News & Events : News

Altius strengthens its Sales and Marketing Efforts

Kate Rounding — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 09:58:00 GMT

Altius Consulting is pleased to announce the expansion of its sales and marketing team with the appointment of Marketing Assistant James Teodorini. James has experience within the areas of IT and Marketing and joins Altius on a 12 month placement whilst working towards his Business Management degree at the University of Surrey.

Working closely with Altius’ Marketing Manager Kate Rounding, James will be focused on developing the Company’s online presence and supporting relationships with key technology partners.
Kate Rounding comments: “We are pleased to welcome James to the team, and this addition highlights Altius’ commitment to an increase in marketing and sales activities over the coming months”.

A full house for 'Spreadsheet Heaven' breakfast briefing

Kate Rounding — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 12:03:00 GMT

22 senior representatives from 15 organisations recently attended the Altius briefing breakfast at the Pomme D’or hotel, Jersey.

Jonathan Cowle - Financial Director at Altius - took the audience through the reasons why organisations create and build business processes that are reliant upon spreadsheets. He then explored some of the most successful approaches to reducing business’ dependency and its associated risks of running processes (often financial) on spreadsheets, which include:

Discovery: risk evaluation, Spreadsheet link and dependency analysis.
Control: using audit tools and versioning - including SharePoint 2010
Replace: use excel, but against trusted data to provide ‘one version of the truth’ reporting and data capture.

Those that attended found the event extremely beneficial:

“A truly excellent event, pitched at exactly the right level”
“The content was extremely relevant to some of the issues we are currently facing”

To receive a copy of the presentation, please email cievents@altiusconsulting.com quoting ‘Jersey Briefing’. – Please note that this is a large (2mb) pdf file.
For further details of our future events, or to register your attendance at our next breakfast briefing (City London, October) please email ukevents@altiusconsulting.com.

Jersey ‘Discover Spreadsheet Heaven’ Business Breakfast

Kate Rounding — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 16:22:00 GMT

On Thursday July 8th, Altius Consulting (CI) will be holding a short breakfast briefing on Spreadsheet Hell.

During the briefing we will discuss the continued challenges organisations face from an over exposure to financial applications and processes that are run on complex, un-audited spreadsheets.
With over 14 years experience of helping Finance Officers to embrace the flexibility of spreadsheets, control their use and ‘keep them in their rightful place’, we at Altius Consulting have helped our clients realise the following benefits:

Reduced reporting cycles
Higher data consistency
Enhanced compliance
Better insight into data previously

The breakfast briefing will take place at the Pomme D’Or Hotel, St Helier, Jersey from 7.30am – 9.15 am.

For further information on the event and to register your attendance, visit the Jersey Heaven and Hell events page.
http://www.altiusconsulting.com/Altius_Event_Heaven_or_Hell.aspx

Jersey BCS Event - The Value of Business Intelligence

Kate Rounding — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:15:00 GMT

Next month John Gamble will be presenting to the Jersey branch of the British Computer Society on The Value of Business Intelligence (BI).

Intended as introduction to Business Intelligence, the lunchtime talk will look at:

What Business Intelligence is.
The technologies that are involved in supporting Business Intelligence.
How Business Intelligence is relevant to all organisations today.
The unique value of a BI project to an organisation.
How return on investment (ROI) often goes much further than the initially expected.

The event will take place on Tuesday 13th April 2010, at 12.30hrs in the Ouless Room, Jersey Museum, St Helier, Jersey, CI.

For further information on this event please visit the BCS events page or contact jersey.events@bcs.org with any questions.
We look forward to seeing you there.

The HMIC Police Performance website goes live

Kate Rounding — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 11:41:00 GMT

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) has today launched the new police performance website.

The public facing website which had been designed and implemented by Altius Consulting provides HMIC with the ability to efficiently publish and maintain useful information about police performance, thus providing greater public transparency.

The new site provides the public with the ability to view local police performance information. Crime statistics are available at both local and national level, allowing the public to see how statistics within their borough compare to the national average.

The website can be viewed at http://www.hmic.gov.uk/MyPolice/Pages/home.aspx

Altius Consulting extends its strategic partnership with BOARD International to the United States

Kate Rounding — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:41:00 GMT

Altius Consulting, the leading Business Intelligence and Enterprise Performance Management Consultancy and BOARD International, the global leader in Business Intelligence and Corporate Performance Management, are pleased to announce that they have extended their successful partnership to include the USA.The agreement strengthens the relationship which was established in the UK in June 2009, and provides both companies with the opportunity to continue their growth into the US market.

