Floods Remind CCS That Even the Best Network Needs a Lifeboat for When Disaster Strikes
Company Size
1,000+
Region
- Europe
Country
- Czech Republic
Product
- LinkProof 100
- APSolute Application Delivery product
Tech Stack
- MultiWAN Switch
- Denial of Service (DoS) protection
- Intrusion prevention
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Customer Satisfaction
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Networks & Connectivity - Network Management & Analysis Software
Applicable Industries
- Finance & Insurance
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
Use Cases
- Cybersecurity
- Process Control & Optimization
Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
CCS Česká společnost pro platební karty s.r.o. (CCS) is a major provider of data access cards in the Czech market. The company offers its customers a large variety of modern products and services. Everything from the management of company car-cards, loyalty programs, logistics management and cost checking services for company car pools are integrated into CCS’s network. The CCS cards are accepted at 4,800 stores and service stations throughout the whole Czech Republic, as well as Slovakia. The CCS sales-point network includes gas stations, car service stations, tire shops, car washes, parts shops, hotels, and restaurants. CCS utilizes a flexible network of sales-points. The network is open to expansion through an increase in the number of sales-points. They continue to develop the ability to offer their card and network solutions, including their operation support and ongoing management.
The Challenge
CCS, a major provider of data access cards in the Czech market, needed to ensure its network was continuously available to service several thousand transactions daily. The company's profits are derived from the number of transactions completed, so uninterrupted access to data is integral to its business relationship as a service provider to its partners and customers. In 2002, floods in Karlín revealed a weakness in its existing Internet connection: Availability. CCS decided it must have two Internet providers to handle unexpected events and interruptions caused by natural disasters. The company created two pipelines for service: One at 34 Mb/s and the other at 7 Mb/s. These pipelines would provide availability for essential services such as customer service, e-mail communication with customers and partners, and communications with partners from other business chains to exchange transaction files and payment card blacklists.
The Solution
CCS decided to buy two Radware LinkProofs. The two Internet pipelines were routed through the LinkProofs, which function independently and without human intervention and load balance traffic. This means the LinkProofs can handle any interruption in service automatically and in real-time. In 2007, new partners started to work with CCS which imposed new requirements regarding the transaction processing and the decision to increase the performance of the LinkProofs was evident. The change and implementation took place with the joint help from VUMS DataCom and 2Secure Solutions. CCS upgraded to the LinkProof 100 from the new APSolute Application Delivery product family, which has twice as many ports as the previous generation, and has the capability to load-balance multiple Internet service provider (ISP) connections as well as secure all network entry points by providing Denial of Service (DoS) protection and multilayer intrusion prevention (ISP), mitigating a wide variety of known and unknown attacks.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
Case Study missing?
Start adding your own!
Register with your work email and create a new case study profile for your business.
Related Case Studies.
Case Study
Real-time In-vehicle Monitoring
The telematic solution provides this vital premium-adjusting information. The solution also helps detect and deter vehicle or trailer theft – as soon as a theft occurs, monitoring personnel can alert the appropriate authorities, providing an exact location.“With more and more insurance companies and major fleet operators interested in monitoring driver behaviour on the grounds of road safety, efficient logistics and costs, the market for this type of device and associated e-business services is growing rapidly within Italy and the rest of Europe,” says Franco.“The insurance companies are especially interested in the pay-per-use and pay-as-you-drive applications while other organisations employ the technology for road user charging.”“One million vehicles in Italy currently carry such devices and forecasts indicate that the European market will increase tenfold by 2014.However, for our technology to work effectively, we needed a highly reliable wireless data network to carry the information between the vehicles and monitoring stations.”
Case Study
Safety First with Folksam
The competitiveness of the car insurance market is driving UBI growth as a means for insurance companies to differentiate their customer propositions as well as improving operational efficiency. An insurance model - usage-based insurance ("UBI") - offers possibilities for insurers to do more efficient market segmentation and accurate risk assessment and pricing. Insurers require an IoT solution for the purpose of data collection and performance analysis
Case Study
Smooth Transition to Energy Savings
The building was equipped with four end-of-life Trane water cooled chillers, located in the basement. Johnson Controls installed four York water cooled centrifugal chillers with unit mounted variable speed drives and a total installed cooling capacity of 6,8 MW. Each chiller has a capacity of 1,6 MW (variable to 1.9MW depending upon condenser water temperatures). Johnson Controls needed to design the equipment in such way that it would fit the dimensional constraints of the existing plant area and plant access route but also the specific performance requirements of the client. Morgan Stanley required the chiller plant to match the building load profile, turn down to match the low load requirement when needed and provide an improvement in the Energy Efficiency Ratio across the entire operating range. Other requirements were a reduction in the chiller noise level to improve the working environment in the plant room and a wide operating envelope coupled with intelligent controls to allow possible variation in both flow rate and temperature. The latter was needed to leverage increased capacity from a reduced number of machines during the different installation phases and allow future enhancement to a variable primary flow system.
Case Study
Automated Pallet Labeling Solution for SPR Packaging
SPR Packaging, an American supplier of packaging solutions, was in search of an automated pallet labeling solution that could meet their immediate and future needs. They aimed to equip their lines with automatic printer applicators, but also required a solution that could interface with their accounting software. The challenge was to find a system that could read a 2D code on pallets at the stretch wrapper, track the pallet, and flag any pallets with unread barcodes for inspection. The pallets could be single or double stacked, and the system needed to be able to differentiate between the two. SPR Packaging sought a system integrator with extensive experience in advanced printing and tracking solutions to provide a complete traceability system.
Case Study
Transforming insurance pricing while improving driver safety
The Internet of Things (IoT) is revolutionizing the car insurance industry on a scale not seen since the introduction of the car itself. For decades, premiums have been calculated using proxy-based risk assessment models and historical data. Today, a growing number of innovative companies such as Quebec-based Industrielle Alliance are moving to usage-based insurance (UBI) models, driven by the advancement of telematics technologies and smart tracking devices.
Case Study
MasterCard Improves Customer Experience Through Self-Service Data Prep
Derek Madison, Leader of Business Financial Support at MasterCard, oversees the validation of transactions and cash between two systems, whether they’re MasterCard owned or not. He was charged with identifying new ways to increase efficiency and improve MasterCard processes. At the outset, the 13-person team had to manually reconcile system interfaces using reports that resided on the company’s mainframe. Their first order of business each day was to print 20-30 individual, multi-page reports. Using a ruler to keep their place within each report, they would then hand-key the relevant data, line by line, into Excel for validation. “We’re talking about a task that took 40-80 hours each week,” recalls Madison, “As a growing company with rapidly expanding product offerings, we had to find a better way to prepare this data for analysis.”
