Customer Magazine Intersys AG
Editorial Dear reader After successfully being present for our services and give you a smile with 15 years in the IT market, we thought a comic strip from a famous local it was time to pause and reflect. S olothurn satirist! This is what we did with many of our customers, partners and employees during the event we held on Aug. 21st in the city of Solothurn (see article below).
The new magazine will be issued regularly – in exactly the same way you learned to know and trust Intersys as a longtime, trustworthy partner in your daily business. This is a particular key value that we would like to In taking a moment to reflect, we had highlight to you. the idea to create a customer magazine, which you have just received – “Intersys Spotlight”! Enjoy reading our magazine! In an era of speed, of technical and financial facts and in a more and more virtualised world, we want to give you something more than the normal business topics. We want to show you how our company positions itself in Jirí Petr society, show you the people behind CEO
SPOTLIGHT 1/2014
The run to Weissenstein
15 years of Intersys! For the last 15 years, Intersys has been a provider of high quality custom made software solutions and in these years, there were many interesting and challenging projects that we were able to deliver to our customers. The 15 years anniversary is a good time to take a moment to reflect. This is exactly what we did in the afternoon of Aug 21st with a lively group of customers, partners and Intersys employees.
flickr.com / seilbahnweissenstein
On the 24th August around 450 persons participated in the 24th Weissensteinlauf, a 14Km run with 1000 meter climb starting in Solothurn and ending in the mountains above the city and for which there were perfect running conditions on that day. Intersys is one of the main sponsors of the
event, providing specific software in the area of participant management and result analysis and presentation. Intersys considers this investment an important contribution to the community of Solothurn that Intersys forms a part of.
Meeting at the new Intersys offices in Zuchwil, the event launched with an aperitif and the possibility to take a look at our new office that we moved into earlier this year. We then enjoyed a guided tour through the old city of Solothurn which has an interesting history that is not even known by many locals. Mrs. Marie-Christine Egger of the local association for guided tours in historic sites showed us the center of the city in the light of the “Reisläufer”, a term used for the mercenary soldiers that served different French kings in the centuries between 1’500 and 1’700. There are still some
very clear signs of these time that can be only seen by the observant.After the guided tour, the group moved to a restaurant situated on the bank of the river Aare, where grilling & chilling was the main event. It was nice to have some time and the opportunity to learn a little bit more about each other, not just focusing on daily business. Reflecting means looking back, slowing down and considering where we are and this is what all participants were able to do this evening. We as a team at Intersys, look forward to many more years working with our customers and partners!
Customers case studies
No password hassle thanks to SAML Our client, an organisation within a Swiss canton, has requested Intersys to provide a solution for a simplified way of dealing with passwords when using web applications. The new solution had to adopt to the existing authentication components that were already in use at the customer. The number of web based applications that require secure access had grown continuously over the past years at the customer’s site and different mechanisms for authentication and authorization have been employed,. This left the users with a myriad of different passwords and required know-how about security mechanisms that were just required to enter the systems. The client has acquired a centralized Identity Provider solution in a separate project not related to our mandate. This solution was responsible to provide username and passwords for web applications for each end user. Additionally, the customer has previously decided to use the SAML 2.0 standards (SAML – Security Assertion Markup Language, see infobox) as the standard
to exchange authentication and authorization information between the different systems that are used within the customers infrastructure. Clear mandate: simplify Intersys was mandated to significantly simplify the handling of authentication and authorization mechanisms for all end users within the customer organisation. This was especially necessar y for cascaded authentications – one of the main goals of the project. Intersys started with an analysis of the existing mechanisms and created a specification which showed the simplification and which also made sure that there were as few as possible changes within the end user client applications, a key requirement from the customer side. As a result of these requirements, our solution of a “SAML Proxy Server” was developed, implemented and is current-
ly being rolled out to the customer. First field tests have been carried out and clearly show that the targeted results have been achieved. Potential for further product development During the project, it became quite clear that the customer requirements matched other customer’s requests. After a market analysis, including discussions with manufacturers of Identity Provider solutions, Intersys decided to develop a SAML Proxy Server product with similar functionality as the existing one but enhanced by certain additional functions in the area of self-configuration. The resulting solution shall be able to integrate with all existing Identity Provider solutions available on the market. This SAML Proxy Ser ver product development is one of the first activities of Intersys that reflects the change of strategy from a pure custom made software manufacturer towards a product based company.
