Unisys has teamed up with a group of top industry players in a multimillion-dollar strategic initiative to form the "Partners of Excellence Program" which will deliver business intelligence (BI) solutions based on its ES7000 enterprise servers. The company will work together with Microsoft, ProClarity, SAP, SAS, Avanade and CGE&Y to test and deliver integrated BI platforms and applications for large-scale, Windows-based computing environments.
Large businesses have come to understand that one of the most important assets is the data that is collected, and that the need for software and solutions to help use that data to competitive advantage has grown. Companies are also realising that there is a need to move beyond simply finding and storing data to turning the data into information to be used intelligently across the organisation.
"The Partners in Excellence Program creates an ecosystem of highly evolved BI solutions centred on Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Unisys ES7000 and software and services from industry leaders," says Gordon Mangione, VP for Microsoft SQL Server.
"This means that customers can enjoy the benefits of the largest BI solutions, using the superior economics of Microsoft- and Intel-based technology, without the cost penalties of Unix-based computing."
The Partners in Excellence Program furnishes the complete infrastructure, including technology, applications, services and support, that makes up a comprehensive solution. This will allow customers to benefit from the solution quickly, focusing on the business impact of the solution rather than the building of the solution itself.
The programme is the newest addition to the portfolio of solutions being developed and supported at Unisys Centres of Excellence around the world. Unisys has created two new Centres of Excellence in The Netherlands and Redmond dedicated specifically to SQL Server-based BI solutions on the ES7000 database platform.
At the centres, teams of experts in hardware, software, networking and integration work to test and develop customer solutions for simpler, more efficient, high performance computing. The centres work closely with Microsoft to optimise SQL Server to support BI on the ES7000, the industry`s only 32-processor server with Windows and Intel architecture.
With the ES7000 enterprise server for a foundation, Unisys and its partners can deliver comprehensive BI solutions, including top-of-the-line applications in a Microsoft standard environment. These solutions put analytic and reporting capabilities on average users` desktops, allowing them to turn huge amounts of corporate data into information they can use.
Built on the ES7000 and Microsoft SQL Server, the solutions perform better, are easier to manage, and can deliver as much as a 50% lower total cost of ownership (TCO) compared to Oracle or Unix-based solutions.
For example, Minolta, one of Japan`s largest technology companies, has implemented a total BI solution supported by the Unisys Partners in Excellence Program. Similarly, recognising that the wave of the future is with Windows, Minolta made the decision to migrate its SAP R/3 software from nine IBM Unix servers onto two 32-processor ES7000s.
With its set of ES7000 servers, Minolta will be able to achieve low TCO through server consolidation and the resulting reduced administration costs. Also, the ES7000s will provide Minolta with unfaltering scalability and transaction power to support its large 5.5-terabyte database.
"In today`s competitive and dynamic business climate, corporate customers are demanding complete solutions that will bolster bottom line returns, with efficiency, ease and speed," says Allan Currie, director of Systems and Technology (S&T) division at Unisys Africa.
"No other competing server platform can provide the high levels of availability and performance needed to run intensive BI applications with the compelling economics and simplicity of the Windows- and Intel-server environment. With Partners in Excellence Unisys can deliver proven, tailored solutions to customers that can be rapidly deployed with less risk."
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