Editorial

Assisting customers in organization performance optimization is our core business. We remain loyal to our expertise areas, Business Intelligence, CRM and e-Business, whilst constantly upgrading our offerings to integrate the latest market innovations and major trends. It is thanks to this specialization, and with the advent of Cloud Computing and Big Data, that we confidently march into the new digital era. This issue’s feature article focuses on our eco-friendly Datacenter, one of the service platforms that will help us actively take part in these major projects. We address these subjects not only with an information system business approach, but also in a data center energy efficiency excellence perspective. We hope that this revamped format of our Point of View newsletter will be to your liking. An iPad version is now available at our B&D mag kiosque, for download from the AppStore.

Patrick BensabatChairman and Managing Director

Cloud, Big Data, SaaS… the digital economy at the era of sustainable developmentInternet evolution has created a new IT resources use and consumption framework for companies. Procurement, management and means development are now tasks entrusted to hosting specialists. This has led Business & Decision to adopt a dual service performance and environmental responsibility approach through its offerings and Green Datacenter.

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Eco-efficiency

Jean-Michel Franco - Solutions and Innovation Director

The economic dimension is backing up the ecological one. Fossil energy prices are skyrocketing, and they are not the only ones. According to a Senate report, by 2020, electricity costs will have risen by 50%. For all energy-greedy activities, this is clearly going to be a problem. Companies are increasingly having to index their prices to the cost of energy. Energy efficiency has thus become an energy price volatility cost and risk reduction factor.

Today, we have new means to considerably optimize eco-efficiency without necessarily investing in infrastructure, thanks to Big Data. By installing sensors as close as possible to facilities in order to analyze real-time consumption, and cross-referencing their data with environment or consumption needs fluctuation data, sizeable improvement pockets are identified.

For Business & Decision, eco-efficiency was first and foremost an internal objective. Given our hosting and cloud computing activities’ success and having decided to invest in the modernization and capacity extension of our Datacenters, the goal was set: to combine high availability with low consumption. Alongside research laboratories and industrial world leaders—Schneider Electric, GDF Suez and Intel—we developed eco-efficiency solutions. Based on Big Data technologies, this eco-efficiency does not only benefit our own processes, but also those of our customers. Our expertise is not limited to Datacenters; it extends to buildings, all types of equipment and even distribution networks. An increasingly cutting-edge specialization, probably more difficult to publicize than before, but infinitely more efficient in terms of operation.

An outdated subject? The early 2010s were all about eco-efficiency. The main sales pitch in the construction industry was the HEQ (High Environmental Quality) label, roofs were increasingly disappearing underneath solar panels, the visible fee became the advertising criterion for household appliances… And NICT players started focusing on their Green IT strategies. The theme seems to have since, somewhat «fallen into line.» Yet, investment in the field remains crucial and stakes very high.

MAGAZINE OF EXPERTISE JULY 2013

The Digital Transformation

e-Commerce, Digital Commerce, Digital Marketing, Customer eXperience Management, Customer Relationship Management, Big Data, Mobility, Cloud… So many new terms promoted by leading analyst firms such as Gartner or Forrester; they constitute the latest main technological trends and have this in common: huge volumes of information, of various nature and from multiple sources.

Companies, regardless of whether their business activity or sector is manufacturing, insurance, the media or real estate, are gradually adopting new Internet-driven uses and in so doing, are initiating their digital transformation. A transformation with a threefold focus: software platforms offered by vendors, their functional and technical implementation by integrators and finally, utilization and operation infrastructures provided by Datacenters.

The technological challenge

Once all these means brought together, the challenge from a technological perspective lies in extracting, storing, viewing and interpreting this heterogeneous and voluminous information, and do so in ever-shrinking deadlines. All these innovations require the IS to be extended beyond company limits to connect to the customer, source data and share it. In fact, the Cloud has become an essential component that must be integrated into the IS whilst managing the associated challenges in terms of security, compliance and even privacy protection. Hence Business & Decision’s commitment to putting its experience in digital approaches at customers’ disposal to deliver the most advanced operational solutions.

