Paris, 6th May 2010,

 

Legrand is a global specialist in products and systems for electrical installations and information networks. The company has partnered with Business & Decision, international Consultant and Systems Integrator, to participate in the IBM Information On Demand EMEA Conference 2010, in Rome 19-20^th May.  The companies will co-present their experiences in implementing a fundamental BI delivery model at Legrand.

 

The Legrand Group required a unified management system for local decision-making, and a company-wide governance system to manage its decentralised organisation and international acquisitions.  Legrand's primary objective was to find a solution to align their global reporting processes with the company's decentralisation policy and to accelerate the adoption of their post merger processes. Business & Decision developed an international BI reporting model with IBM's Cognos solution, version 8 (the latest version).

 

The model enables employees from mergers and acquisitions to continue using their existing independent administrative applications (ERP, human resource systems, logistic applications, etc.) for operational management processes, negating the need to replace these systems.

 

The Legrand headquarters has been equipped with a system to collect and consolidate all company data required for governance, control and performance.

 

The solution will result in significant benefits for the Group:

• The system combines control and flexibility, allowing operations to be decentralised without any negative impact on control or management;
• The parent company is able to centralise its IT structure, capitalising from one unique platform. The chosen software solution is web-based, guaranteeing ease of use;
• At the time of each acquisition the integration of the new entity into the Group will be carried out quickly by an automated process, with minimum impact on change management;
• The parent company will reap significant cost efficiencies by avoiding the systematic replacement of all pre-existing local solutions;
• The employees from the acquisitions can maintain their work methods and processes and continue to use their own unique operational systems.

 

 

Jean-Luc CHIRON, CIO of the Legrand Group, comments, "We have been working with Business & Decision since 2006, primarily on BI projects. We have a great deal of respect for their technical knowledge and their teams' consulting expertise. For the Cognos8 migration, we initially employed Business & Decision's services to develop an enhanced BI reporting solution for sales processes across our subsidiaries. The pilot has been implemented in Belgium and deployment is now underway for more than ten countries in which we operate. In parallel, we have also optimised the IT architecture and network management in two IT centres in Limoges (France) and Varese (Italy). This centralisation has resulted in a considerable reduction in maintenance and transmission costs, improved operations and 24 hour support."

 

Olivier Ninet, Manager at Business & Decision comments, "Our considerable BI expertise and international presence has enabled us to design a core reporting model, while taking into consideration the nature of existing local platforms and anticipating the collective needs of the Legrand subsidiaries. In terms of target companies, the core model adapts perfectly to large and mid-size companies with high levels of investment activities and those subject to acquisition and merger issues. Efficient reporting methods help to structure and accelerate acquisition projects. Business & Decision was assisted by its Indian service centre throughout the development (international) phases of the project."

 

This year, Business & Decision is leading a pilot project in three Legrand subsidiaries, to implement a core BI reporting model with Logistic functions. Similarly, the core production activity model is scheduled to be implemented in the second half of the year. Finally, Business & Decision will also be working for Legrand in Brazil, on specifications analysis for the implementation of a new data warehouse.

 

 

 

About Legrand

Legrand is a worldwide specialist in products and systems for electrical installations and information networks. Legrand is a world leader in its field, with offices and subsidiaries in more than 60 countries and sales in close to 180 countries. Innovation and the regular launch of new products with high added value are one of the Group's principal growth vectors. Globally, Legrand holds 19% of the wiring devices market and 15% of the cable management market. The company is listed on Euronext and indexed on the SBF 120, FTSE4Good, MSCI World and ASPI.

For more information, see www.legrand.com.

About Business & Decision

Business & Decision is an international Consulting and Systems Integration (CSI) company. It is a leader in Business Intelligence (BI) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and a major player in e-Business, Enterprise Information Management (EIM), Enterprise Solutions as well as Management Consulting. Business & Decision contributes to the success of customer projects by driving maximum business performance. The company has a reputation for functional and technological expertise and has forged partnerships with all of the key technology vendors.

 

Located in 19 countries, Business & Decision currently employs more than 2500 people worldwide.

Additional information is available at www.businessdecision.com.

Contact

 

Delphine Boudaud

Press Agent

Business & Decision

Tel: +33 (0)1 56 33 50 56

Fax: +33 (0)1 56 21 21 22

delphine.boudaud@businessdecision.com

 

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