- Customized holdings to match perpetual coverage dates and backfile access.
- Activated the browser extension to improve access to subscription content from any research platform.
Results
Real-Time Intelligence
The dashboard system provided unprecedented visibility into usage patterns and costs, enabling proactive collection development decisions.
Evidence-Based Decision Making
The library now monitors which titles reach purchase thresholds, using this data to calculate ROI for future collection investments.
Workflow Automation
Article Galaxy eliminated the manual decision-making bottleneck, automatically routing requests to the most cost-effective fulfillment method.
About Boehringer Ingelheim
Boehringer Ingelheim is a global pharmaceutical company founded in 1885, focused on researching, developing, manufacturing and marketing therapeutic products for human and veterinary medicine.
The company's research enterprise generates billions of dollars in research expenditures annually, supporting groundbreaking work across multiple therapeutic areas including respiratory diseases, cardiovascular medicine, and oncology.
