Introduction
Object of the Document
The purpose of the document is the synthesis of the prospective survey about the opportunity of the Up ! Virtual Business Machine offer targeting main accounts in France, high potential clients of Up ! Application System, which had happened from June to September 2003. It shows you:
- Constructive criticisms that were announced while introducing this potential offer.
- Foreseen applications.
- Awaited benefits for the firm.
- Improvements to be integrated.
- Final opinion.
- Synthesis showing the tendencies.
- List of the interviewed companies.
This document is targeting any stakeholders involved into the Up ! Company project and, moreover, any one who wants to understand the evolution of the needs for information systems.
Perimeter of the Survey
The Up ! Company project is to create a software venture including three strategic activities:
- The activity for technical software named Up ! Virtual Technical Machine.
Software to transport information - Middleware -, to integrate solutions - Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) -, compilers, virtual machines, reporting software, operating software, etc.
- The activity for functional software named Up ! Virtual Business Machine.
Software for business lines such as bank or insurance, retailing, energy, industry, engineering, medias, healthcare, services, public service, telecom, etc.
- The activity for multimedia software named Up ! Virtual Entertainment Machine.
Software for sound, pictures, video ; software to sell and to broadcast digital products through Internet, software for digital simulations, etc.
The perimeter of this survey is limited to the possible application of Up ! Application System to functional software - Up ! Virtual Business Machine -, whatever the business line is.
Population of the Survey
Selecting Criterion
As the number of employees whom jobs are related to information system is varying around the following figures:
| Business line | Rate of the employees working to the information system department |
| Bank and insurance | 4% |
| Retailing | 2% |
| Energy | 2% |
| Industry | 2% |
| Engineering | 3% |
| Medias | 3% |
| Healthcare | 3% |
| Public service | 4% |
| Services | 3% |
| Telecom | 8% |
| Transports | 3% |
And as the complexity level of Up ! Application System needs a minimum of specialization of information system functions that is reached when there are as many as 50 employees that are dedicated to them, the first supposed macro-target of Up ! Virtual Business Machine is composed of:
- Large firms of the private sector.
The selecting criterion is as many as 2 500 employees.
- Large public services.
The selecting criterion is as many as 1 500 employees.
Target of the Survey
The targeted population of the survey had thus covered the sale target to which it had been added some lower-sized firms in order to validate the previous criteria. We also added some influent actors that take stake to the choice or the setting up of functional software solutions - consultants and journalists.
The contacts we looked for were the following:
- Information System Director.
For their global vision about the alignment of the information system on the corporate strategy - a main argument of the value proposition of Up ! Application System.
- Information Technology Director.
For the choice of hardware and software and for the information system project policy and management - the ground of Up ! Application System.
- Project Director.
For the set-up of a software solution for a functional project - the set-up in live of Up ! Application System.
- Purchasing Director.
For knowing their referencing and purchasing criteria about software.
A sole contact is kept for each company, without making a pre-selection on his function, hazard playing as a random.
Not any contact wanted or could answer us in the three-month survey as you can see it on the following statistic:
| Business line | Number of contacts | Number of participants | Ratio |
| Bank and insurance | 6 | 4 | 67% |
| Retailing | 3 | 1 | 33% |
| Energy | 3 | 2 | 67% |
| Industry | 13 | 8 | 62% |
| Engineering | 2 | 2 | 100% |
| Medias | 4 | 1 | 25% |
| Stipulators | 7 | 4 | 57% |
| Healthcare | 2 | 2 | 100% |
| Public service | 8 | 7 | 88% |
| Services | 2 | 2 | 100% |
| Telecom | 2 | 2 | 100% |
| Transports | 4 | 4 | 100% |
| Total | 56 | 39 | 70% |
Process of the Survey
The survey was based on half-driven and face-to-face interviews - exceptionally by phone. In order to reproduce the process in the same way whoever the interviewee, three dedicated tools were used:
- Interviewing book.
This document introduces the asked questions to the participants and it may include some diagrams. The interview is based on it.
- The model of questionnaire.
A copy of this model is filled in along the interview. For each detailed question, it holds an area to write the answer of the participant. These documents have usually notes related to the survey, which are so many precious details that are difficult to summarize.
- Survey methodology.
This document introduces how an interview should be driven and how to improve the content of the interview when we had noticed improvements. It acts as a support document to gather raw information.
An interview lasts between one hour and more two hours depending of the avaibility and the interest of the participant for the subject. It is cut in two parts:
- The understanding of the history and of the information system policy of the firm.
It lasts two thirds of the time on average.
- The concise presentation of the concept of Up ! Application System followed by a open-minded criticism.
It lasts one third of the time on average. It is illustrated with the information communicated while the first part of the interview to be as close as possible of the experience and the preoccupations of the participant.
Nature of Information
This document introduces first the raw information gathered after harmonizing them and classifying them by business lines. Each topic is then analyzed according to key points introduced by the locution To keep in mind.
It then holds a synthesis gathering the trends of the information system policy of major accounts.
Any brands quoted in this document belong to their legal owners.
Codification of the Business Lines
This document uses the following codification:
| Business line | Codification |
| Bank and insurance | BnA |
| Retailing | Ret |
| Energy | Ene |
| Industry | Ind |
| Engineering | Eng |
| Stipulators | Sti |
| Medias | Med |
| Healthcare | Hea |
| Public service | PSr |
| Services | Ser |
| Telecom | Tel |
| Transports | Tra |