NCP faces up to congestion with online analytical processing

Rethink IT, Oct, 2004

This promises to be a huge market which has just opened up all over the UK with thousands of local authorities and hundred of contracts. "The government could choose to decriminalize other things too," said Andrew, "such as jumping red lights and bus Jane enforcement. In the end it is all an automated system using number plate recognition, look-ups to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Centre and the administration for sending out requests for payment and following them up."

So from being perhaps in the dark ages of IT in its extended entrepreneurial stage, suddenly the business is looking to grow based on its system strength.

And as for the car parks themselves, they can be automated further still. "When you have a revenue stream that's pretty static, improving costs is the only way of improving your bottom line," said Andrew.

So NCP is looking towards a future where 800 car parks are run from remote central control rooms like call centers, taking out any unnecessary labor at the car park sites. "Instead of one person running each car park, we are looking at 10 car parks being run by one man," confirmed Andrews.

ABOUT APPLIX

Applix was one of the original pioneers of OLAP back in the early to mid-1990s and has been around for a decade longer into the 1980s. Financially it got left behind in the big OLAP consolidating efforts of the late 1990s that saw mergers take the sector from 50 suppliers down to under 10.

Today Applix has come through an unsteady period and has revenues of $31m, with 55% of its business outside of the US, has been growing for the past six quarters and has been profitable (once again) for the past two quarters.

Although now it is forced to target enterprisewide rollout at smaller customers below the Global 2000 level, it has many departmental deals within the Global 2000, and some enterprise wide OLAP deals among these signed almost a decade ago but where the company is still happy with its product.

On the surface it goes up against Business Objects, Hyperion and Cugnos, which all operate in the $500m to $700m revenue level. But Applix will correct you and tells you that its competition is SAP, Oracle and Microsoft.

Either way, keeping clients like Bristol Myers Squibb happy (since 1984) and Deutsche Post still using TMI despite being one of SAP's biggest German clients, means that it still seems to be able to holds its own in terms of OLAP function.