You can find our more information in the customer case study (german only) on http://intersys.ch/downloads/case-studies/ Intersys_CaseStudy_SAML-Proxy_de.pdf
Interested in SAML Proxy Server? If your company faces similar challenges with authentication and authorization mechanisms, we would be ver y happy to discuss the use of the SAML Proxy Ser ver or other mechanisms to help you simplify your employees life and increase your application security. Please do not hesitate to contact our sales department using following mail address: sales@intersys.ch
Inter-/Intranet User (Browser)
Application (Service)
1 1
2
Identity Provider (IdP) (Secure Login Service)
2
samISOAPdealer
SAML Proxy Server
Service Provider 1 (Web)
SAML as Standard SAML 2.0 is the world-wide de-facto standard for exchanging authentication
3
3
and authorization information within and across organisations. It has been approved by the swiss government IT standardization body (eCH) as an official method and is also used by many of the
SAML Proxy Elements
large service providers worldwide. You
samlFilter
can find more information on SAML using following Wikipedia Link: http://
1
2
3
2
3
User (human) make use of SAML Proxy
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_Assertion_Markup_Language
User (application) makes use of SAML Proxy 1
Service Provider 2 (SOAP)
Product / Services
Software testing is vital for our customers business test plan and a test concept that defines how the different tests will be structured. The type of the tests and the level of testing will be specified in this first phase. Also, what parts of the application will be tested an which not. Testing points are being defined as well as the test integration points for performance, load, functional and stress tests. Once all this work is done, the start of the actual testing is commenced and, from this point on, the customer will receive regular reports on the status of the tests being performed.
Intersys Software testing team (f.l.t.r): René Jehle, Andreas Schneider, Ruedi Blöchlinger, Thomas Letzkus, Kevin Holden
Organisations and companies are highly dependent on well-functioning change procedures when moving from an existing application to a new one. However, there is never any “out of the box” guarantee that new software always behaves just as it has been specified. Some years ago Intersys decided to invest in a software testing team of its own, offering software quality testing services to its customers. René Jehle is the testing team leader and explains why Intersys customers can be certain the new software will work as specified when being tested by his team. René Jehle, you, as most of your team members, have a background in electrical engineering. How does an electrical engineer turn into a software test manager? Each member of my team is a fully certified tester according to ISTQB, the international Software Testing Qualifications Board. Besides passing the basic certification, each member of the team has also passed 4 additional tests which are part of the advanced level. With this, we have studied the best practice of the theoretical definitions, and proved to be able to work with the terminology used in testing. In addition to the theory aspects, all of the team members
have been using their know-how in various customer environments and have therefore accumulated a broad range of hands-on experience. What are the benefits of external testing services for a client? When implementing a new system or updating an existing one, we quite often discover incomplete specifications that need to be corrected. The role of the test manager includes identifying these gaps and minimizing their impacts. The earlier such issues are discovered and corrected, the more likely it is that the project will be ontime and in-cost. Involving test managers
at an early point in the project means making sure the necessary test infrastructure will be in place and working. As independent software testers in a project, we quite often test aspects of the solution that might have been neglected by the developer. Additional benefits to the customers are: know-how of the vertical markets we’re performing our tests in and the knowledgeable use of technologies that we have built in-house by ourselves in order to best serve our testing requirements. E.g. a database that we created for testing in the AAA area (Authentication, Authorization, Accounting). What’s your company’s standard procedure for testing software? As a general principle, we make sure that the work of the project manager and the work of the tester are highly synchronized. Normally, being a part of the project steering group, the tester is highly involved in each go/no-go decision of the project team. Each project starts with the creation of a
In your opinion: why should a company invest in software testing? When changing from an existing system to a new one or when implementing a completely new system, there’s always some risk of not ending up with the specified functionality, the required level of stability or fault free behaviour. This can put businesses in danger and can have a big impact on the bottom line of a company. Software testing is a proven method to reduce risks from those factors if it is employed professionally. As an example: if the test of data being migrated from an existing to a new system has been performed prior to the production switch, the company’s operations manager will have a better night’s sleep prior to the actual migration. Our clients value the fact that we consult and support them during the whole process of quality assurance and that we show responsibility even to the point of supporting them in vital decisions regarding the quality. Quite often, our team members are at customer sites working very closely with the customers team members. This creates trust and certainty which is well needed at times of change.
