The task

The existing business intelligence (BI) application was characterized by isolated solutions, not centrally managed and unstructured. The BI applications of our customers should be made available in a higher quality, more reliable and cheaper. The sensitive data should be handled according to the highest security guidelines. We should redesign and standardize the environment and set up a new operating unit for the operation of these applications, which operates the applications using the IT operating processes according to ITIL on the basis of fixed Service Level Agreements (SLA) according to uniform standards.

The challenge

The challenge with this project is the high rate of change (changes) and the enormous quantity structure: From more than 250,000 reports, around 80,000 are accessed by several thousand users every month, which brings the approximately 250 servers to their performance limits. Legal requirements and requirements of controlling, as well as regular software updates, generate the high rate of changes in this area, which must not have any effects on the SLA-compliant operation of the applications. The server and server environments have grown over time, so that a large number of different versions and architectures exist side by side, which increases the operating costs. There are no uniform operating processes, which is no longer up-to-date and also makes uniform standards for service quality impossible. Another challenge lies in the data required for development, to which the developers are no longer allowed to have access in the future.

our solution

Our highly qualified consultants have planned the reconstruction of the server environment in extensive concepts, through the division of the environments (layer architecture), the standardization of hardware and software, the automation of regular tasks, the standardization across functional layers and server function classes, the standardization of the architecture for many processes , the quality-assured operation of the platform through the centralized operation, as well as the introduction of the operating processes according to ITIL (especially change management and incident management) set new standards and enable a higher and defined service quality with significant cost reductions. A concept was also drawn up for the security of the real data. These may (as an exception) also exist outside the actual productive environment, but are shielded by an extensive authorization concept so that the developers can access parts that are absolutely necessary for development, but cannot view / evaluate the entire scope of data.

(Server and layer architecture - symbolic image, simplified)

Measures to ensure quality

• Change management

• standardization

• Layer architecture

• automation

• Test procedure

• security

• transparency

Since this project, highly qualified NorCom consultants have been working with the customer to run BI applications on-site at the customer’s site, thereby guaranteeing high availability. As a result of the standardization, a large part of the server hardware could be systematically virtualized in order to enable further cost reductions.

The customer benefit
Operations, departments and software development were able to be significantly relieved by this project.

The introduction of change management and incident management lead to a measurable increase in quality and enable compliance with the agreed service quality (SLA).

The standardization of software and hardware enables optimal monitoring according to defined standards, systematic backup and automated installation, automated configuration and automated server testing. Control activities could mostly be automated.

We enable the federal authorities to provide attractive digital offers for their employees, customers and institutions and to fulfill their legal mandate.