Noel Phillips, Vice President, Altius Consulting says: "We are extremely excited to be extending our relationship with BOARD into the US market - the combination of Altius' Performance Management expertise and BOARD's unique toolkit truly delivers on the promise of sophisticated, cost-effective decision making, and is a compelling proposition for businesses large and small."

Scott Jennings, Director, BOARD North America commented: “Extending our relationship from the UK to the US will allow us to continue to deliver compelling solutions into the North American market, and to leverage the successes that we have had.”

About Altius Consulting
Altius Consulting (www.altiusconsulting.com) provides specialist Business Intelligence and Performance Management consultancy to enterprises and large organisations throughout the world. The company works with partners and clients to turn data into valuable information, enabling better decisions and creating competitive advantage.
Founded in the 1993 Altius Consulting has the experience of over 500 project implementations, spanning companies in oil, gas & energy, financial services, retail and the public sector. Its customers include: BP, Gazprom-neft, Royal Bank of Scotland, Waterstone’s Book retailer, Harley-Davidson motorbikes, Santander Bank, Reed Exhibitions and the UK government’s Ministry of Justice.
With offices in both Houston, Texas and Anchorage, Alaska in USA as well as London, UK and with satellite offices in the Channel Islands and Russia, the Company has a global reach.

About BOARD
BOARD International (www.board.com) is a global leader in the BI and CPM Toolkit space. BOARD has enabled over 2000 companies worldwide to rapidly deploy BI and CPM applications in a single integrated environment completely programming-free and in a fraction of the time and cost associated with traditional solutions. BOARD provides one accurate, complete view of an organisation’s information, fully integrated with its processes, uniquely linking performance from strategic vision to all levels down to operational detail.

Oracle Consulting Services forms Strategic Alliance with Altius Consulting

Kate Rounding — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:42:00 GMT

10th February 2010

Altius Consulting, a leading Oracle Gold Partner specialising in the full service delivery of Performance Management and Business Intelligence solutions is pleased to announce a strategic alliance with Oracle Consulting Services (OCS).
Based in Godalming, Surrey and Houston, Texas, Altius is partnering with OCS to ensure that both organisations pool resources more effectively and are capable of delivering projects to our clients more effectively.

John Gateley, Managing Director of Altius said: “delivering successful Oracle EPM and BI solutions to our clients requires alliances that offer a wider range of skill and experience. Oracle’s ownership of the technology and Altius’ track record of delivery over the past 17 years makes this a good move for all concerned. As one of the leading Oracle Gold Partners in the UK, this move will ensure that Oracle and Altius are effectively providers of one integrated and skilled resource pool. We are both totally focused on delivering successful solutions for our clients with no interference from other extraneous business activities”.

Altius Consulting unveils new brand identity for 2010

Kate Rounding — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 10:30:00 GMT

Altius Consulting, the leading Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) and Business Intelligence (BI) consultancy, has this week unveiled the launch of their new brand identity. The introduction of the new corporate logo signifies the beginning of a new direction for the consultancy, which has experienced dramatic growth over the last five years.

Managing Director John Gateley commented: “At Altius we pride ourselves in providing our customers with an innovative and personal service that differentiates us from the competition. Having grown, and moved into new markets, our old brand no longer matched our culture or the innovative markets we have moved into. The launch of this new identity is a brave step forward from previous ‘refreshes’ and better reflects not only the personality of our company, but also the style of relationship we like to build with our clients.”

The new brand incorporates a striking blue orb, representing the ever evolving challenges and solutions that can be applied in the enterprise performance management and business intelligence arenas. The colours have also been specifically chosen to provide a fresh, clean and contemporary identity.

The new Altius Consulting website was launched on Monday 25th January, and offers visitors a friendly, easy to navigate experience. For more information on the Company, visit: www.altiusconsulting.com or email info@altiusconsulting.com to discover how Altius can support your business with on-demand information for better business decision-making.

About Altius

Founded in the early 1990s by two former PricewaterhouseCoopers consultants, Altius Consulting has a formidable track record of over 500 project implementations, spanning companies in oil, gas & energy, financial services, retail and the public sector. Customers include: BP, TNK-BP, Gazprom-neft, Royal Bank of Scotland, Waterstone’s, BA, Red Bull, Santander, Reed and The Home Office.
Based in Godalming, Surrey, with offices in Houston, Texas, the Channel Islands and Russia, the Company has a global reach with consultants sourced from around the world.

