CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Commerzbank AG
Preparing for Basel II
Basel II has banks the world over fundamentally reengineering their IT systems. Commerzbank AG (www.commerzbank.com) is implementing an IT architecture that uses ILOG JRules to develop and deploy Basel II-compliant rating applications.

The bank expects to save up to 40 percent in development time, and sees the enhancement of its credit-rating system as an essential part of its customer acquisition strategy. The new architecture also offers the possibility of improved collaboration between IT staff and business-rating experts to deploy new policies faster and more accurately.

“We selected ILOG JRules as the cornerstone of our new rating system because it perfectly integrates with our rating system architecture and had the outstanding performance and ease of use we needed,” says Andreas Rose, project manager at Commerzbank. “Finally, we were impressed by the excellent local support we have received. We feel we can really rely on ILOG.”

Railion's ILOG JViews Gantt-based interface Click to enlarge (opens a new window)

The new Cargo Disposition Fahrzeuge (CDIF) system uses ILOG JViews Gantt charts in its graphical interface. They clearly display Railion’s trains and their schedules, and let dispatchers schedule, interact and deploy trains in real time using on-screen commands. ILOG JViews Gantt also enabled DB Systems, the IT provider of Deutsche Bahn, to develop the interface in a fraction of the time that would have been needed if the charts had been built from scratch.

“CDIF’s visual user interface is so intuitive and easy to learn that we have been able to reduce training time to virtually zero since introducing the application,” says Rudolf Wagner, project manager at DB Systems. “Railion has wholly embraced the application. When it is fully rolled out, approximately 1,200 users will work with CDIF in three shifts around the clock.”

The Rainmaker Group
Planning ahead
Timely anticipation and response to upcoming demand can net millions for hotels, casinos and travel services. The Rainmaker Group (www.letitrain.com.) helps these companies forecast consumer demand to maximize revenues for seats, rooms and mixed revenue streams, including restaurants, casino gaming, and food and beverage services.

Rainmaker uses ILOG CPLEX to enable customers to capture incremental revenue that would otherwise be lost. ILOG CPLEX takes information on projected demand and creates optimized availability recommendations aimed at maximizing revenues.

“ILOG CPLEX is a bomb-proof, high-performance optimization engine,” says Tom Walker, vice president of business consulting at Rainmaker. “It enables us to consistently deliver high-quality results to our demanding customers in very tight windows. Our customers, in turn, have reaped increased revenues on the order of 5 to more than 10 percent.”

Rainmaker’s solution focuses on revenue, or yield, management. It forecasts demand over a given horizon, accounting for such important criteria as customer segment, seasonal influence, day of week, length of stay, and in the case of casino customers, associated gaming value.

J.B. Hunt
Under one roof
With more than 300 sites across North America and major corporations like Wal-Mart, Ford and Procter & Gamble among its customers, America’s third largest transportation logistics company had to rein in the complexity of its billing and payroll systems. The solution: centralize the systems and manage them with flexible business rule software for faster, easier updating. J.B. Hunt Transport Services (www.jbhunt.com.) selected ILOG JRules to do the job. It enabled the company to improve its operations in just nine months and better meet Sarbanes-Oxley and other industry regulations.

Spread out over the company’s sites, the billing and payroll systems were extremely difficult to maintain. By placing their management under one roof, J.B. Hunt is better able to control the applications and keep them in sync with operations and service contracts. ILOG JRules makes this possible with a central repository for storing and distributing the rules used by the systems. Changes to the rules in the repository are automatically applied by the applications.

“ILOG JRules stood out among its competitors,” says Brian Bannister, director of software development at J.B. Hunt. “A big concern for us was that the field would not appreciate a ’Big Brother’ approach to managing operations. Quite the opposite has been the case. They really like the new interface, and feel as if a large load has been lifted from their shoulders.”

MineMAX
Miners dig solution
Mining companies have long been able to accurately assess the total amount of ore in a mine to estimate its value. Determining where and when to dig, however, has largely been restricted to guesswork that does not always yield the best economic results.

MineMAX Resource Optimization Technologies (www.minemax.com.) provides the mining industry with integrated planning and scheduling solutions. It helps mining companies operate more efficiently and bring complex production activities under control to realize a higher return on investment for new and existing operations. The company’s forte lies in long- and short-term scheduling. Powered by ILOG CPLEX, MineMAX Scheduler sets the pace for excavating and extracting ore. The solution’s users experience an average increase in return of 2 to 3 percent, a significant gain for mines valued at billions of dollars.

“ILOG CPLEX is a critical component in our MineMAX Scheduler application,” says Jim Butler, managing director of MineMAX. “It enables customers to obtain the optimal results for their strategic mine scheduling and have confidence in their mining decisions.”