Contact: Rich Lysakowski, The Collaborative Electronic Notebooks Systems Association (CENSA), 19 Bowen Avenue, Suite 100, Medford, Massachusetts 02155 USA Phone: 781-395-3004 ; E-mail: rich@censa.org

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Joins Electronic Notebook Systems Consortium to Develop Systems

BOSTON, MA-- Bristol-Myers Squibb Company recently joined the Collaborative Electronic Notebook Systems (CENS) Consortium. The Consortium's purpose is to drive the creation of reasonably-priced, forward-looking systems to support R&D team project data management, collaboration and electronic laboratory notebook keeping to meet patent and regulatory requirements. The Consortium is made up of top Fortune 200 companies, including Dow Chemical Company, HB Fuller, Rohm and Haas, and Searle/Monsanto.

"Collaborative Electronic Notebooks will prove to be one of the most exciting innovations for science and engineering since paper notebooks began to be used by scientists centuries ago," says Dr. Lysakowski, Executive Director for the Consortium. "However, there are issues, caveats and solutions to be aware of before proceeding through this busy intersection of science, law, business and data management."

Karl Zoeckler, Senior Information Scientist for Bristol Myers Squibb explains, "Our strategy is to employ the CENS Consortium as a knowledge base to develop open solutions and standards that will fit into our existing computing environment and allow us to grow with the system. We also believe that the consortium will drive the acceptance of electronic records by regulatory agencies and the Patent & Trademark Office. Although an electronic notebook system could be integrated from existing software at this time, we perceive the costs to be extremely high, and the functionality of such a system would likely fall short of our expectations."

The Consortium is now recruiting additional members. Consortium members are defining and catalyzing the development of commercially-supported electronic notebooks that capture, store and manage electronic records within existing systems for groupware, document management, the World Wide Web, and other systems used in scientific laboratories. These systems are being designed to be advanced, strategic systems that provide operational excellence for companies investing in and using them. The Consortium is a product research and development consortium, delivering extensive state-of-the-art knowledge, system specifications, hardware and software products and training.

Organizations interested in becoming Consortium Members, or seeking more information, should contact Dr. Rich Lysakowski, Consortium Executive Director, The Collaborative Electronic Notebooks Systems (CENS) Consortium 19 Bowen Avenue, Suite 100, Medford, Massachusetts 02155 USA Phone: 781-395-3004 ; Internet:

Bristol-Myers Squibb, headquartered in New York City, is a diversified health and personal care company, providing pharmaceuticals, nutritionals, medical devices and consumer products.

The Collaborative Electronic Notebook Systems Consortium is an international group of end users and vendors, working together to produce state-of-the-art hardware and software solutions to electronic recordkeeping, collaboration and information management in scientific and technical fields. The CENS Consortium is headquartered in Medford, Massachusetts.

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