Intersys Spotlight June 2017 English

Customer Magazine Intersys AG

Editorial Dear reader The term «agile» has recently been a very popular buzzword. All kinds of industries and all levels of staff is adhering agile standards as part of their daily activities. Even the software industry has been captured by the agile wave – the manifest for agile software development has been declared some 16 years ago and many of the development teams are using it for years. The introduction of agile methods like Scrum or Kanban and the various variations have certainly brought a lot of improvement in the form of better transparency and simpler procedures, especially in places where so far bureaucratic processes have served to cover individual low levels of convenience.

In my view, the original meaning of agile (according the Duden: “showing great flexibility, alertness, versatility”)

applies not only to the process but more importantly to persons and organizations and their very own culture.

Because even if a process or an organization is called “agile”, it does not make them agile unless the people forming the organization fully identify themselves with agility. Other wise, the agile approach might not survive in the long run.

Ji í Petr CEO

SPOTLIGHT 2 /2017

Intersys Events

New Intersys employees

In 2016, Intersys launched successfully the first regional IT event under the brand of Solothurn-it.ch and attracted several business representatives.

For 2017, further local customer events are planned in the areas of – Software Quality Assurance – IT Infrastructure Consulting – DevOps Intersys plans to get in contact with existing and new customer in order to position itself as realiable, flexible and local IT partner.

Intersys goal ist o grow organically over

Intersys Training Intersys plans to leverage its technological know-how by providing training classes in the market. It is planned to start offering Apache Cassandra / Datastax Enterprise classroom sessions in 2017 in Switzerland. These sessions will be integrated into the worldwide school calendar of Datastax. If you have an educational need, please do not hesitate to contact us using the following address: sales@intersys.ch

Open positions Intersys is always looking for talented persons that want to participate in the future shaping of the company. Send your resume to info@intersys.ch or give us a call for the first introduction.

the next couple of years in ordert o satisfy the steady increase in customer demand.

Following persons have joined the Team in the last couple of months:

Carina Drews Project Manager and Consultant for internal and external projects as well as working in the areas of quality management and marketing (starting August 2017).

Raphael Ruch Senior System Engineer supporting our new operations team

Carina Drews

Reza Shahabi

Raphael Ruch

Heinz Gut

Reza Shahabi Productowner/Business Development driving one of our agile development teams Heinz Gut Test Manager supporting customers in their efforts to increase software quality

Product / Services

Customers case studies

Case Study „Indexing and full text search within large data“ using an Intersys Open Source approach The customer behind this Intersys case study is an organization related very closely to the Swiss federal government. Due to its core business activities and its public exposure, it has developed a very high standard of requirements regarding compliance.

Therefore enforcement of these requirements has very high priority within the organization.

Where it started In order to be able to understand what communication flows happen between employees but also between employees and external resources, the company systematically archives all e-mail traffic within the organization making communication very transparent. Access to this archive is strictly limited to a few persons which work in the legal department or deal with compliance issues.

The customer was looking for a solution that would allow the respective persons to perform a full text search within all archived e-mails. All activities of such searches needed to be recorded for compliance reasons again. The existing archiving software has a built-in search mechanism but first investigations showed quickly that this search was not optimized for the large amount of data involved nor could the search be invoked independently of the underlying archiving software.

Schema of the implemented solution

Intersys was mandated to perform a proof-of-concept of the solution it has proposed to the customer and to show that following requirements could be fulfilled: – Prove that the initial full text indexing of all existing e-mails (10 years’ worth of e-mails) in the archivecould be performed within an acceptable amount of time – Prove that the daily indexing of newly to be archived e-mail messages would not take longer than 2 hours The proposed solution Intersys offering was based on open source technologies which were centered around the following functionality: – A structure for storing mass data for the involved index-data which is based on the open source product Apache Solr.

– A mechanism with which e-mails that need to be indexed can be retrieved from the archiving system, are subsequently indexed and the index information is then stored in the index-database.

– A GUI component that allows selected persons to start their searches and shows the related search results.

– An audit trail functionality which saves all performed searches thus making it very transparent who’s accessed the archived e-mail information.

