August 8, 2018 // By Magenic
A public utility provider was inundated with unsupported business applications.
Challenge
A public utility provider of gas and electricity had over 400 business applications running on a Lotus Notes platform. With no warranty or upgrade options, the risk of losing key information was high.
Due to the support costs associated with keeping this old system stable, opportunities for application improvements to better support the business were not always possible. Thus, the company was often challenged to provide the right tools for its employees to do the work they needed to do.
Solution
Magenic collaborated with each of the 400 application owners to assess the current business requirements for each app. It was determined that 200 applications were no longer needed. The 200 remaining applications were divided by their respective migration complexity and allocated for processing to a Magenic team best suited to do the work.
The Magenic team developed a ‘factory software process’ with Quest tools, LEAN principles, centralized documentation, and instant collaboration using a SharePoint site to workflow the jobs. This factory approach provided better than expected processing speed, giving developers more time to optimize the applications during the migration process.
Results
By moving off Lotus Notes to SharePoint, the company can now customize and retool their applications in-house. Additionally, operating costs are now more in line with expectations and support is readily available when needed.
SharePoint’s farm metrics can be utilized to track impressions, hits, application use, frequency, and utility, so that they can scale the farm according to the frequency of use and value to the business. The company operates today with less risk, is more capable, and is much better prepared to provide the tools its employees need to be successful.
The company operates today with less risk, is more capable, and is much better prepared to provide the tools its employees need to be successful.