Country or Region: United States Industry: Auction/Art Client Profile: Phillips was founded in London in 1796 and by the beginning of the nineteenth century was selling some of the most important collections in Europe. Phillips, de Pury has itês headquarter in New York, with offices in Geneva, London, Munich, Paris & Zurich. Phillips specializes in the sale of Contemporary, American & Swiss Art, Jewelry, Watches & Wristwatches, 20-21st Century Design, and Photographs. Business Situation: Phillips de Pury and Company wanted to integrate its business processes more closely throughout its organization. Solution: FAI Consulting deployed a Microsoft Windows Sharepoint Portal, Microsoft Content Management Server, and Microsoft SQL Server to create a modular Property and Catalogue Initiative system. Benefits Seamless integration of property management functions Collaborative environment Reduction in end user errors Document collaboration Real time updates to company website content Dynamic auction calendars on company website Catalogue production was standardized across the organization and its production time was reduced from 12 to 4 days

Phillips de Pury
If you think the world of auction houses is all about attending prawn and cocktail parties on the Upper West Side, sipping Krug's Clos du Mesnilês champagne and scribbling a potential buyer on the back of your Town and Country monthly, then you may want to remain tuned into the Antique Road Show on PBS.

Today the art world is as global as any other industry, with sophisticated supply management, CRM procedures, along with on line auctions and global inventory control, with the ability to maximize efficiency and add value to a business.

Situation
Their current situation which needed to be addressed could be characterized as:

• Disconnected databases that were not integrated and resulted in data not readily accessible and available to separate systems.
• Disconnected work processes: There were discontinuities between departments as well as barriers to sharing of information.
• Over reliance on external contractors.
• Current reporting analytics are not flexible enough to meet business needs.

Solution
FAI developed and implemented an integrated, modular system that utilized –best of breed” commercial software products to the greatest extent possible. These software components all used SQL Server for their database which helped achieve and maintain data integration In addition, all the technologies used open standards to assure interoperability while reducing integration complexity and costs.

Added Value
Through the use of FAI’s solution, the following business processes were addressed:

Warehousing
The development of a new warehouse property management module which enabled a more seamless integration of property management functions, though integration of other databases for such information as object information, shipper information and warehouse elements: receiving and put-away, picking and packing, shipping, inventory control.

Catalog Production
Microsoft SharePoint technologies were implemented to create a collaborative environment in which Phillips staff could create catalog content and arrange content in Quark compatible templates without the need for external contract layout specialists. This content could also be saved in both a Quark output file for routing to the printer as well as to a Microsoft Content Management Server which provisioned the company website pages. This system generated lot numbers, text fields and other object information automatically, thus reducing end user error. This catalog production module consisted of the following:

Sharepoint

Content Management Server

With the implementation to CMS, automated provision and real time updates to the company website content were achieved. The content is also synchronized with the printed the catalog information and no conflicts between the data on the website and the printed catalog. The technologies addressed business components:

• Web authoring
• Template based publishing of web content
• Authoring connector to SharePoint
• Automated publishing tasks
• Publishing workflow for reviewing and approving
• Content scheduling
• Page revision history
• Dynamic page assembly

Website
A reconfiguration of the company website so its functionality was increased by dynamic auction calendars which link to catalog object data, absentee bid forms and on-line live auctions as appropriate.