When working out the solution, there was another challenge that the project team was facing: the vendor of the archiving software was not very cooperative. However, the standard search mechanisms provided with the archiving software was optimized by Intersys in a way that allowed reaching search results which met the requirements provided by the customer. This was very satisfactory for the customer.

Performance considerations The implemented solution is based on a so call ETL (Extract – Transform – Load)-process which retrieves the data from the archiving system, transforms them into a index-format and saves the information in the indexdatabase. During the proof-of-concept it turned out quite quickly that 95% of the system resources were used to retrieve the information from the archiving system.

The transformation and storing of the information in the index-database, as it seemed, would be negligible.

The system was built in a way that both of the following use cases could be covered with the ETL mechanism: – Loading of the accrued daily new e-mail messages.

– Loading of e-mail messages for a defined period of time for which there were gaps in the indexing database.

Extrapolation of the performance numbers for the ETL process that were gained during the proof-of-concept phase allowed the conclusion that the overall time it would take to index all of the approx. 30 million.

E-mails would take around 7 weeks which was what met customer expectations.

Intersys Operations Team – your first reliable contact into Intersys

All systems that we operate for customers are located in a datacenter that is run professionally by one of our local partner. It has all necessary certifications (ISO standards for quality, operations and security) which are normal today making sure that the customers equipment is running in a professional environment. Intersys’ services are based on this infrastructure resulting in highly reliable total solutions that the customer can experience every day.

The advantages of the implemented solution Open Source Using widely available open source software reduces the investment cost and benefits from the fact that knowledge about this technology is broadly available on the market.

Independent search mechanism The client received a full test search which is completely decoupled from any business application. This platform therefore can also be used for searching in other archives without compromising the existing one.

Left to right: Atilla Kocaay, Raphael Ruch, Andreas Schneider

Flexibility The underlying architecture is modern and designed to adapt to future requirements.

Combined with the professional engagement of the Intersys staff, necessary changes can be implemented in a short period of time bringing flexibility to react to future customer’s needs.

Compliance By having the built-in audit trail, the system is very transparent and supports highest standards of compliance when it comes to managing confidential data.

Further on, it was proven that performing full text searches on the index database would indeed allow realistic response times in the area of milliseconds – a clear improvement compared with the search mechanism that was provided by the archiving system.

User driven search The permissions of who is allowed to search where and what can be controlled using the built-in authorization system. If necessary, the authorization system can be integrated with an existing identity management system the customer has already in place.

The solution that was proposed for the proof-of-concept was implemented following the proof of above mentioned performance indicators. It subsequently was integrated into the IT environment of the customer.

With this, the customer now has a full text search method that is completely independent of his existing archiving system which, additionally, also allows granular access as to who can perform searches and provides an audit trail that fully meets the high requirements of the customer’s compliance standards.

Audit Trail The built-in audit trail can also be used in cooperation with other applications the customer is already using. Integration can be done efficiently and with little effort.

About Intersys Founded in 1999, Intersys Inc. has been providing custom made software solutions for more than 15 years. Besides software development, Intersys has also long term experience in software quality assurance and supports its customers with 7*24h software support for more than 15 years.

Intersys Inc. customers include international and national telco operators as well as industry, media, banking and public organizations across Switzerland as well as in UK and Ireland. Intersys Inc. is an international company with headquarters in Zuchwil, Switzerland.

Intersys has a dedicated operations team that is the first contact for support requests from customers. This article highlights on who’s behind the voices and what other responsibilities the team has when not answering calls.

The Intersys Operations Team consists of 3 members. In this article, we asked Andreas Schneider, head of the team, some questions about their activities and services.

Andreas, which tasks enjoy highest priority on your everyday’s schedule?

Well, a large portion of our time is spent opearting our internal IT systems. Being responsable for running a diverse infrastructure like clients, servers, storage, networks, applications, security all the way to facility services, life never really tends to get boring. During office hours, our support services are on demand from either customers or internal requestors, helping to get issues resolved quickly and professionally. We are the first point of contact into Intersys and try to solve support issues as much as we can by ourselves before handing them over to the development teams when problems are really related to developed software code.

Who are your customers primarily?

