Case Study Transparent

If you grow as a software organisation, it’s natural for you to want your application’s  infrastructure to grow along with it. With offices in Amsterdam, South Africa, Amerika, and Germany, the software company Transparent Solutions searched for a solution to scale worldwide. Transparent was founded in 2000 and is an AP Recovery-audit specialist. They develop software to analyse outgoing payments, such as accidental payments, non-refunded VAT, or outstanding balances. In doing so, companies can save a lot of “lost money”.

The situation

Right after their launch in 2000, Transparent developed advanced software to improve recovery-audits even further. Today, 20 years later, Transparent operates worldwide. Of course, their continued growth is accompanied by new challenges. The software system and a large client database used to be run via a private host. This meant that there was some uncertainty: Imagine 30 new clients are added tomorrow, will the server be able to handle this? In addition, the question was whether they could reduce the resources in case demand was low for a certain period. 

Aside from flexibility, speed was also an issue for the Amsterdam-born company. As soon as a new server or additional storage was needed, they first needed to put together a proposal and discuss it. A process which can take days. This meant that a new client also had to wait, which immediately impacted the process’ speed.

The challenge

The challenge was to set up a Cloud-based solution that grew together with Transparent. Upscaling when necessary, downscaling when needed. An environment where, within 10 minutes, a working server can be added with a simple click. Azure makes this possible. Transparent made their decision and started their migration to Azure. To make sure that the migration went as well as possible, they decided to ask three parties to make a proposal, one of which was Intercept. Transparent chose Intercept because of their clear communication regarding how the migration would progress as well as Interpcept’s broad knowledge and experience regarding Azure.

The solution

Intercept’s first step was to implement a ‘migration assessment’. During this phase, Transparent's current IT-landscape was mapped out. Based on this analysis, a design was created to transform the current environment into the Azure Public Cloud.

The migration started in the summer of 2020. ‘Windows Virtual Desktop’ was used for Transparent’s employees to reduce the process’ complexity. In addition, it reduced costs. Subsequently, the company’s databases were transferred to SQL Azure Sequence.

Transparent maakte gebruik van een Exchange omgeving voor e-mail. Om alle bedrijfsprocessen in één omgeving te krijgen is er gekozen om dit te migreren naar Office 365, welke vervolgens weer gekoppeld is aan Azure.

A successful migration to the Azure cloud includes one final, important, step: report and analysis. As part of Intercept’s ‘Managed Services’, Transparent gains insight into the processes and we were available 24/7. 

The results

• Transparent can continue to grow in the new Azure environment. More or less storage or camputationpower needed? The configuration is fast and easy
• By making use of the Azure Security Centre, Transparent has the right governance level at their fingertips to tend to their clients and their data.
• With Intercept as a certified Azure Expert Managed Service Provider (MSP), Transparent can increase their level of service. In doing so, Transparent can automatically scale their environment to realise their international ambitions more easily, and cost effectively. 

Transparent's take on Intercept

“Large-scale migration is exciting. You’re transitioning into an unknown environment. Intercept made sure that the migration to Azure was fast and smooth. Thanks to the new Azure solutions, we can continue to upscale worldwide and expand our services with new technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence.”

“Intercept is a very professional partner with a clear structure. You notice that their personnel is very knowledgeable and has a lot of experience. This was immediately apparent during the execution of the migration. It was also nice that Intercept enables us to decide which parts of the migration we could do ourselves, and which parts Intercept would take care of. This flexibility made Intercept a very fine partner to work with.