Bull to manage the integration of Phil@poste's commercial system: the first stage in modernizing its entire information system

To encourage implementation of best practice and ensure optimum control, Phil@poste - part of the French Post Office's mail division - chooses Bull to integrate its commercial management system.

Paris, February  22, 2010 -

The expertise provided by Bull to Phil@poste - which is responsible for all philatelic activities at the French Post Office group (La Poste) - will enable it to rationalize and modernize its approach to commercial management, through end-to-end control and simplified business processes.

Unified commercial management, simpler business processes

To meet the demands of this highly specialized market, which involves huge numbers (around three billion stamps are sold every year...), Phil@poste is carrying out a massive overhaul of its information systems. The aim is to facilitate interoperability with other applications and introduce new functionality as the business evolves. In particular, commercial management has to fit in with a multitude of customer needs, both from individuals and businesses. The first stage of the project, involving the commercial management system, has been awarded to Bull. The new, unified system is based on InforLN ERP software, as well as I-flow for workflow management and Cognos for operational reporting.

Eventually the flow of commercial information will be integrated with production management to deliver end-to-end control. This meets a dual aim: to improve the service being provided, while at the same time optimizing resources. The challenge is to design a commercial management approach that makes it easy to develop new services - such as new methods of payment or subscription - particularly via the Internet.

A systems integration project driven by the implementation of 'best practice'

As part of a broad program that involves clarifying roles, optimizing processes and modeling all the different components in order processing, Bull is helping Phil@poste to re-engineer its processes (orders, stocks, distribution channels...) and will be leading the integration project for the new commercial management system; from overall design to comprehensive implementation of the solution.

Bull's multi-faceted role on this 15-month contract will cover a wide range of areas:

• Replacing the old commercial management applications with Infor ERPLn, I-Flow and Cognos solutions

• Managing the various switch-overs, simplifying some 30 different process variants in order to optimize them and bring them in line with the standards required by the ERP package

• Developing around 50 interfaces

• Interfacing three Internet sites in real time with the Infor ERP LN software

To support these major changes and make it easier for the new system to be adopted internally, Bull will also be providing training on the new working practices for almost 100 users.

With this new approach to commercial management and its profound knowledge of the world of philately, Phil@poste - which offers an extremely wide range of products and services including postage stamps, ready-to-post products, security, fiduciary and government products, and postal orders - will be able to capitalize even further on its in-depth know-how of specific design and manufacturing techniques, on an organization which allows the business to serve its customers anywhere in the world, and on its recognized expertise in distance selling, e-commerce and delivery.

About Bull

Bull is a leader in secure mission-critical digital systems. The Group is dedicated to developing and implementing solutions where computing power and security serve to optimize its customers' information systems, to support their business.

Bull operates in high added-value markets including computer simulation, Cloud computing and 'computing power plants', outsourcing and security.

Currently Bull employs around 9,000 people across more than 50 countries, with over 700 staff totally focused on R&D. In 2011, Bull recorded revenues of €1.3 billion.

For more information visit: http://www.bull.com
http://www.facebook.com/BullGroup
http://twitter.com/bull_com