Since 2011 the Green Datacenter of Eolas, Business & Decision’s subsidiary specialized in webmarketing and hosting, is operational. It helps manage and upgrade customers’ applications and data in an efficient, secure and eco-friendly environment and paves the way for Cloud Computing and Big Data developments.

The challenge for the digital industry is to transform high volumes of data into useful and usable information. Within

this context, Eolas launches the Datalyse project, the aim is of which is to develop scientific models to process information in a dynamic way and help acquire and share new knowledge. Datalyse is an analogy with the word catalyse (catalysis in French), i.e. a substance’s action to increase the reaction speed of a chemical transformation. The identified «Datalysts» will help analyze and transform, in just-in-time mode, raw data, created by human beings or machines, into quality information and also increase their processing and distribution speed.

Practical uses

The project focuses mainly on the following practical uses:

• Energy efficiency and internal information networks’ security

• Open Linked Data territories• Business Intelligence and consumer information analysis• Digital marketing, namely to optimize search engines

(SEO) based on linked data and semantic web

This project stems from a partnership between scientists and manufacturers directly affected by Big Data issues. Their aim is to upgrade the existing models, algorithms and architectures and develop industrial research to deploy an infrastructure that combines data mediation and heterogeneous warehouse management techniques.

For more information, please visit: www.datalyse.fr

NERGETICProjet FUI Minalogic Green IT Focus on energy efficiency

The Villes Internet labelThis year, eight of our customers have been awarded the 2013 «Villes Internet» (cyber town) label in recognition of actions taken to digitize citizen life. The label rewards innovative policies implemented by towns to make the Internet more accessible and develop uses for inhabitants. Since 1999, it is awarded by a panel of experts who rate the most innovative towns by allocating them from one to five @s. For the fourth consecutive year, Grenoble received the highest 5@ distinction.

Thanks to the experience acquired working on local authorities’ Internet projects, Business & Decision’s teams actively contribute to the local economy’s modernization by helping numerous customers implement their e-Administration, Digital Marketing, Internet Portal, Mobility and many other projects.

Following up on its local authorities’ know-how, the teams have developed for the Gironde County Council a new portal grouping all of the social and economic services provided to the département’s inhabitants and citizens.

Business & Decision teamed up with six industrial and academic partners to carry out a research project on Datacenter energy efficiency. On 21 March, the results of three years of work were presented. The designed and used models showed the relationship between a Datacenter’s activity and its electricity consumption. Energy savings from server utilization optimization helped reduce their electricity consumption by 30% on average. A performance achieved thanks to sharp measurement indicators and within required service quality levels. The program’s success rewards a collaborative approach, driven by multidisciplinary teams grouping complementary know-how. Approved by the Minalogic competitiveness cluster (Pôle de Compétitivité Minalogic), the project was selected by the Interministerial Fund «Fonds Unique Interministériel» and supported by OSEO, the city of Grenoble, Grenoble-Alpes Métropole (the Métro) and Isère County Council.

Grenoble and High-speed Internet

Business & Decision once again marks its contribution to the digital economy by hosting Grenoble’s Internet exchange point or GIX (Global Internet eXchange) within its Green Datacenter. Rezopole, the Rhône-Alpes telecommunications and high-speed Internet development association, launched, on 21 January, the GIX which provides the city of Grenoble with a high speed Internet network. Primarily intended for Internet access operators and providers, local authorities, IT services companies and businesses, the aim of this new facility is to optimize inter-regional traffic and free up access for the rest of the world. Eolas was thus a natural partner choice for Rézopole, ensuring service agility, responsiveness, reliability and availability. For individuals, the advent of high-speed Internet in Grenoble, supported by the Lyon urban community and Rhône-Alpes region, will open the Internet up to new uses such as online neighborhood stores, videoconferencing and even video games.