Traditionally, besides internal personnel, it is employees from national and international customers of Intersys. Most of them are using software that has been produced by our company, they use test systems that we provide to them. For many of our customers we’re also responsible to provide hardware and hardware related software. With the recent expansion of the team we also expanded our knowledge and capabilities and therefore are also enlarging the set of services we offer. We have started supporting local customers that have not been using software from Intersys, opening a new field to the company.

Speaking about IT infrastructure, there is a big trend towards Cloud based services.

How is Intersys involved in this kind of business?

This is a high priority topic on our list of activities. But we are also very skeptical about the benefits and risks of this technology. This gives us the role of an advisor to our custo-

mer. We see a rising need from our customers for mixed infrastructures (cloud and on-premise). Our experience supports us very much. We know which services are less performant when sourced from the cloud compared to in house. We know how to best integrate local (e.g. Microsoft Office) and cloud (e.g. Microsoft One Drive) based services to the benefit of the customer. All is based on the customers requirements regarding performance and functionality. While we see today a very good network connectivity and high bandwidth, we still have to cater for offline functionality that is needed by employees when working outside of their traditional work environments. On the technology side, we’re familiar with various virtualization technologies for servers. We have room for know-how improvement on client virtualization which is a topic we’re currently enhancing. As Intersys, we rely on solutions from partners. With our selected, quality oriented partners, we can fulfill every need and produce total solutions that satisfy highest customer demands.

If it works 7*24 for a telco customer, it will certainly work for all other businesses. Our know-how is a good value for companies looking into outsourcing their IT infrastructure.

There are more and more SME’s in the area of Solothurn doing exactly that.

7*24 operations and support – what’s important for a local IT service provider?

For Intersys, this is a USP (Editor: Unique Selling Proposition) which we use positioning us on the market. It tends to get harder and harder to differentiate itself in a market that turns more and more into commodity. Local customers generally are not asking for 7*24h support. However, our international customers clearly do. So we can pretty much leverage the knowhow that we gain from those telco customers to apply it to our local customers.

Very similar to the formula 1 where knowhow flows back into everydays car technology. The base to make sure that systems fail as little as possible is to build them on the latest technologies available on the market.

Why should a customer decide for Intersys IT services and support today?

There are several reasons to come to Intersys. Firstly our experience from the telecommunication infrastructure where highly reliable systems have been the standard for years.

Our experience from our international customers is flowing into all other engagements we have also locally. You can draw an analogy to what’s happening in the motor car sport where technologies used in races will help to improve the latest cars that are sold on the market to run reliably on the roads. We do have a similar strategy applying our knowledge. Furtheron, we are used to work in an environment where short paths and flexibility are a key differentiator. Operators in the UK or Ireland receive the same, fast response as local companies from the Solothurn area where Intersys is located. And all companies are guaranteed a single point of contact they can rely on. Short paths does also mean short response time in an incident where the requestor will be connected with the technician without going through lengthy helpdesk procedures. This increases the customers trust in our capabilities. We have long time relations with many of our valued customers.

If there would be an „ideal customer“, what would he/she look like from your teams perspective?

There is no „dream customer“ in our view.

Each customer has different needs of his/her own. Our job, besides handling and managing technologies, is clearly a people job and that’s what it also makes very attractive. There are two points we like to make when it comes to optimal cooperation: If we receive a support request, we like to get as much qualified information as possible from the customer.

What does not work, can the error be reproduced, is the person reporting the incident adequately trained on the system so he/she can give qualified input? Even better for us it would be if we could work with the customer to make sure incidents do not occur at all.

Several proactive services will ensure failures are discovered before they actually materialize. An automated system monitoring can transfer valualble information without manual intervention from a customer’s employee and provide us with the right right information to act quickly and resolution oriented. We love to see happy customers and consider ourselves to be part of the customers operations

staff. So we are most happy if we can closely work with the customers teams to make sure the infrastructure runs uninterrupted and reliable.

Concluding this interview a rather commercial question : how does a company, in times where Amazon, Google and Microsoft all offer IT Services in large quantities, make a profit ?

