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Filhet-Allard automates the deployment of its new ERP management system with OpenText™ Cloud Service Automation (CSA) and OpenText™ Operations Orchestration (OO)

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Outcomes

  • Replaced a range of complex management consoles with a single portal, which has eliminated operating errors
  • Enabled quicker responses to requests for new insurance products
  • Benefited core activities quickly from tools that are associated with new insurance products

Challenge

Automate the deployment and commissioning of complete environments as part of the redesign of management software.

“We are currently undergoing a period of transformation in which we need to offer increasingly complex insurance products. To this end, we have begun a project to redesign our management tools using the Cleva ERP system, a management software solution for the insurance sector.”

“But the question of speed still needed to be resolved: to remain competitive, we had to find a way to deploy the ERP quickly, so that the business could use it as soon as possible to meet the new demands of the market,” explains Eric Swiniarski, head of IT Architecture & Security services, Filhet-Allard.

Swiniarski had to procure a solution that could quickly install and configure application components as well as automatically supply virtual machines.

Details

Solução

Automating the deployment and roll-out of application components

Swiniarski evaluated the solutions on the market but very quickly decided to go to OpenText (formerly Micro Focus), which had already allowed him to carry out a technology review of its CSA and OO solutions. Respectively, these are used to build Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings. This is done from a single portal within which users can automatically manage application components in the deployment process.

“With these solutions and the expertise of the Micro Focus (now OpenText) team, we have automatically integrated and configured 12 to 15 technical services. These include Oracle databases, Citrix NetScaler, and open-source Puppet software to manage the deployment of middleware. Also, we’ve incorporated Universal CMDB*, vCenter for virtualization as well as supervision and backup tools,” says Swiniarski.

The system has been deployed in three phases. The first phase, which took around three months, was used to design the solution; the team had been particularly keen to recover the existing rules from Puppet to preserve and capitalize on the existing infrastructure. During the second phase, which ran for two months, a proof of concept was put in place.

“I am grateful here for the support in terms of software and services: at the end of this phase, the new cloud framework worked so well that we retained it when the system went live, with one or two minor adjustments,” acknowledges Swiniarski.

The third phase is deployment: “This is still ongoing because we are deploying eight environments in succession, each comprising around twenty virtual servers with all the associated software components and configuration.”

In the past, the staff in charge of commissioning the environments carried out a large number of very technical operations from different management consoles. This was slow and generated errors. They now operate a reduced number of tasks from a single portal and can deliver an environment in an hour and a half.

Eric Swiniarski
Head of IT Architecture & Security Services, Filhet-Allard

Resultados

Rapid deployment thanks to a reusable system

Whilst days if not weeks would have been previously needed to deploy a complete ERP Cleva environment, Swiniarski’s team currently manages to do so in an hour and thirty minutes. One of the remarkable benefits of the cloud project is the reusability of the building blocks.

“We currently have twenty building blocks available from CSA* and its range of components. These are associated with 200 execution flows configured in Operations Orchestration*, to easily commission the environments that Filhet-Allard’s managers will need to use. In the past, production staff carried out a large number of very technical operations from different management consoles, which were slow and generated errors. They now operate a reduced number of tasks from a single portal,” says Swiniarski.

Even better, the automation platform implemented here will also be used to deploy environments other than those linked to the ERP system.

“The Filhet-Allard and Micro Focus (now OpenText) project teams have produced very high-quality deliverables, allowing us to strengthen our assets and to make use of them for new implementations. Here, I’m particularly thinking about Alfresco Enterprise Content Management, Talent ETL data transformation or the SOA webMethods platform that are required for our core business activities.”

In short, Swiniarski believes that, thus far, the project is certainly the most successful since Filhet-Allard first initiated steps towards creating an internal cloud in 2011. His management, with the help of OpenText (formerly Micro Focus), has ensured that the project has been delivered on time and within budget as outlined at the start of the project.

About Filhet Allard

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The challenge facing Filhet-Allard had been to shorten IT deployment lead times to remain ahead in the insurance market, which is currently facing real challenges. Filhet-Allard is a group that simultaneously provides insurance brokerage and daily contract management for its clients through the three entities Filhet-Allard Maritime (B2B), Filhet-Allard & Cie S.A. (B2B2C) and AMV (B2C).

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