The firm claims that a good deal of interest has already been shown in UniKix, which is described as the essential tool in Bull’s SmartSizing programme – Bull’s alternative to rightsizing or downsizing. Bull differentiates its approach by saying it concentrates on getting the best business productivity from information technology installations, rather than just scaling down bad jobs. Bull reckons its systems integration business is growing at three times the market rate and claims to be the fourth largest systems integrator in Europe. It has 2,000 staff dedicated to integration, some 450 in the UK – and 15% of group revenues are systems integration-based; last year related revenues grew 67%, and a further 54% growth is expected in the current year. The group’s long-term aim is to get into non-Bull sites to deliver its consultancy and networking services. This goal is apparently already being achieved – Gunn is currently working with a Hewlett-Packard site, an IBM RS/6000 and an IBM mainframe site. Alliances are high on Bull’s list of priorities: the group wants to talk to any consultancy firms, independent software vendors and systems integrators. Key to Bull’s systems integration strategy, of course, is its DCM Distributed Computing Model, based on the Open Software Foundations’ Distributed Computing Environment. Crawford claims the Gartner Group rates Bull’s model the most open and complete of those available. Unlike IBM’s SAA, he says, DCM is open and flexible enough to be customised for each particular site; it allows for customers wanting to integrate other vendors’ hardware, which Bull will try to supply if need be. Crawford notes that while the architecture is useful to represent business strategy, and while the associated products are necessary building blocks, the model is useless unless it allows for services to put the various pieces of the puzzle together.
