Integration of Operational Processes in Rijswijk and Munich

    ROTTERDAM, Netherlands, Feb. 15  /PRNewswire/ -- Logica has won a contract
 valued at 1.5 million euro from the European Patent Office (EPO) to develop a
 new management system to support the granting procedure of patents.  Logica's
 e-Platform, making information available through Internet technology, forms an
 important building block of this system. The new system is due to be delivered
 on 1 January 2003.
     The European Patent Office has initiated the BEST (Bringing Examination
 and Search Together) change programme to improve the efficiency of its
 administrative processes in the offices at Rijswijk (2,000 employees) and
 Munich (3,000 employees).  The EPO is currently challenged with an enormous
 increase in the number of patent applications and a shortage of qualified
 staff.
     Recently the EPO branch at Rijswijk was responsible for all activities
 such as gathering documents relevant to an application ("search"), while the
 evaluation ("examination") process took place at the EPO headquarters in
 Munich.  The EPO has combined the search and examination activities so that
 each office can independently carry out the entire process associated with
 patent applications.  Modernisation of the IT infrastructure at the EPO is a
 precondition for the success of the BEST programme.
     Logica has also been asked to develop an application that supports the
 "search" and "examination" processes.  This application, known as MUSE
 (Managed United Search and Examination), consists of three parts:  in the
 first instance MUSE is an administrative system which supports the division of
 work for incoming patent applications and monitors productivity; secondly it
 is a data warehouse with a number of data marts (collection of aggregations)
 for decision support; finally MUSE includes a simulation and planning module
 which makes it possible to carry out capacity planning.
     Yvan De La Fuente Del Aqua, programme manager EPO:  "Logica has been
 selected because of its capacity to offer the wide area of services required
 for the initiative, such as mainframe development, data warehouse and Java
 application development."
     The objectives of MUSE are to support the BEST project, to make management
 information more transparent and uniform, to support the recruitment and
 deployment of staff and to convert legacy systems to a modern infrastructure.
 
     Logica
     Logica is a leading global solutions company providing management and IT
 consultancy, systems integration, products, services and support.  Logica's
 clients operate across diverse markets including telecoms, financial services,
 energy and utilities, industry, distribution and transport and the public
 sector.  The company has over 11,500 staff in 34 countries worldwide.  In the
 Netherlands Logica has six offices and 900 employees.  Founded in 1969, Logica
 is listed on the London Stock Exchange where it is part of the FTSE100 index
 of the largest UK listed companies.  More information can be found at
 www.logica.com .
 
     European Patent Office
     The European Patent Office is an international patent granting authority
 established under the European Patent Convention (EPC), which came into force
 on 7 October 1977.  The European Patent Organisation, for which the European
 Patent Office acts as executive arm, currently has 20 member states:  all the
 EU countries plus Cyprus, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Switzerland and Turkey.
 Other countries are expected to accede in due course.  The office grants
 European patents under a unitary and centralised procedure.  More information
 can be found at www.european-patent-office.org
 
 

SOURCE  Logica