Simply by focussing on creating value for the customer where we can and include partners with their respective values. Focussing on regional service delivery is another factor that plays an important role. Using local partners with short paths and quick response times tend to make our life and the life of our customers more easy . Many of our local customers want to be services by local service providers where they are also recognized as a smaller company, not just being a number somewhere. If we excel in this, we have a very good base to keep our company profitable, pay adequate salaries to our employees and secure the future of the company we love to work for.

Thank you Andreas for this interview!

Intersys IT Services As part of its various customer engagements, Intersys has also built-up a profound know-how in the area of IT Services. Why not benefit from the same quality services that are equally delivered to large telcos like Swisscom or Vodafone: – Test systems, development systems – Support services – IT infrastructure (server, storage, networks, virtualization, monitoring and management) – IT design and consulting

The IT Operations team in brief: Andreas Schneider Head of the team, has joined Intersys in the very beginning and has a vast know-how in IT infrastructure as well as in the software development space.

Atilla Kocaay Atilla Kocaay has joined Intersys 1.5 years ago and contributes with his capabilities and certifications in a range of technologies and services.

Raphael Ruch Raphael Ruch has worked for several companies in the area of IT customer support and has vast experience in IT Systems build-up and operations.

News

New customers Intersys is glad to report new customers.

Among them: – Hospital of the Canton of Lucerne – Sila

New partnerships – Finanzplus – Ypsomed We are looking forward to a lasting and beneficial cooperation.

Intersys is constantly expanding its competences in order to optimize our offering. By adding partner services to our portfolio, we can act as a single contact to our customers. New partners include:

Agile Development takes over 2016 was the year of transformation towards agile development within Intersys.

Today, Intersys has 3 agile teams consisting of testers, developers and architects.

Each team supports multiple customer projects. The advantage for our customers are quite clear:

–M ore active involvement in the development process – Independence from a single software developer/tester – Shorter time to seeing first result Talk to your Intersys contact if you would like to know more about our agile development process.

Winner of our previous contest Although it’s been a while since the handover, here’s a picture of the occasion when Florian Wäfler of Swisscom AG received a Samsung Gear S2 Smartwatch. Florian Wäfler acts as head of innovation in the area of network and cloud at the Swiss telco operator. We wish a lot of fun with the device.

Quick Assessment Test Management Do you know the quality levels of your business applications ? Is software considered a business risk in your organization ? Could a software error cause massive damage to your business ?

Intersys will soon publish a quick assessment on its website which will support you finding out your organizations maturity in terms of software quality.

Datastax Certifications Intersys has several certified Datastax architects. Their role ist o support you in the build-up of complex data systems needed in areas like IoT (Internet of Things), Big Data, Smart Home and many more.

In ordert o further support the market with its expert level know-how, Intersys is currently in the process to build up a DataStax training ser vice in Switzerland

Contest

–R exult, (organization consulting, records management, purchasing management) – Thomas Krenn (hardware) – Axxiv/Littlebit (hardware, cloud services) – Abächerli Solutions (ECM) – G runewald & Partner (IT consulting, IT optimization, IT quality)

which is based on the world wide model applied by the DataStax training division.

Ask us to to help you with cost efficient solutions and the needed know-how to get you on boarded with these specific topics. https://intersys.ch/en/ser vices/cassandra-consulting-ser vices

Comicstrip Participate in our new contest! With the help of a little luck, you can win a voucher for a historical guided tour of your choice in Solothurn for up to 10 persons. Participate by scanning the QR-code and filling out the resulting form or visit our website.

The winner will be drawn from all entries.

Contest deadline is July 10th 2017.

Which of the following 3 organisation is not considered a worldwide cloud service provider: a) Amazon b) Microsoft c) International Red Cross

Partic ipa and W te in!

All people aged 18 and older are eligible to take part in the contest. Only one entry per person. There is no legal recourse after the prize draw. The prize draw is excluded from the jurisdiction of any court. The winner will be notified in writing by eMail and/or letter. There is no cash alternative to the prize. The prize is not transferable to another person. Information entered by the participants can be used by Intersys for advertising purposes, however, they will not be passed on to third parties. Employees of Intersys AG and Business4you AG are excluded from the contest. The contest will close on July 10th 2017.

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