Intersys Testing Tool Competency Intersys Testing Tool Competency Intersys Testing Tool Competency
Test Tools for Interfaces:
Test Tools for Load Testing:
Test Tools for Test Management:
–Test SoapUI Tools for Interfaces: – SoapUI FitNesse – Test Tools for Interfaces: FitNesse – –SoapUI
– JMeter Test Tools for Load Testing: – LoadUI – JMeter Test Tools for Load Testing: LoadUI – –JMeter
– HPTools Quality Test for Center Test Management: Spirateam –– HP Quality Center Test Tools for Test Management: – Spirateam – HP Quality Center
– FitNesse
– LoadUI
– Spirateam
Specialiced Test Tools:: – Fitnesse and Specialiced Testrelated Tools:: plug-ins (for functional tests) – Fitnesse Findbugsand (search of error patterns in java source – related plug-ins (for functional tests)code) Specialiced Test Tools:: – PMD (for static source code analysis) Findbugs (search ofplug-ins error patterns in java source – –Fitnesse and related (for functional tests) code) – Jenkins (continous testing) PMD (for(search static source analysis) – –Findbugs of errorcode patterns in java source code) – Jenkins Robotask (to test command line interface based applications) – (continous testing) – PMD (for static source code analysis) – QF Test (automation of test taking care of based GUI components) Robotask (to test testing) command line interface applications) – –Jenkins (continous – Toad (for DB testing) QF Test (automation of testline taking care ofbased GUI components) – –Robotask (to test command interface applications) – Toad (for DB testing) – QF Test (automation of test taking care of GUI components) – Toad (for DB testing)
News
Partnership with Scandit Ltd.
Optimized Processes with Ein|fach
Intersys has recently signed a cooperation contract with Scandit Ltd in the era of barcode scanning. A startup formed by combined resources from ETH (Swiss Technology Institute), MIT and IBM, Scandit is an innovative company that focusses on barcode-scanning for smart phones, tablets and wearable devices. The company is headquartered in Zurich with subsidiaries in San Francisco and Boston. For Intersys,
To better position our company in the ever growing market of Business Process Management, Intersys has signed a partner contract with ein|fach GmbH. Einfach, a startup company, is focused on the analysis and organizational optimization of business processes. Ein|fach has a thorough understanding of introducing and furthering of IT based process automation with a strong focus
this cooperation is the clear next step forwards in its activities in the logistics market. Using the Scandit software, Intersys is able to support its customers using smart phones as scanners for tasks that previously only could be performed using dedicated and expensive handheld scanners. More information on the Scandit software can be found on www.scandit.com
in the pharmaceutical market. The work is based on a best practice set of methods that makes sure the target expected savings and optimizations will be achieved. Find more infos about ein|fach on www.ein-fach.ch
Intersys is founding member of the TCBE Chapter Solothurn
New solution portfolio for Subscriber information brokering
On June 18 2014 the local chapter of the ICT Cluster Bern (TCBE) was founded in the city of Solothurn. The purpose of this local chapter is to better position the Solothurn area as an important IT location and to further IT innovation from local companies. Intersys is proudly part of the two founding companies and happy to support the chapter’s activities. In 2014, further ac-
One of Intersys‘ core competences is dealing with subscriber information. Having deployed several customer specific projects in this field, Intersys has decided to invest and develop a solution set that will make it more effective to roll out the solution to new customers. Having a standardized, yet flexible modular framework at its base, the aim is to address specific customer use cases (e.g. subscriber broker for Telco operators, for ser-
tivities have already been planned and include working with local universities, the founding of sub-committees for specific topics and the networking between the local companies. More information on www.tcbe.ch
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Comic
vice providers, for Mobile Virtual Network Operators, for enterprise customers for Network Equipment Providers or for Machine2Machine Providers). Each of these use cases and their respective implementations will be optimized to cover a defined customer need. It is expected that the first Subscriber Information Broker (SIB) based solutions will be announced later in 2014. Inquiries: sales@intersys.ch
New Case Study being prepared to notice us about it on:
Intersys works very closely with its customers achieving great solutions. The number of highly satisfied customers is growing and is reflected in the number of case studies we have created following completion of customer projects. For 2014, following case studies are expected to be released: - A case study about Intersys’ contribution to a Cloud platform and its integra-
tion into the business applications of a large swiss telecom operator - A case study about a renewal of an existing subscriber information system (SIS) for a large Telco operator in Switzerland. We will announce the availability of the case studies to you.
Participate in our contest and be the happy winner of a iPad mini. Just scan the QRCode below and fill in the information on the website you are pointed to. Or, alternatively go to our website at http://www.intersys.ch/contest Every correct submission that is entered until 10th November 2014 is eligible to win an iPad mini.
All people aged 18 and older are eligible to take part in the con-
www.intersys.ch/en/mailing
More existing case studies can be found on www.intersys.ch/en/case-studies
Andreas Thiel, Guest Comic Author
Contest test. 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
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An Albatross A Betatross A Gammatross
Partic ipate and win n ow!
of Intersys AG and Business4you AG are excluded from the contest. The contest will close on 10th November 2014.