New England Seafood Choose Altius and BOARD to implement Sales Forecasting

Kate Rounding — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:42:00 GMT

Altius Consulting and our partner BOARD are pleased to announce our latest client: New England Seafood.

New England Seafood’s current Business Intelligence & Corporate Performance Management systems are not allowing them to produce the type of reporting or rolling forecasts critical to their business. Data ‘silos’ and lack of aggregation have meant that they are utilising Excel as a bridging tool. Choosing BOARD will enable them to align their systems and give them a unified approach to BI & CPM, all in a single product.

Initially the implementation, carried out by Altius Consulting will focus on 12 -24 month rolling sales forecast. Once complete the project is likely to extend to key account and production planning, historical analysis, reporting, profitability modeling etc

Charles Noble, Finance Director at New England Seafood says “As we made our way through a detailed review of the market for financial planning software, BOARD really impressed us with its clear user interfaces, lack of separation between planning and analysis functionality, and the relative ease with which we can administer the system in-house.

In choosing Altius to assist us in the implementation of BOARD, we were clear that we would be working with a team of proven experts who would take the time to understand the challenges within our business so that they can tailor the BOARD implementation appropriately. We look forward to completing the initial phase of the project and progressing to subsequent stages which will further improve our forecasting and BI capabilities”,

Dominic Policella, UK Director BOARD says “We are delighted that our partner Altius Consulting have been chosen by New England Seafood to deliver their Sales Forecasting in BOARD. We look forward to a long and prosperous relationship with both organisations”

John Gateley, Managing Director, Altius Consulting comments “We’re excited to work with New England Seafood to deliver an improved Sales Forecasting tool on BOARD technology. Bringing data from across the business to improve decision making and help find new efficiencies is what Altius and BI are all about.”

About New England Seafood: New England Seafood is a major supplier of premium sustainable fish and seafood in the UK with a turnover of £50m. They sell a wide range of products to the UK’s leading supermarkets and wholesalers around the UK. for more information visit the New england Seafood website.

For more information about Altius consulting visit About Us

For more information about BOARD visit the Board partner page

BOARD 7.1 Released

Matt Quinn — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:46:59 GMT

The latest BOARD release takes a further step into the next generation of Business Intelligence and Performance Management.

BOARD International, global leader in the BI & CPM Toolkit space, announces the release of BOARD 7.1, its “all-in-one” flagship product that integrates BI and CPM in a seamless self-service environment.
The latest BOARD release leverages the potential of Windows Presentation Foundation and Windows Communication Foundation, introduced with version 7, to provide Advanced Office Integration, Enhanced Interactive Visualization and an innovative web experience through the groundbreaking SilverLight Client.
Based on a modern SOA architecture and designed to extend enterprise capabilities, BOARD 7.1 dramatically enhances platform interoperability, data handling capability and performance, thanks to the introduction of Web Services, in-RAM cubes and an innovative 128 bit “cube addressing” technology.
BOARD 7.1 also offers new advanced features that enhance its Budgeting, Planning, Forecasting and data modeling capabilities.
This combination of technological and functional innovations continues to push the boundaries in providing an “all in one” platform to support Business Intelligence and Corporate Performance Management - allowing organizations to effectively align strategy with operations using one single product, one single technology, one single know-how.
“BOARD 7.1 is the most evident example of how groundbreaking technology can make it extremely easy for users to address complex decision-making processes. – explains Giovanni Grossi , CEO of BOARD International - With the latest version we are reaping the benefits of our ambitious investment in WPF and WCF, fully exploiting the revolutionary innovations introduced with BOARD 7.
BI and CPM Integration, self-service analysis and reporting, rapid application development, advanced office integration and outstanding visualization capabilities make BOARD the most innovative product in the market.”
“In my view BOARD 7.1 is a unique combination of a revolutionary vision, a groundbreaking technology and a continued attention to the feedback provided in 15 years by more than 2000 customers. –comments Pietro Ferrari, Head of BOARD customer support- A product different from all the competition, not just in its architecture but in its philosophy, completely oriented to give a simple answer to complex business needs Moving from words to action, we confidently challenge anyone to provide faster time to solution, better BI and CPM integration and easier usability than BOARD 7.1 and to demonstrate it with a proof of concept: we are ready.”

