Industry Implementations
Harmony Selects Logi 8 Business Intelligence Platform from LogiXML to Enhance Human Services Software Solutions
Harmony Information Systems, Inc. has reached an OEM agreement with LogiXML, Inc. to integrate the Logi 8 Business Intelligence platform into the innovative Harmony Web-based solution, which offers information management for human service agencies.
The Logi 8 Platform includes a range of business intelligence (BI) features to deliver Harmony application data to users for reporting and analysis. Dashboards, ad hoc reports, customizable charts, graphs and report personalization are just a few of the key features that will be incorporated to enhance the value of Harmony products.
Harmony is a Web-based information management solution designed for human services organizations that provide or manage a wide array of programs and services. Harmony is unlike any other application on the market today. Employing a unique enterprise framework approach, Harmony offers exceptional capabilities, combining the strength of a comprehensive, Web-based framework with the flexibility of a user-defined, integrated application.
"We see an opportunity to instantly enhance the value of our product by integrating BI capabilities developed by LogiXML into our product line," said Harmony President and CEO Tonya Harmon. "The Web-based Logi 8 technology is visually appealing and functionally rich. Integrating this technology into our product will provide our users with the additional BI capability they want and will help us reach our product objectives more quickly - a great combination."
Coty Inc. Achieves Significant ROI with iWay Software
Coty Inc., one of the world's largest and most successful fragrance companies, has quickly integrated the IT infrastructure of acquisition Unilever Cosmetics International using Information Builders' iWay Software. Given the speed of the integration, Coty expects to realize millions of dollars in benefits and gleaned a 415 percent return on investment (ROI).
"We would not have been able to integrate Unilever's infrastructure so quickly without iWay Software," said Dave Berry, senior vice president and Global CIO, Coty Inc. "Having to code manually would have taken at least a year. Missing our target date would have cost us several million dollars and possibly impacted revenues. iWay has lived up to its reputation for handling large, complex integration projects and has already given Coty great ROI, including project payback within two months."
Following its acquisition of Unilever Cosmetics International in 2005, Coty, which was planning to use iWay's adapters for implementing SAP, sought to quickly integrate Unilever's infrastructure with its own and build an IT environment that would quickly leverage the two companies' synergies and sustain revenues amid a changing business environment. Posing an additional challenge to the initiative was the signing of a large, long-term outsourcing contract with IBM for procurement services, which warranted integration of Coty's IT systems with IBM.
Coty will be able to integrate future acquisitions even more quickly, because the company has built reusable components that can be used to connect business services and IT infrastructure. iWay has established the groundwork for a SOA and Coty has moved closer to becoming a real-time organization. In addition, the company has all the pieces in place for using Web services to connect it to suppliers, business partners and customers.
Samsonite Selects NTRsupport to Help Distributed Sales Force and Remote Employees Effectively Serve Expanding Customer Base
Samsonite is one of the world's most recognized designers, manufacturers, retailers and distributors of luggage and related consumer products to meet the growing needs of today's global traveler. To keep pace with the increasing demands of its remote employees, Samsonite chose NTRsupport to speed IT service response time and improve the troubleshooting process.
Used by more than 8,500 corporations around the globe, NTRsupport is one of the fastest, easiest and most secure on-demand remote support solutions on the market. The software allows support professionals to create an immediate and secure connection between the support agent's computer and a user's PC or Mac, so the support staff can actually see what's on the user's screen in real time. This approach to providing IT support by delivering instant and personalized help saves time and costs and improves overall productivity.
"Since we started using NTRsupport, we've seen an immediate drop in the time it takes to resolve a remote support issue," said Ray Zoller, director of Information Technology for Samsonite's North America operations. "In the past, remote users sometimes found it challenging to explain what they were seeing on their screen to the IT support team. Now when they call in, they are finding it is much easier and faster to get help."
Progress Software SaaS Enables Apama Algorithmic Trading Platform
Progress Software Corporation, a global supplier of application infrastructure software used to develop, deploy, integrate and manage business applications, announced that it has software as a service (SaaS) enabled its Progress Apama Algorithmic Trading Platform to enable sell-side brokerage firms to offer both "black box" and completely customizable (white box) trading capabilities as a service to their buy-side clients. Apama maximizes the use of SaaS through: its rich, graphical, Web-based dashboards; a new API that allows trading scenarios to be initiated and monitored from remote locations; and its native ability to rapidly create client-specific white box trading algorithms.
Using the SaaS model allows sell-side firms to more easily and swiftly deploy and customize Apama's white box trading strategies. The ability to customize Apama strategies allows sell-side brokers to develop their own interfaces and trading algorithms as part of bundled offerings made available to their buy-side clients. Sell-side firms can now more easily deploy and manage these innovative algorithmic trading strategies, and make them available remotely. With the Apama offering, they can also attract new buy-side clients by offering them access, as a service, to an innovative new trading platform.
Buy-side clients can now enjoy the benefits of being able to calculate more quickly the best stocks to trade and investments to make. Buy-side firms can access trading strategies recommended by sell-side firms, customizing those strategies to suit their own investment criteria. Additionally, the Apama SaaS platform is an intuitive, easy-to-use, low cost application that does not require continuous reliance on an IT department.
Christer Wennerberg, business development E-TCM, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB), comments: "By taking a Software-as-a-Service approach at SEB, we can offer our buy-side analyst and trader clients a next generation, Web-based, algorithmic trading solution that will give them an edge over their competitors. Our clients can quickly and easily roll out of their own unique algorithmic trading strategies, back-test these strategies to gauge their effectiveness and alter them once live in the market, improve their risk management measures and optimize their pricing benefits."
HP and Oracle Propel Insurance Company WGV to Lowest Cost Operating Model in Its Industry
Leading European insurance company W rttembergische Gemeinde-Versicherung A.G. (WGV) has migrated from an outdated mainframe environment to a flexible, scalable solution from HP and has achieved a 311 percent return on investment in the process, according to an independent study by Thoughtware Worldwide, LLC.
By partnering with HP and Oracle, WGV has accelerated business growth by enhancing customer service, reducing time to market for new products and generating new revenue. At the same time, it has improved productivity and lowered costs.
According to the study, WGV achieved payback in 42 months with a single, comprehensive insurance solution: the standards-based Insurance Company Information System, or ICIS. The system helped the company achieve the lowest IT cost basis in the German insurance industry and reduced IT costs by more than 40 percent.
In addition, productivity gains enabled WGV to almost double its business while only requiring a 30 percent increase in staff. Customer service also improved, with a 30 percent shift of personnel from the back office to the front, where they can address customer needs and process requests immediately.
"Before ICIS, our business relied on traditional manual, paper-based processes that caused delays and made it difficult to innovate and generate growth and profit," said Klaus Hackbarth, chief information officer, deputy chief executive officer and member of the board, WGV. "HP and Oracle technology have not only enabled us to reduce IT expenditures and automate and streamline business processes, which helps address compliance issues, but we can also quickly respond to customer needs and bring innovative products to market faster."
This piece is brought to you by the DM Review editorial staff.
