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Case studies

Therma Municipal Enterprise uses the Polcom cloud computing solution

Sector:Supplier of heat for central heating, ventilation and domestic water needs
Key service:Cloud infrastructure (IaaS)

Municipal Enterprise Therma has been on business for more than 30 years, providing heat for central heating, ventilation and domestic water to the citizens of Bielsko-Biała. The company has its own heat sources  in gas and gas-oil heating plants.

Challenge

Therma supplies heat to the residents of Bielsko-Biała and provides online support for requests sent through the Electronic Customer Service Office. For this reason it turned  to be quite a challenge for the company to maintain its own IT infrastructure while meeting the highest security and quality standards required by regulators.

Public entities must fulfill a number of requirements including keeping an appropriate level of security for applications that process sensitive customer data. No less important for the company is the guarantee of uninterrupted availability of systems that allow customers to keep in touch with the company.

The company was looking for a proven business partner that could not only take on the responsibilities of meeting the guidelines imposed by regulators, but also tailor a solution to the company’s needs. For Therma, the priority was the security of key resources, uninterrupted operations and optimization of the excessive costs associated with maintaining the IT infrastructure it had incurred to date.

Solution

After analyzing the solutions available on the market, Therma decided to cooperate with Polcom, which provides the company with the highest level of IT security. This is evidenced by numerous certificates confirming compliance with international requirements for the services provided.

By moving resources to the cloud, Therma has eliminated the risk of system availability interruptions without any additional costs. The cloud-based infrastructure made it possible to maintain the continuity of the company’s operations and its online platform, which was difficult to achieve in the previous IT model (on-premises).

Cloud computing allows the company to have full flexibility and scalability to fit current needs. The company pays only for the IT resources currently used, and as a result no longer has to bear the costs generated by maintaining its own infrastructure. This allows the company to focus entirely on activities and investments related to building a competitive advantage in the market.

Effects

Cost optimization

With subscription billing, the company bears the cost of its current IT needs

Scalable and flexible IT environment

High-performance cloud infrastructure allows to tailor the service to the needs of the business without the risk of interruption of access to key resources

Data protection

Polcom holds numerous certificates attesting to compliance with legally required security standards

company

Therma is a company for which business continuity is crucial, and this is due to at least two reasons: we supply heat to the citizens of Bielsko-Biała and we want to do it in an uninterrupted manner, and we also care about constant contact with our customers, who have access to their documents as well as can communicate with us via eBOK (Electronic Customer Service Office).

These goals are supported by Polcom, which provides cloud services for us. We received a solution fully tailored to our needs, which not only gives us confidence in the availability of resources, but also – and perhaps most importantly – in the security of our customers’ sensitive data.

In addition, being a municipal enterprise, we are subject to specific regulators whose requirements must be strictly implemented. Numerous certifications, cyclic audits and a high level of security ensure that we meet these requirements without hindrance.

Maciej Łysoń Head of IT Department

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