GRETTIA laboratory at IFSTTAR calls on Bull to support its research into optimizing service quality on ground transportation networks

"Bull Fast Track" - the decision support appliance from Bull - successfully implemented as part of a major, scalable project

Issy les Moulineaux, February  7, 2011 -

Bull has successfully implemented "Bull Fast Track" - its new, scalable solution combining all the services needed for effective decision support - for the terrestrial transport networks and advanced it engineering research laboratory (Génie des Réseaux de Transport Terrestre et Informatique Avancée or GRETTIA) at the French Institute of Science and Technology for transport, development and networks, IFSTTAR (l'Institut Français des Sciences et Technologies des Transports, de l'Aménagement et des Réseaux).

Bull Fast Track comprises the Microsoft SQL Server integrated software suite and a packaged hardware infrastructure that has been pre-configured for decision-support. The solution will help IFSTTAR improve the performance of transport networks and respond more effectively to user demands.

The IFSTTAR/GRETTIA initiative: working towards intelligent, multi-modal transport

The performance of transport networks - along with meeting the levels of service quality that users have come to expect - is now one of biggest challenges for transport operators, transport authorities and travelers. To address these issues, GRETTIA has designed a generic model to provide an objective understanding of, as well as to analyze the quality of service delivered by, all types of transport networks - whether publicly or privately owned - taking into account all the key indicators such as punctuality, regularity, fluidity, reliability and sustainability.

So the model that IFSTTAR/GRETTIA has perfected acts as independent observatory for monitoring the operation of transport networks, which forms part of a major scientific computing facility known as the CLAIRE-SITI inter-modal transport database. Located in the research cluster at the Paris-East University (l'Université Paris Est) on the Cité Descartes campus, the system will not only be used by academic researchers to expand their work on intelligent mobility and multi-modal transport, but will also support various 'business' users, such as transport operators, official transport authorities and the State (through MEDDTL, the Ministry for the Environment, Sustainable Development, Transportation and Housing), as well as companies looking to develop new services and research firms.

Bull's role: to 'industrialize' decision support

Thanks to Bull Fast Track, the IFSTTAR/GRETTIA initiative is now has access to a comprehensive, modular and standard decision support platform, which forms an integral part of the Claire-SITI major scientific computing platform.

Early on in the project, Bull was responsible for designing and modeling the data warehouse, and implementing the data collection system, and enabled the dashboards to be defined and the whole solution to be 'industrialized'.

Speaking about the project, Gérard Scemama, Director of Research at IFSTTAR/GRETTIA, commented: "We must be able to manage a huge amount of very diverse data. For example, a single European capital city represents almost 251 million data items a day, which our model has to observe and measure¿ Bull has worked with us to meet this technological challenge, delivering three essential elements: their data warehousing expertise, which has enabled us to translate our various models into a decision-support system; industrialization of the tools we use, taking a unified and integrated approach; and scalability, with straightforward, manageable migrations."

About IFSTTAR (l'Institut Français des Sciences et Technologies des Transports, de l'Aménagement et des Réseaux)

IFSTTAR is a public body under the joint responsibility of the French Ministries of Sustainable Development and Research. Established on 1 January 2011, as a result of the merger between the National Institute for Transport and Safety Research (INRETS) and the Central Laboratory for Roads and Bridges (LCPC), the Institute carries out research aimed at optimizing transport systems, infrastructure and networks.

IFSTTAR will be presenting at the Microsoft Techdays event on 8 February at 1:00pm at the Palais des Congrés in Paris, as part of the High-Performance Business Intelligence seminar.

Press contact
Image sept - Anne-Charlotte Créach - +33 (0) 1 53 70 94 21 - accreach@image7.fr

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.

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