SKIDATA

Flexible Cloud Infrastructures: The Access Card for Fast and Reliable Customer Services

To enable digital access to parking meters, when purchasing a ski pass or booking a stadium ticket, the Austrian expert for visitor management solutions – SKIDATA – operates a cloud infrastructure that is maintained and continually updated by Gofore’s subsidiary eMundo.

THE CHALLENGE

How to build modern cloud infrastructures in a legacy system environment

The demand for barrier-free services is growing rapidly, for instance when paying for parking at the supermarket, on-street, in a parking garage, or so called ‘park and ride’ facilities at public transportation hubs. With the right access solution, parking reservations and related actions can be processed and billed digitally at any time, from anywhere. For this to work, however, the service provider needs access to the cloud.

Although SKIDATA had such tried and tested solutions on-premise, the existing software was reaching its limits. New cloud systems had to be developed for necessary product expansions. In particular, to enable the Smart Parking “Connect” platform and similar applications, the existing production environment had to undergo a fundamental change.

This is why SKIDATA made use of the special know-how of Gofore’s subsidiary eMundo, in order to build a new basis for all technical systems.

Providers are recognising the many advantages of cloud computing: Cloud services allow for faster release of new app features and provide more reliable access to various customer services.

OUR APPROACH

Agile initiatives and lean processes

With the support of eMundo, workflows were streamlined, complexities reduced, technical requirements minimised, and chains of command shortened. This has resulted in efficient, flat organisational structures, whereby each individual project team assumes responsibility and does its part throughout the entire product development cycle.

The approach is always solution-oriented and bottom-up. To keep software error rates low, the development performance is actively monitored and forecast. This enables a timely reaction and, if necessary, countermeasures.

In doing do, the teams have grown closer and closer together, recognising that both the organisation and its individual projects must be viewed as a whole. Not only are those involved who play an active role in product development, but internal cooperation extends across entire departments, including SKIDATA branches worldwide.

“With eMundo we have found an extremely competent partner who challenges and drives us forward. Together we are constantly on the road to progress.”

Christoph Schwarzenberger, Vice President – Technology, SKIDATA

THE RESULT

A flexible organisation built to scale software development

Overall, Gofore’s subsidiary eMundo has succeeded in supporting SKIDATA in sustainably driving the cloud business forward. Today, existing software architectures can be built on. This makes SKIDATA’s product solutions more scalable.

Especially in the business areas of people and car access, eMundo has visibly changed SKIDATA’s entire system landscape. Created were processes for a modern production environment in which high-quality software can be quickly developed and implemented.

Through continuous integration, the release time for new functions in service-oriented apps has increased from one release per month to multiple deployments per day. At the same time, the development process has become more reliable, and the error ratio is lower. For car park operators, this means savings in IT personnel and operating costs. End customers, on the other hand, can enjoy the many advantages of barrier-free parking.

Case Highlights

Modern organisational structures for commercial success

From sales to project management and service, eMundo has helped SKIDATA transform itself and make the software business more profitable. As a result of this internal change process, the “Connect” platform, for example, retains a strong market position because it can easily, securely, and quickly map a wide variety of functions in the cloud.

The project collaboration between SKIDATA and eMundo has expanded steadily over the years. Today, the Gofore subsidiary is a fully integrated partner of SKIDATA, especially when it comes to developing cloud software for payment, transactions, parking violation detection and much more.