Kalido has been developed by Shell Services International (SSI) over several years and there are 100 implementations within the Royal Dutch/Shell Group in 77 countries. The first public release, which made its Asia-Pacific debut in Melbourne last week, is actually Version 5.
Kalido automatically generates the data warehouse structure from metadata and reference data. Consequently, less implementation effort is needed. The system is also amenable to progressive implementation, and even major organisational changes such as a merger can be accommodated without the loss of historical information.
It connects to virtually any data source, either through technologies such as ODBC or via third-party extraction tools for systems such as SAP. Similarly, it works with a variety of analytical tools including Clementine (data mining), Express (OLAP), Cognos (data analysis) and Excel.
The system has already been sold to one customer outside the Shell Group. That organisation has used it in three projects, each of which were completed in less than 12 months. One implementation within Shell Australia took less than three months.
Kalido 5 runs on NT Server or HP UX with Oracle 7, 8 or 8i. Version 6, due in the first quarter of next year will support Windows 2000 and more Unix implementations, and will exploit advanced features of Oracle 8i.
Ian Stafford-Brooks, SSI's management information and data services practice manager for the Asia Pacific region told PC Week that a Linux implementation was high on his list.
The software, which is written in C++ by SSI's London-based development team, is more dependent on the DBMS than the operating system. Accordingly, most of the effort of porting to different Unix variants comes from creating installation routines.
Other features promised for version 6 include enhancements to the Web reporting and browsing facilities, including an XML server; improved support for satellite data marts; and a COM/DCOM based API for integration with third party tools.
Kalido costs vary from $500,000 to several million dollars (including implementation services), depending on customer requirements.
Target markets include consumer packaged goods, finance, pharmaceuticals, health care, transport and government. The software is also being marketed through vertical market specialists and systems implementors such as Hewlett-Packard and Deloitte Consulting.
