Vienna City Council

OBJECTIVE

Vienna’s City Council already has the standard electronic file based on the Fabasoft eGov-Suite in use. The criteria for complying with new legal requirements have to be created as part of Austria’s eGovernment strategy and the implementation of the EU Directive on Services. This includes, for example, dual delivery and the electronic signature which became regulated by law as of 1 January 2010. The intention was also to give the existing infrastructure a critical review in the course of the planned software update to Version 7.0 of the Fabasoft eGov-Suite to establish any possible potential for savings and simplification and create an appropriate basis for the implementation of the legal requirements. Vienna City Council was in search of a highly available and highly scaleable software architecture for this purpose. Additionally, users should have access to a comfortable and straightforward full text search.

APPROACH

Extensive tests revealed that the products Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server and PostgreSQL complied best with the requirements of Vienna City Council in terms of high scalability, clustering, stability and cost reduction in combination with Fabasoft eGov-Suite Version 7.0. In the course of the Fabasoft eGov-Suite update the existing system software was replaced with a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server system and the existing database solution was replaced with the open source product PostgreSQL to increase efficiency and reduce costs. Mindbreeze Enterprise Search was integrated in the electronic file for convenient full text search.

REALIZATION

To fulfil the requirements the infrastructure was analysed to search for any possible alternatives and cost savings. Furthermore, the existing backup and recovery concepts, including the tests, performance lab, clustering and feasibility studies were adapted to the hardware to ensure that test results are as accurate as possible. Fabasoft provided extensive research and development work in the process. A whole new test procedure was developed (24 hour recording of user activities) to ensure smooth operation after the system changeover.

24 hour electronic file operation at Vienna City Council
To begin with a backup was generated for the existing data from the electronic file. Next, all user activities over a period of 24 hours were recorded from real operations (“24 hours of electronic file operation at Vienna City Council”) and Fabasoft DUCXtest was used to transform the activities into a runnable, automated form. As a result the user activities recorded could be run on different operating systems in test series, based on the backup. Extreme situations, such as running the use cases at four times the standard speed, were tested to evaluate the full capacity of the system. Additionally, a selected circle of users reproduced situations taken from live operation to subject the system to further stringent testing. Fabasoft’s contribution to the development of the test procedure “24 hour recording” was pioneer work. This made it possible to gain significant information on the actual use and impact profiles (e.g. click behaviour) and make any necessary adaptations to the systems in an improved and faster way. A considerable number of steps that will be automated in the future were still carried out manually in the first development stage. On completion of the test, Vienna City Council decided to install a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server System and transfer the database to PostgreSQL in the course of the upgrade. The electronic file system has been running on the open source product solutions with the Fabasoft eGov-Suite 7.0 since 15 December 2008. Existing specialist applications were rewritten in Java and integrated in the electronic file via a SOAP interface. Mindbreeze has been available for the full text search since 22 December 2008.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Thanks to the intensive preparation phase and extensive tests it was possible to transfer the data to the PostgreSQL database and upgrade the Fabasoft eGov-Suite on a single weekend. Mindbreeze Enterprise Search went live the following weekend. The introduction of Mindbreeze Enterprise Search means that council staff now have a convenient way of handling searches. Vienna City Council has thus created the basis for the necessary eGovernment functionalities and additionally has a highly scalable software architecture.

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