GROUP NEWS

USA / Rexam

BENELUX / Euroconsumers

TUNISIA / Ecumed Petroleum

CRM / Accor

INTERAKTING / Stanhome

SERVICE CENTER / La Poste

Keep up with the Group’s latest news at www.businessdecision.com

Rexam, consumer goods packaging specialist, entrusted Business & Decision with the migration of its information system after its acquisition by an investment firm. Business & Decision is a strategic technological partner for the new entity, KubeTech, which chose the company for the support and maintenance of its IS in all of B&D’s skill areas.

Euroconsumers, consumer association group operating in 5 countries to assist some 320 million consumers, chose Business & Decision for its «Customer Intelligence» program. A unique repository for the group’s entities was set up, with the publication of analytical reports and key performance indicators to support decision-making. A marketing campaigns standardization project followed suit to optimize interactions with customers and prospects.

Ecumed Petroleum, a subsidiary of the Canadian Group, Candax Energy, entrusted Business & Decision Tunisia with the development of its new SharePoint collaborative portal to, on the one hand enter its oils sites’ production indicators and on the other, generate reports for viewing and analysis. Business & Decision’s teams implemented a datawarehouse and a production parameters input module. The solution was delivered along with training on Microsoft BI and SharePoint.

Accor, international hospitality Group operating in 90 countries, called upon Business & Decision to implement the Oracle RTD solution across all of its sales and communication channels. The initiative has a dual objective: to improve customers‘ online experience and help its hotel network increase their occupancy rate. The «offerings push in real-time» solution was implemented on various channels and helped create an MDM customer repository.

Stanhome World, a leading cleaning and care products direct seller, entrusted Interakting’s teams with the setup of Salesforce for its independent sellers’ network. From this unique and centralized platform, each seller has quick and full access to all his/her customer information.

A business intelligence service center was installed for La Poste’s central IT Department. Business & Decision is a long-standing partner of La Poste Group as regards business intelligence. The variety of subjects and technologies involved constitutes the wealth of this project for which a standardized delivery approach was selected.

CRM / CFAO

CFAO, a subsidiary of the Japanese Toyota Tsusho Corporation, entrusted Business & Decision with a CRM project for its sales force dedicated to the distribution of manufactured products in Nigeria. Business & Decision started by working on the framework which led to the selection of the Salesforce.com solution. Employees were trained and equipped with a mobile PDA and a PC integrating the solution.

MAGAZINE OF EXPERTISE JULY 2013

GET TO BETTER KNOW US

Talking about Business Intelligence Course du Cœur 2013

An iPad application

Ada Sekirin elected «ICT Woman of the Year» by Data News

Eolas takes part in the 6th ICAR summer school

Watch the interview of three Business Intelligence managers. Interviewed during the Pilotage & Performance event, Vincent Burr (PSA), Gilles Thomas (CG 92) and Jean-Jacques Jesua (La Poste) describe their market vision. If you would like to know more about 2013 BI trends, we also recommend Jean-Michel Franco’s conference.

The videos are available on Business & Decision’s YouTube channel.

Business & Decision and its works committee teamed up with Oracle and Digora for the 27th Course du Cœur, race staring on 27 March and ending on 31 March 2013, under the name of Triple Cœur (Tiple heart), with 14 runners and 5 accompanying staff. The race, aimed at raising organ donation awareness and promoting it, is organized by the Trans-Forme association which is sponsored by Professor Cabrol who performed the first heart transplant in France.

For further information: www.courseducoeur-triplecoeur2013.blogspot.com

B&D iPad mag on AppStore. Simply download it to view the Group’s publications. Point of View, activity reports and other Group publications.

Ada Sekirin, Benelux and Eastern Europe Director, won this prize awarded by the Belgian press group Data News. It honors women having an exceptional track record in the sector.

The 2013 summer school on Middleware and Distributed Applications (ICAR) on the theme of Cloud Computing aims at presenting an overview of Cloud environments, their use and the techniques employed as well as the advantages and drawbacks of the various platforms in respect of applications’ own restrictions. A three-day seminar organized by the Université Joseph Fourier, alternating practical work sessions with presentations.

Triple Cœur