Customer Cases

Please read about some of the work we did for our customers:

Case 1:

The Customer with the legacy hosting environment

THEIR QUESTION: "Our existing hosting environment has grown and evolved over many years. We have added bits and pieces here and there, whenever new capacity or new functionality was deemed necessary. The result, after years of doing this, is that we have a hosting environment that consists of so many different bits and pieces that it looks like a patchwork quilt. Each time we need to make a major addition, it becomes harder to make all these different bits and pieces work together. We have solved this sometimes, by taking shortcuts and doing quick and dirty changes. These have made the platform less reliable than it should be. We always manage to get things done in the end, but don't ask us how.

We need to redesign, but how can we make a platform that meets all the business demands for availability, cost and everything and that will not turn out to be equally hard to maintain as the one we have now?

Our business asks for performance and scalability. However, we are not allowed to get rid of any of the current functionality. Also, some of the legacy stuff won't talk with any new parts. We do not really know how to develop an environment that includes everything we have but still is totally different in the end. How are we going to solve this?"

OUR ANSWER: We worked together with this customer, step by step, to go back to the business and find out what parts of the platform and its functions were indispensible and which ones were only there because they always had been, or because everyone in the industry had them. We found some interesting things. For instance, it turned out that there was no need for 24x7 non-stop availability. This saved this customer a lot of money.

Based on the real functional needs we provided this customer with a conceptual design. We went on to refine this.We hosted and managed this environment and went through a complete transition for it. All the loose ends in this environment were made robust. The result was a modern environment that could be changed faster and without having to use shortcuts that endangered its robustness.

Case 2:

The customer that needed a solution fast:

THEIR QUESTION: "We have a project group, and want to work together online. Not permanently, but initially for three months. Our current provider needs two months' preparation time to set up a site for us. We need something now. Can Bitbrains help us with this?"

OUR SOLUTION: We helped this customer by having a smooth work environment up and running on our own platform, within a week. We managed their site for them on the basis of a three months contract, with the option for prolongation with a month at the time.

Case 3:

The customer who wanted to innovate.

THEIR QUESTION:"We want to launch a new product. The basis for this innovation is a new financial application, so precision is important. If it is going to be a success is not clear yet. We just think it will be. We are not able to make a big investment at this moment, as we have not fully convinced the budget holders yet. Can you help us launch a prototype of our product to prove its value?"

OUR ANSWER: We found this a really exciting problem to solve. How to make a really convincing platform for this innovative idea (and do this on a shoestring) was a challenge to us too.

We did believe that this solution could be successful, however. So we took the risk of frustration and teamed up with a six months' commitment to help out.

We really loved working on this.

We made sure that the hosting infrastructure was available fast. Because of the need to keep adjusting it, we kept in very close contact with this customer. The innovation was eventually approved of.