The OxygeN software system is part of the main identity and access management system for Global Philips. It has been determined that the system has to meet SOx requirements. After T-Systems became the global IT Partner of Philips in 2010, the Oxygen software system is the last system that still is located in a former Philips Data Center located in Eindhoven and uses the network managed by T-Systems. All other SOx compliant systems are operated form Data Centers in Germany or England. The system is due to be replaced and therefore will remain in its current location until being decommissioned.

Een ziekenhuis in het Westland dat een gebied met zo’n 300.000 inwoners bedient, verdeeld over vier locaties, wil net als alle andere zorginstellingen zoveel mogelijk daadwerkelijke zorg besteden aan haar patiënten. Daarbij wordt ICT nadrukkelijk gezien als middel om hier een bijdrage aan te leveren. Aranea is gevraagd om een drietal concepten wensen uit te werken en in te voeren – om zo de zorg met de toepassing van ICT beter te maken.

In the wake of a series of major acquisitions around the world and the resulting reorganisation, a global player in the petrochemicals industry took a strategic decision to make programme and project-based working one of their primary business processes. In the area of Information Technology the decision was to set up a world-wide programme management organisation and to develop an in-house programme and project management system

As a result of a number of strategic choices for applying e-platforms, a process had to be set up at a major telecom operator that would monitor an efficient and effective release and implementation management for corporate websites. This process management role was incorporated at a Functional Management department within the IT organisation. The websites became an important communication channel as well as an important distribution channel for (potential) clients, both for the Consumer Market and the Business Market. Aranea was able to shape and realise this process.

The establishment of architectural principles is currently a preoccupation among many organisations. This can be and is done at many different levels, and we know of work going on at this moment on enterprise architectures, information architectures, infrastructure architectures, application architectures, security architectures. And no doubt there are many other varieties! The introduction of the concept of architectures has been one response to the widely felt need for greater clarity and control (grip) in relation to developments within organisations. And that was the need expressed by a large college in the western Netherlands, where a rapid expansion in student numbers and a new vision in relation to education and teaching had led to an urgent need to address the ICT infrastructure.

During the search for new premises, the government of a particular Dutch province incorporated the Future Ready Workspace (flexitime, mobile working, working from home) as a key criterion. The relocation will take place in 2012, and the new premises will accommodate 30% fewer workstations. By doing this, the government of this province hopes to cut costs whilst raising efficiency and effectiveness. In order to achieve this goal, it was clear that the IT infrastructure required significant modernisation: no investment had been made in workplace technology for years.

The time had come to put this right. Furthermore, the new premises did not include space for a data centre: the computer equipment was to be relocated to a commercial data centre. All in all, it was a complex operation that directly affected all employees. There was also a fixed deadline, as the old premises had to be vacated by a set date.

Aranea was assigned the task of planning and executing a smooth transition based on meticulous analysis of the existing situation and the needs that would arise as a result of the Future Ready Workspace. As a consequence, the terms ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ lost all meaning as it was essential that every employee retained access to the servers and the services of the data centre, whether at the office, in transit or at home. Obviously, the equipment also had to support communication between these workstations.

Large-scale IT restructuring such as this requires solid architecture to guarantee that the organisation has access to a reliable system that meets all wishes and requirements and is compatible with an external data centre. In addition to this, stringent cost-cutting objectives also had to be met.

Approach

Arenea analysed the existing infrastructure and determined the risks and consequences involved. Based on its knowledge, Aranea was able to give the provincial government insight into the available solutions. In order to provide a sound financial basis for the projects, we also created a comprehensive business case which included all relevant aspects. We demonstrated a number of scenarios, including explanation of all consequences and advice with regard to outsourcing.

Result

Aranea’s consultants provided clear and well-founded advice regarding the combination of technology that the provincial government could apply in order to realise an effective IT infrastructure that was not only capable of fulfilling all business objectives, but also greatly facilitated management, flexibility and cost-cutting. The advice was based on a solid business case that included all consequences affecting both OPEX and CAPEX.