Key Highlights in BOARD 7.1 include

BOARD Silverlight Client

The new BOARD web client is based entirely on Microsoft Silverlight, a powerful and innovative web runtime(WRT), which overcomes the traditional limitations of web applications and brings BOARD into web 2.0
The adoption of this innovative technology makes it possible to create a BOARD application and to access it either from the Board Windows client or from a web browser, retaining the typical functions and characteristics of client solutions (Rich Internet Application).
The new BOARD Rich Internet Client can incorporate animations, three-dimensional displays, interactive objects and innovative graphical containers, thus delivering a much richer and more effective user experience than HTML or AJAX .
Advanced Office Integration
BOARD 7.1 complements the Excel 2007® add-in with a Word 2007® and a Power Point 2007® add-in making it possible to access and use BOARD from all the most popular office productivity software .
With the latest BOARD version, any user can insert, update and manage BOARD Charts, Cockpits, Bubble Charts and Data Views directly from Word documents or Power Point presentations and navigate them, performing drill-down, slice and dice and ad- hoc queries.
BOARD 7.1 also introduces the possibility to create Office Macros that directly access the BOARD environment.

Extended Enterprise Capabilities

Board 7.1 provides superior interoperability, better manageability, improved performances and data handling capabilities, thus offering ease in managing large deployments in a complex technology environment.

Interoperability

BOARD Web Services.

Mash-up.

Performance and enterprise scalability

128 bit cubes addressing:

In-Memory Cubes:

Manageability

Auto updating clients mode:

Full-LDAP support

Enhanced Interactive visualization

The word-class capabilities in interactive visualization provided with BOARD 7, have been further enhanced by the introduction of data brushing, new animations and a new collection of configurable trellis gauges. The release of an innovative object named the Selector, provide users with a point and click interactive filtering, that makes ad hoc querying a simple task.
Sophisticated CPM functionalities
BOARD 7.1 offers a series of advanced functionalities to further improve the support of CPM processes
Advanced Data Entry. In BOARD 7.1 data entry validation rules can be easily configured down to the cell level. Thanks to a new functionality named ATO, authorized users can manage and change the relationship between items directly during the data entry process. (i.e. Users can quickly reclassify customers relation with sale representatives in order to redefine a sales area)
Interactive Broadcasting: BOARD 7.1 ensures the delivery of the right information to the right users at the right time. An advanced broadcasting functionality makes it possible to send personalized Excel® and Word® based reports at scheduled times or when a specific event occurs.
Unlike the reports from typical BI and CPM systems, BOARD analyses are completely interactive and once received allow users to interact on-the-fly, according to their security profiles.
Data Aware Processes: BOARD 7.1 allows users to create Dynamic Reports that combine data awareness with workflow capabilities. Thanks to the ability to interactively drive processes and data flow directly from activation areas inside the reports, users can easily limit the workflow execution and the related changes to specific data subset, drastically improving the flexibility and manageability of complex data models.

Altius Presenting at SQL Bits – Celtic Manor November 19-21st 2009

Matt Quinn — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:13:49 GMT

As specialists in Business Intelligence and Performance Management using Microsoft SQL Server, we have two of our consultants presenting at the SQL Bits conference this weekend (RSS - http://feeds.feedburner.com/sqlbits or http://www.sqlbits.com/).

The two sessions being run are:

An Introduction to Master Data Services – Ian Marritt
Master Data Services will be a component of SQL Server that allows organisations to improve their data quality by providing one trusted source for all the sort of information that is used across their business. It is a challenge for many line of business applications and data warehouses to ensure that the information used is accurate, valid and verified by the correct people within an organisation.

I will talk about some of the issues and benefits of Master Data Management, describe how it works and demonstrate how Master Data Services can provide a solution.

Data Visualisation with Bing Maps for Enterprise – Matt Feltham
The session will take you through how combining your location based data on a map using Bing Maps for Enterprise can add an interactive edge to the visualisation of your data.

If you can’t make SQL Bits, but would like to know more, get in touch as we’ll be running a series of Performance Management & Business Intelligence webinars cover these and other topics in the coming weeks and months.

Altius picked as Finalist for Microsoft Web Development Partner of the Year 2009

Matt Quinn — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:29:00 GMT

Awards recognize partners’ innovative use of Microsoft technology to exceed customer expectations and solve business problems.

United Kingdom. — June 24, 2009 — Altius Consulting’s pick as finalist for the Microsoft Web Development Partner of the Year 2009 is rewarding recognition for our continuing devotion to delivering tailored web-based applications for our clients, built using the latest Microsoft technologies. As a Business Intelligence and Performance Management specialist, Altius focuses on our client’s need to deliver information to the right people, in the right way at the right time. “Our research and development with Microsoft’s Silverlight and Virtual Earth technologies enables us to continually push the boundaries on how business-critical information is delivered to those who need it to make informed decisions. This award recognises our leadership and innovation in this space.” says Matt Quinn, Director of New Business.

