Bull's outsourcing offering wins over l'Occitane

Paris, September �23,�2010�-

To support its international expansion, L'Occitane has awarded Bull a four-year contract to host and operate its business-critical systems. L'Occitane manufactures and distributes cosmetics and beauty products, using traditional know-how and ingredients from the Southern French region of Provence. For over a decade now, the company has experienced spectacular growth. It now has a network of 1,500 retail outlets, including 750 of its own shops, and its products are sold in 80 countries.

An information system that has become critical to the business

Providing vital support for this growth, the company's information system has to cope with increasingly rigorous demands: certain applications, which have become critical to the business, require levels of performance, availability and security that the company itself was finding it hard to maintain. "We were operating our systems ourselves, but given our resources we were not able to guarantee 24x7 availability with sufficient certainty. So we needed to cover ourselves against this emerging risk," explained �tienne de Verdelhan, IT Director at l'Occitane.

A scalable outsourcing project

Following an invitation to tender, L'Occitane chose Bull's proposal. "This kind of service is at the heart of Bull's strategy, and we felt they paid very careful attention to our needs. With Bull, we found a real adaptability and capacity to translate our business priorities into technical and contractual solutions, especially with different service levels depending on how critical each of our components is," �tienne de Verdelhan stressed. Bull's official certification as a SAP Hosting Partner was another decisive point, given that L'Occitane had chosen SAP as its ERP package.

Since early 2010, Bull has been hosting and building the development and test environments for the project. Subsequently, a number of systems have been moved over to Bull's Data Center; a move which is due to be completed by the end of September, with the relocation of the Retail system � which manages all the European shops in real time � the Business Intelligence tool and the data warehouse used for financial reporting. This move has been combined with the updating of a number of infrastructure components.

"The investment that Bull has made in this core, strategic business activity, whether in terms of infrastructure, certifications or services, means we can deliver appropriate solutions to very fast-growing businesses like l'Occitane. We are dedicated to offering this kind of real flexibility, which often sets us apart from other players in this market," commented J�rome Belley, Director of Bull's outsourcing business in France.

Outsourcing from Bull: innovation, internationalism, industrialization

Bull is continually investing in its Data Centers, both in France and internationally. 2010 has seen a significant extension of its main Data Center at Tr�laz�, with a new computer hall featuring innovative energy management technologies, which is specifically set up for high density hosting. The Center was recently awarded 'SAP Provider of Hosting Services' status for the third successive time, this time at the new 'Advanced level'. Bull has also made a massive investment in new Data Centers in the Paris area.

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