APPLICATIONS

HP has unveiled a next-generation data warehouse platform and new business intelligence (BI) services that give businesses better access to data so they can make more informed decisions, help customers reduce cost and risk, and accelerate growth. The new platform and services, which are core to the company’s Business Information Optimization portfolio, were introduced at a press event at Technology@Work, where HP announced solutions and services for the new era of “Business Technology.” The HP Neoview data warehouse platform, an integrated hardware, software and services platform, acts as a business outcomes engine, providing customers a comprehensive view of essential business information, such as metrics on product sales, customer trends, or production and operational effectiveness. Unlike legacy enterprise data warehouses, HP Neoview is designed for a 24x7 environment where decision making is seamlessly integrated into business operations at multiple levels and across numerous users within the organization. Already No. 1 in BI server deployments worldwide according to IDC, HP also unveiled a foundational set of business intelligence services that enables organizations to solve some of the industry’s most complex information challenges and reap rewards such as improved decision making, regulatory compliance and competitive advantage. The services were enhanced by HP’s acquisition last year of Knightsbridge Solutions, a U.S.-based consultancy of 700 professionals exclusively focused on BI solutions. “HP’s approach to business intelligence integrates its innovative products and services with robust partner relationships to bring BI capabilities and functionality to a broader set of users across the enterprise,” said Ben Barnes, vice president and general manager, Business Intelligence Group, Software, HP. “The Neoview platform is a prime example of how HP provides customers with a more reliable, scalable and accessible choice for capitalizing on information.” Cost-effective business intelligence with HP Neoview The HP Neoview platform is built on industry-standard components for easy implementation into existing IT environments without costly workforce retraining and software relicensing fees. The platform offers robust performance, continuous availability and massive scalability. Features and benefits include: * Faster time to benefit. Neoview is configured and tested before delivery, enabling fast integration into existing environments and the ability to load terabytes of data more quickly; * Better overall value through Neoview’s use of industry-standard components, including HP Integrity and ProLiant servers as well as HP StorageWorks storage offerings; * Unparalleled performance in handling complex queries, mixed workloads and high concurrency; * 24x7 availability and risk mitigation with no offline windows required; * Scalability to hundreds of terabytes, making it an ideal platform for data mart consolidation; and * Reduced administrative time and costs through HP remote management and monitoring capabilities. HP Neoview delivers value for customers Customers in diverse markets such as retail, banking, insurance, health and life sciences, communications and energy have realized significant business outcomes since turning to HP for business intelligence solutions. HP has helped these customers consolidate data warehouses from departmental silos, obtain better returns on direct marketing and establish a single version of the truth for business information. “Improving customer satisfaction and merchandise performance are the core objectives of Bon-Ton Stores,” said Jim Lance, chief information officer, Bon-Ton Stores, one of the largest regional department store chains in the United States. “So far, Neoview has exceeded our expectations – helping us to first summarize and transform large amounts of data, and then leverage those insights to ultimately make merchandising and marketing efforts much more effective.” Bank of Baroda, India’s leading international bank, has chosen HP as its technology partner and Neoview as its data warehouse platform for its major IT-enabled Business Transformation Programme. “We see HP Neoview as the ideal solution to better manage and view huge volumes of data to remain in compliance with national and international regulations,” said J.K. Chandar, general manager, Bank of Baroda. “Keeping pace with global currency changes, stringent industry regulations and increasing competition for customers makes data the very cornerstone of our business. We can now empower our users with real-time actionable business insight to help improve our customer service.” HP’s expanded business intelligence services HP’s business intelligence services professionals possess a blend of technical, business and industry expertise across a variety of market segments. In addition, they hold significant solution experience in risk and compliance, business performance management, and business intelligence for finance, marketing, sales, supply chain operations and IT. HP Business Intelligence Service offerings include: * Strategy & Planning: helps business and IT leaders develop a vision and master plan – tailored for any stage of BI maturity – to ensure support from stakeholders, effectively manage resources and move organizations from localized to enterprise-wide projects while delivering incremental value. * Information Quality: seeks the root cause of data quality problems and quickly analyzes the interdependence of complex data management systems. * Information Integration: provides the framework to integrate data from disparate sources such as legacy applications, operational systems, data warehouses/data marts, external sources and web applications. * Information Delivery: enables improved decision making by ensuring that target users can access the data needed to make better business decisions, faster. “In the ever-changing health care industry, we needed to leverage our data strategically in order to operate more efficiently, effectively and competitively as a managed care organization,” said Darren Taylor, vice president, Information Access Division, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City. “We turned to Knightsbridge – now HP – to assess our information environment and to help implement an enterprise data warehouse. The project resulted in an organizational transformation and a data structure designed to enable proactive care management capabilities – ultimately supporting efforts to improve the health of the communities we serve.” HP’s partner network ensures optimized solutions HP is building on its strong relationships with the major business intelligence software vendors to enhance the capabilities of the HP Neoview platform. Partners already engaged include: Ab Initio, Business Objects, Cognos, Informatica, MicroStrategy and SAS. Together, HP and its partners will provide customers additional value through joint solutions, blended teams with specialized expertise in business intelligence, pre-tested/tuned configurations and tight integration with HP technology. In January 2007, HP formed a business unit within HP Software to focus exclusively on business intelligence. The HP Business Intelligence Group is part of a larger company effort to aggregate HP’s capabilities across infrastructure, software and services and complements HP Services’ investments in business intelligence with the Knightsbridge acquisition. More information about HP Neoview, HP’s Business Intelligence Group and HP’s business intelligence services is available at www.hp.com/go/neoview, www.hp.com/go/bi and www.hp.com/services/bi, respectively.