Luise Händlmaier engages Collax Business Server to improve efficiency
“Who invented it?” is a frequently asked question when it comes to food. The Chinese and Italians still argue about who really invented the noodle, and both New Yorkers and Neopolitans claim to bake the world’s best pizza. And there is little doubt that the Swabian ‘Maultaschen’ and the Polish ‘Pirogues’ do share some distinct similarities. Yet one thing is for sure: the Weißwurst is Bavarian, it is eaten with a pretzel at the very latest by noon, and Händlmaier’s sweet mustard has traditionally accompanied each Weißwurst served. Since Johanna Händlmaier created the mustard for her husband’s butchery shop in 1914, the recipe has been handed down from generation to generation. Surviving the sale of the butchery shop, the ecology hype, and the turn of the century, Händlmaier’s established itself as the founder of a true mustard dynasty. Spreading its reputation beyond the company headquarters in Regensburg and the Bavarian borders, Händlmaier today has a 60% market share of all sweet mustard consumption in Germany. Business is booming; per shift approximately 50.000 glass pots are filled, and this year the company plans to open a new distribution warehouse on its premises.
Since 1992 this Bavarian specialty, together with a range of other mustards and sauces, are prepared in the company’s own modern factory. Electric beaters have replaced the old butchery kitchen’s wooden spoons, and electronically driven nozzles fill the glass pots with the delicacy. Electronic Data Processing (EDP) found throughout the food industry also guides Händlmaier’s calculations and production. Without this EDP, production, data exchange and invoicing would pose significant challenges, even in a medium-sized company with 50 employees.
A recipe for cost reduction: outsourcing the IT-Administration
“Having a dedicated in-house administrator just doesn’t make sense with a company of our size,” says Franz Wunderlich, Managing Director of Luise Händlmaier Senffabrikation GmbH & Co KG. For the past year Wunderlich has relied on the services of CSA EDV-Vertriebs GmbH, a system integrator that also handles its customers’ administration activities. CSA manages all of Händlmaier’s EDP activities, and repairs, improves, adapts and advises on the company’s IT infrastructure to meet its rapidly growing needs.
Take the many viruses, worms and Trojan horses targeting servers responsible for production and delivery. “We have of course always taken precautions to protect ourselves,” recalls Wunderlich. The company used virus protection and anti-spam programs together with various filters to keep trouble at bay. “But today there is a new virus every hour so how can we ensure that we are always protected?,” elaborates Wunderlich. It did not take long for Händlmaier to ask CSA to work on the EDP security, and to improve remote access for its employees. Up to that time, when one of the six remote employees needed to retrieve or send important data, the company’s server would have to manually be made available – a far from ideal solution.
In its selection for the best solution, CSA made sure they looked at all available options. “It was not just about buying something. We would have to work with the solution and so were not only making decisions for our customers but also for ourselves,” explains Norbert Auburger, CSA’s Managing Director. Various traditional router solutions were evaluated, as well as hardware security solutions. All of them proved able to tackle a multitude of problems, but their scope of performance was limited. “There was always something or other that ended our interest,” elaborates Auburger. Not always evident either were future product development, company strategies and long term goals of possible suppliers.
Collax Business Server with HP Proliant DL320R fends off viruses
CSA found a solution in a product they themselves distributed as part of their Gold-Partner relationship with Collax GmbH: the Collax Business Server combined with Hewlett-Packard’s Proliant DL320R. “It all fit together,” emphasizes Auburger. Not only did this product meet several challenges from the start, but because of its visual and intuitive user interface it is easy to use. In addition, the demands for flexible configuration and increased performance set by the customer’s expected growth were not a problem. Last but not least the product’s cost benefit ratio was almost unbeatable.
Auburger found that because the product is standardised and Collax handles all the selection, coordination and organization of new Linux developments and updates for its customers, the level of administrative support was about one tenth of what he would need for an individually configured Unix or Linux server. “With hourly rates of Euro 150 for a Linux programmer you can easily calculate the savings,” comments Auburger.
Wunderlich valued the clear company strategy and roadmaps: “Collax implements the most important functions of today’s EDP environment into its products and builds on them from there. That is exactly what small to medium sized companies such as ours need.” Collax’s solid dealer network also impressed Wunderlich. “When we have a problem we need immediate support, and through Collax’s closely knit dealer network we receive this support.”
Based on these criteria the decision was made to replace the existing server with the Collax Business Server which would also take over security mechanisms and ensure future VPN access of remote employees. The order was signed, the purchase order was placed and the server was delivered at the beginning of March 2006. “Everything ran so smoothly,” laughs Wunderlich. The implementation was scheduled to run alongside daily business; CSA set all the important parameters in place and prepared the system to such an extent that the internet connection would be down for only a few hours. In this time the system was integrated into the network and the old router, firewall and Proxy Server were first deactivated and then closed down.
As the new Proxy Server, the Collax Business Server controls all access to and from the World Wide Web. The server controls incoming and outgoing Mails, checks security settings and filters out and deletes unwanted ‘trespassers’. The spam filter reduces the amount of unwanted e-mails and the virus scanner protects against viruses, worms and Trojan horses. Functioning as a gateway, the Collax Business Server guarantees the transmission of incoming and outgoing Mails. At the same time it operates as a VPN-server and ensures secure access for remote employees to the main server at the company’s headquarters. Remote EDP maintenance is also taken care of via the VPN server.
50 Percent less administrative effort, 100 percent annual cost savings
One large advantage of the fact that the Collax Business Server functions as an integrated Proxy Server, virus scanner and spam filter, is that previously designated solutions for these functions could be deactivated, thereby freeing up resources on the main server. Administrative efforts were also greatly reduced as additional solutions were no longer needed. “These efforts were reduced by half,” estimates Auburger. Instead of maintaining many individual systems, CSA now maintains just one system with an easy to use user interface. Thanks to comprehensive protocol options day-to-day business as well as possible failures or errors are easily taken care of. Wunderlich also commends the investment cost of this new solution: “We paid Euro 2.500 for the Collax Business Server and about Euro 1.500 for software subscriptions. On the other hand we don’t need to pay several software license fees which adds to roughly the same amount,” enthuses Wunderlich.
It is no wonder that Händlmaier is already looking to take the next step in optimization. Currently there is a separate messaging solution running on the server, but for this function the Collax Business Server also has a sweet solution. “If we replace this particular function then we will save even more administrative efforts, maintenance costs and of course the annual license fees. On top of that we will have a modern system tailored to a medium-sized business such as ours, and which comes with the reliability and efficiency we have learned to expect,” explains Wunderlich. Auburger shares this opinion: “Our goal is provide our customers and ourselves with a stress-free working environment. With this change to Collax we made a large step towards that goal.”