Challenge:
Enormous challenges for software providers
The challenges for software providers are enormous, be it from an increasingly saturated market, growing numbers of providers, the professionalisation of open source providers, increasing cost pressure or growing demands from customers for providers to understand their business model and the nature of the associated problems and to develop appropriate solutions in response. Only those who can generate genuine economic value added with their software solutions can prevail successfully in the long term. And cloud solutions or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) hold enormous potential in terms of customer acquisition and customer satisfaction.
Expensive and risky processes
Traditionally acquired software entails purchasing licences, signing maintenance contracts, setting up infrastructure and planning migration and integration processes. This is often a long and costly business with many risks. Once installed, regular software updates and security measures need to be implemented by customers – activities that often result in malfunctions and usage restrictions.
That means having personnel available as well as test and integration systems in place. Software provider BBL-Software moved its infrastructure to the cloud some years ago. This enabled it to save both its approximately 80 customers and the company itself these added costs and to continue to offer its own turnkey and web-based software solutions for project management.
Solution:
Cooperation for optimised cloud infrastructure
BBL has been using our cloud platform since 2014. The aim was to optimise the cloud infrastructure in which BBL offers the SaaS solution to its end users. “Our contacts at Dimension Data understand our business, which means we can now offer our customers a better quality SaaS solution,” comments Bernd Langer, CEO of BBLSoftware GmbH.
In addition to excellent customer support and affordable prices, our Managed Cloud Platform delivers many benefits. We guarantee 99.99 % infrastructure availability as well as network performance and fast response times and low latency.
What is more, the simple integration of application programming interfaces (APIs) enables users to configure the cloud environment as they wish and supports a high degree of automation.
Integrated load balancing software handles requests, automatically smoothing out load peaks across a number of servers. Last but not least, our partnership with IT provider BBL’s network provides access to new potential customers. PROJEKTA®, a software solution for project management from BBL-Software, provides small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with all the functions, content and processes they need for everything from project planning through to billing. Versions are currently in development for schools, entrepreneurs and public service providers.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular often baulk at the purchase of enterprise software, as this can involve high initial investment costs. Cost pressures on IT departments as well as the increased desire to achieve standardisation in IT are, however, the reason for many companies to consider buying software in the form of an SaaS solution. Even though cloud computing and pay-as-you-go models can already be seen as a commodity, there are in some cases still a few prejudices to be overcome, which may be a result of the fear of losing control of confidential data. Since the NSA scandal in particular, customers also want to have their data in Europe and not in the U.S. and are becoming increasingly cautious.
Migration – configured to custom needs in 4 hours
In this specific case, BBL-Software was granted access to our Managed Cloud Platform as a runtime environment and was able to install and custom-configure infrastructure components such as server, storage and network services in the virtual data centre in a fast, streamlined manner.
- Migration of the project management software PROJEKTA® and the sector-specific solutions
- Makler Pro and Ö+ into the new runtime environment
- Successive migration of customer projects to Dimension Data’s new cloud environment
- Installation of an independent environment for each customer
- Backup solutions The key challenge lies in integrating the SaaS solutions quickly into the customer’s IT landscapes
- The key challenge lies in integrating the SaaS solutions quickly into the customer’s IT landscapes.
Result:
Dynamic cloud infrastructure on a global platform
Our Managed Cloud Platform is a web-based platform for software providers that delivers demand-driven scalability based on user numbers and data volumes, flexibility, usage-oriented billing models and therefore optimised investment costs. This is because the cloud infrastructure that we implemented is highly dynamic, efficient and can be adapted perfectly to customer projects and load fluctuations – free of rigid licensing agreements and maintenance contracts. If necessary, the infrastructure can even be expanded in just a few minutes.
Last but not least, a professionally managed cloud environment enables a higher standard of security and accordingly significant minimisation of risks. The infrastructure services used are fully transparent (pay as you go) and can be represented on an hourly basis. Furthermore, the cloud solution allows access to the application and the data anytime and anywhere – contributing essential value added in project management and not least real cost advantages.
An example of this is Vogelsänger Event GmbH, a customer of BBL-Software, which managed to reduce its enormous printing costs by 15 percent.
‘We benefit from the Dimension Data cloud solution as a software provider but also our customers benefit as software users,’ says Bernd Langer, CEO of BBL-Software GmbH. ‘The outsourcing of our IT infrastructure including all administrative tasks allows our customers and us to concentrate on our core business.’ In addition to cost efficiency, the cloud at the same time allows the company to position itself for the future – with streamlined and transparent processes, support for mobile working and Bring Your Own Device and more effective knowledge management, Langer goes on to explain.
