450 engineers, one platform. Rapp consolidates its IT.

Customer Profile

The consistent use of Microsoft Cloud and on-premises technology (hybrid cloud), easy remote access and a communication solution fully integrated into the Office applications with Skype for Business – this enabled the Rapp Group to increase productivity and simplify its ICT operations.

As one of the leading planning and consulting groups in Switzerland, Rapp is active in the sustainable development and integral design of living space and the environment. With around 450 engineers, architects, planners and specialists, the company develops innovative customer solutions in the fields of buildings, organisation and technology, supply and disposal, traffic and transport, site and environment as well as metering and billing.

Rolf Rothweiler, Head of IT at Rapp, is delighted with the new solution.

"The ability to collaborate anytime and anywhere is absolutely essential for the company's employees."

Facts and Figures

Starting Point and Objectives

Until now, Rapp Management AG operated an IT environment for the entire group that was based on technologies from Novell and Microsoft. Servers running Suse Linux and Windows were used, along with a virtualisation cluster based on XEN and the Novell GroupWise mail system.

A radical simplification of the infrastructure, a reduction in the effort and costs for operation, maintenance and training, greater security – and the ability to use the latest communication technologies: Rapp Management AG's requirements specification for the ICT overhaul was demanding.

Solution

Hybrid cloud with Office 365: The aim of the project was to provide the roughly 450 employees of the Rapp Group with a modern and attractive ICT solution. The new, standardised platform was intended to optimise internal and external communication using the latest technologies. All employees were to be given reliable remote access to data and programs. As the basis for all new services, a new virtualisation environment had to be built. In a first step, the migration of the Novell GroupWise mail system to Microsoft Exchange and Outlook was then tackled.

The migration of the data to the Office 365 cloud followed in the second step, which also included testing Skype for Business running in parallel with the existing telephony. In the final phase, the mailboxes were definitively switched over to Office 365 and the telephony to Skype for Business. In parallel with building the infrastructure, the users were trained for the new environment.

Results

Cost transparency, less complexity and more security: With the new solution, a substantial simplification of the ICT infrastructure was achieved. The various technology platforms as well as conventional telephony were reduced to a single hybrid cloud solution – a data centre virtualised with Hyper-V (private cloud) and Office 365 (public cloud) with Skype for Business for unified communication.

Thanks to the use of Office 365, users always have the latest versions of all applications at their disposal, as well as valuable additional services such as Yammer, Sway and more. Skype for Business ensures that all employees are continuously reachable and provides reliable presence information. Better communication options make it easier to simplify and optimise collaboration on projects.

Operating the server environment in an external data centre brings not only greater cost transparency but also improved protection against outages and unauthorised access. In addition, branch offices can be networked more easily and efficiently. Reliable remote access to data and programs is guaranteed at all times thanks to DirectAccess.

Challenges

Many Thanks for the Great Collaboration

We at Baggenstos are pleased that our solution was able to contribute to simplifying the ICT structure.

Our thanks go not only to the IT team and the management of Rapp Management AG, but also to Beat Gfeller from the consulting firm AskMeWhy, which was responsible for the interfaces between business and IT.