Philips chooses Autonomy as software supplier

Electronics giant Philips has adopted British software group Autonomy as a preferred supplier.

Under the terms of the deal, Autonomy's data-searching software will initially be used to power one of Philips's global e-commerce projects.

Dr Mike Lynch, Autonomy's founder and chief executive, has hailed the move as an "excellent development" for the FTSE-100 listed company.

Autonomy specialises in providing technology which enables large computer systems to understand large pieces of text, voice and video documents such as e-mails and web pages.

At the heart of today's deal is Autonomy's ability to analyse this kind of unstructured data in any language, then identify and rank the main concepts in it.

Its software can then tag, categorise, link, personalise and deliver that information automatically within e-business applications.

Dr Lynch says: "Autonomy's newly-acquired status as a Philips preferred supplier means that rollout of Autonomy across Philips can take place rapidly and with minimal need for administration.

"We have demonstrated that we can integrate seamlessly with Philips's existing systems to provide a completely automated e-commerce infrastructure."

The news comes after Autonomy announced earlier this month that it was joining forces with the world's leading IT services supplier, IBM Global Services.