Merck Serono creates Ondaco
Will manage IT support services and application development, initially for Merck
Merck Serono has announced the fifth company to emerge from its Entrepreneur Partnership Program (EPP) launched in April 2012.
Ondaco, with a team of 16 staff, will manage IT support services and application development for all Merck Serono sites based in the Vaud and Geneva cantons in Switzerland. It starts operation this month.
Merck Serono will become one of Ondaco's main clients for its sites in Coinsins, Eysins, Aubonne, Corsier-sur-Vevey and Geneva (until the closure of the site), for a period of at least 12 months. Its ambition is also to become a preferred business partner for other companies in the Geneva area. Services will include on-site IT support, application development and project support, for a total value of more than €2m.
‘Merck Serono welcomes the creation of Ondaco, which enables 16 employees and contractors currently working for Merck Serono to find a new position, while allowing for a smooth transition of our current IT support and programme services in all our locations in the Lake Geneva area,’ said Frédéric Wohlwend, group chief information officer at Merck.
‘To be cost-efficient, corporate IT organisations can no longer develop and maintain all services internally. We believe that strong partnerships with a selected pool of external large-scale suppliers and smaller expert-focused partners like Ondaco are a key success factor to maintain business continuity, while we focus our internal resources to deliver innovative IT solutions for the whole Merck group,’ he added.
Marco Piermartiri, a former contractor at Merck Serono, is the founder of Ondaco.