REDMOND, Wash. — June 24, 2009 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the winners and finalists of its 2009 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards. The annual awards honor Microsoft Registered, Certified and Gold Certified partners for delivering exemplary solutions for their customers during the past year. Award winners and finalists were chosen from nominations from around the world. Winners and finalists will be recognized at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2009, the company’s premier annual event for industry partners, being held July 13–16 in New Orleans.

Nearly 2,000 entries were submitted by partners worldwide; the award finalists and winners were selected from a group of nominations based on their dedicated use of Microsoft technologies to provide solutions for their customers’ needs.

“Partners are the key to igniting business innovation through great technology as well as helping customers drive down costs,” said Allison L. Watson, corporate vice president of the Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft. “Congratulations to the 2009 Partner Award winners, who have demonstrated a superior level of expertise as well as a focus on delivering customer value. We look forward to seeing these partners fulfil their limitless potential as they continue to provide customers with world-class Microsoft solutions.”

About Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference

Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference provides Microsoft’s partner community with access to key marketing and business strategies, leadership, and information regarding specific customer solutions designed to help partners succeed in the marketplace. Along with informative learning opportunities covering sales, marketing, services and technology, the Worldwide Partner Conference is an ideal setting for partners to garner valuable knowledge from their peers and from Microsoft. More information can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/partner/events/wwpartnerconference and on the Partner Program home page at https://partner.microsoft.com.

About Altius

Altius Consulting provides specialist Business Intelligence (BI) and Performance Management (PM) consultancy to enterprises and large organisations throughout the world. The Company works with partners and clients to turn data into valuable information, enabling better decisions and creating competitive advantage.

Founded in the early 1990s by two former PricewaterhouseCoopers consultants, Altius Consulting has the experience of over 500 project implementations, spanning companies in oil, gas & energy, financial services, retail and the public sector. Its customers include: BP, Gazprom-neft, Royal Bank of Scotland, Waterstone’s, Harley-Davidson, Santander, Reed and The Home Office.
Based in Godalming, Surrey, with satellite offices in Houston, Texas, the Channel Islands and Russia, the Company has a global reach with consultants from around the world. For more information on the Company, visit: Altius Consulting.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.mspx.

Altius to partner with IT-Workplace

LukeHarding — Mon, 11 May 2009 04:22:23 GMT

Altius has selected IT-Workplace as its Excel Add-In partner of choice. This new relationship will present many exciting opportunities for both businesses to work together on projects particularly in the energy, public sector, retail and financial services spaces.

SQL Server Fast Track Data Warehouse

Matt Quinn — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:50:00 GMT

Overview

SQL Server Fast Track Data Warehouse accelerates your data warehouse roadmap with new SQL Server 2008 Enterprise scalable reference architectures for HP, Dell and Bull. Reduce costs, save time and reduce risk with reliable, pre-tested hardware and best practices for warehousing.

Key Features

Accelerate your data warehouse roadmap with pre-tested hardware configurations
Virtually eliminate hardware testing and reduce tuning with better Data Warehouse performance out-of-the-box
Scale from 4 up to 32 terabytes using compression capabilities in SQL Server 2008 Enterprise
Enjoy a lower cost of ownership through better price performance, rapid deployment and industry-standard hardware
Choose the right performance, scalability and pricing to suit your business needs

Fast Track Solution

We’re providing services combining the Fast Track reference infrastructure with our own Data Warehouse Toolkit approach to deliver Enterprise Data Warehouse solutions quickly and cost-effectively. Get in touch to find out more and to book your half-day free workshop to understand your Data Warehouse challenges and let us help you plan the most cost-effective solutions.

Call us on +44 (0) 1483 418 628 or contact us by e-mail info@altiusconsulting.com

Microsoft retires PerformancePoint Planning

Matt Quinn — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:12:44 GMT

Microsoft has announced that it is retiring PerformancePoint Server 2007 after only releasing the product in late 2007. This sudden decision sees Microsoft effectively exiting the performance management market.

The Planning component is being developed only to Service Pack 3 which will be released mid-2009. There will be no more development after this. The Company is saying that the product will be supported for up to 8 years, i.e. to around 2017. The Reporting and Analytics component is being merged into SharePoint Services (MOSS) which makes sense.

If you have already implemented PerformancePoint or are in the process of doing so or are planning to (sic), please contact us at planningisthefuture@altiusconsulting.com or call our planning experts on +44 (0)1483 418628 to discuss your best way forward. See what other planning options we can offer on our Partner pages.