Helping enterprises make the most of their knowledge capital: better information leads to better decisions Providing a comprehensive methodology for breaking down barriers and unifying Business Intelligence systems Encouraging the democratization of Business Intelligence, with a new, integrated appliance for the mid-market In the context of its 7i program, Bull launched its third initiative to help enterprises make the most of their knowledge capital and facilitate decision-making. Bull is building on its expertise as the integrator of numerous large-scale Business Intelligence (BI) projects worldwide (including for Medicaid in the USA). The company's aim is to facilitate the deployment of open BI solutions that collate data from across the extended enterprise and transform it into knowledge, enabling businesses to understand, anticipate, and react more quickly and effectively.

"With the e-enabling of business processes, and the growth of the Internet and mobility, the quantity of information being produced and data being exchanged is exploding," affirmed Jean-Pierre Barbéris, General Manager of Bull Services and Solutions. "In the face of this exponential increase in data, every business function often tries to implement its own decision-support systems, giving rise to a raft of disparate, tactical projects, with each department only seeing one facet of the operational reality. The challenge is to avoid this disjointed approach and construct a unified Business Intelligence system serving all the business functions that can correlate and analyze information for the benefit of everyone. With its offering centered on establishing a 'BI Centre of Expertise' and its 'appliance'-based approach to making BI more accessible to the mid-market, Bull is taking innovative steps to respond to this challenge."

As part of this, its third initiative, Bull is announcing the strengthening of its own competence centres focused on Business Intelligence - already renowned in Europe and in the USA for their impressive track record on major projects - and launching an innovative offering for customers, the 'BI Centre of Expertise'. Drawing on Bull's global experience of Business Intelligence, this offering provides a toolkit of services and methodologies to help enterprises deploy a unified approach to Business Intelligence, in order to:

• Guarantee long-term consistency and effectiveness of Business Intelligence systems

• Standardize all methodologies and procedures related to BI systems

• Provide powerful structures for capitalizing on experience

• Ensure optimum management and day-to-day operation of BI systems

• Accelerate the process of taking on board new requirements

• Control the risks, costs and timescales of new Business Intelligence projects.

The new offering builds on Bull's experience gained as a result of working on very large-scale BI projects, such as Medicaid in the USA (where systems implemented by Bull are managing the fight against fraud, as well as preventive health programs for 25% of all recipients of social healthcare services) and many more. Bull also manages major BI implementations to support public spending in finance (in line with the French budget reform act, the LOLF), employment and healthcare.

As the Deputy Director of the Michigan Department of Community Health commented: "Today, the BI solution in Michigan - in which the data warehouse is the pivotal element, coordinating data deriving from 21 different agencies working in healthcare - provides a unique, integrated environment. Among the State's 1.4 million beneficiaries of social and healthcare services, a large number are registered on several financial support programs. Before the BI project, it was practically impossible for one agency to know and monitor the services and costs associated with one person, as delivered by other departments. Now, the data warehouse is helping us combat fraud and abuses of the system, carry out more precise data analysis, identify and interpret classic situations, determine which programs are the most cost-effective, reduce the total cost to contributors, and predict the needs and priorities for public health for the years to come."

In the USA, BI solutions implemented by Bull for the Medicaid program (in States including California, Michigan, Illinois, New York, Minnesota and Utah) have resulted in savings of more than $2 billion.

As one of the very first players in the industry to invest in reporting and extract-transform-load (ETL) systems, Bull has a great deal of know-how when it comes to technical infrastructures for BI, including servers, storage and security. For many years now, Bull has worked with leading partners and communities in Business Intelligence - including Business Objects, Informatica, Microsoft, Oracle, SAS and others, who provide databases, data integration tools, reporting systems and analysis tools - to build powerful turnkey unified BI infrastructures.

Drawing on this expertise, Bull is now complementing this offering with a turnkey BI solution developed in conjunction with QlikTech, a pioneer and leader in 'in-memory' Business Intelligence: an innovative approach that halves the cost of implementing BI solutions and reduces the timescales by a factor of four! The new solution, available from September 2007, will simplify the deployment of Business Intelligence systems, enabling mid-market businesses and public-sector bodies to benefit from integrated BI, with a rapid return on investment.

More information about the 3rd initiative