COCC

Success Story

Service bureau moves to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server to reduce hardware costs by 40 percent and avoid excessive consulting costs

Overview

COCC is a mutually owned service bureau proving information technology services to community banks and credit unions in the Northeastern U.S. The company has more than 130 customers and nearly 300 employees.

Challenge

Technology requirements often exceed the capabilities of many community banks and credit unions. COCC provides the technology expertise to help these organizations run their businesses and compete with national banks. The company services 7,000 workstations, 500 ATMs and processes more than 7 million check images each month. COCC needs to support a broad variety of platforms and applications, as well as have the flexibility to create custom applications to meet specific needs of its customers.

Security is also a critical requirement for operating in a tightly regulated industry. COCC had been using a proprietary UNIX* system, but wanted to move its business to an open platform to improve its development opportunities and reduce costs. The company also hoped to improve performance and security.

Novell solution

"Before Novell, it was hard to consider Linux even though it is so cost effective. We needed a Linux solution with a billion-dollar company behind it. SUSE Linux also tends to be more cutting edge than Red Hat or other vendors, giving us more for our money right out of the box."

Brent Biernat
Managing Officer, Network Services
COCC

For a company focused on customer service, COCC was determined to find a software vendor that shared a similar commitment to support. The company evaluated Linux* solutions, including Red Hat*, but found a more comprehensive and secure solution in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. COCC was able to install SUSE Linux Enterprise Server in about an hour and quickly began performing application migrations from UNIX or Microsoft Windows*.

"Before Novell, it was hard to consider Linux even though it is so cost effective," said Brent Biernat, COCC's Managing Officer of Network Services. "We needed a Linux solution with a billion-dollar company behind it. SUSE Linux also tends to be more cutting edge than Red Hat or other vendors, giving us more for our money right out of the box."

COCC can now run SUSE Linux Enterprise Server on Intel-based machines, which significantly reduces its hardware costs. The company uses SUSE Linux to run e-mail, Oracle* databases, various bank teller applications, back office processing software, reporting tools and financial applications.

"We gain a competitive advantage by running much of our center on an open architecture," said Biernat. "We get the same performance on our SUSE Linux servers as with our former UNIX system running on high-end hardware. Moving to less expensive hardware didn't require us to sacrifice performance or reliability, and allows us to provide more cost-effective solutions for our customers."

In a highly regulated banking industry, security is a paramount concern. COCC moved several of its mission-critical applications from Microsoft Windows to Linux to improve security and reduce administration time. Instead of scheduling and applying patches after hours, the IT staff can now make changes to SUSE Linux servers without any downtime.

Access to open source development tools helps COCC create custom applications to respond to a dynamic market. In a regulated environment with regular changes to payment processing, privacy requirements and more, COCC can quickly create applications to keep its customers ahead of the curve.

"Institutions are demanding new kinds of services because there is no way they can keep up with changes on their own," said Biernat. "Linux opens a whole new development environment for us to create customized applications. We're focused on helping our customers react quickly to change."

Using Novell® exteNd™, COCC created a portal solution for its customers, providing personalized access to the resources they need, based on user identity. The COCC IT staff can use the development tools in exteNd to easily customize portals for each customer, as well as perform ongoing maintenance.

"Other portal solutions primarily offered an SDK without a lot of tools, while Novell exteNd gave us everything we needed," said Matt Richard, Internet Services Manager at COCC. "To do the same project using any other solution, we would have incurred monumental consulting costs."

Results

COCC transitioned its business to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server to maintain the 99.999 percent uptime at a fraction of the cost of its previous UNIX system. As a result, the company has reduced its overall hardware costs by 40 percent. Moving several of its Windows applications to Linux has also reduced administration time by 40 percent. Using Novell exteNd to create portal solutions for its customers has helped the company avoid excessive consulting costs, allowing the company to pass along savings to customers.

"Our customers depend on us to be their technology experts," said Biernat. "They expect us to give them great benefits, without having to spend enormous amounts of money on licensing or consulting. Novell has made all the difference by moving Linux from an interesting trend to a viable enterprise solution."

Novell is a registered trademark and exteNd is a trademark of Novell, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. SUSE is a registered trademark of SUSE Linux AG, a Novell business. * UNIX is a registered trademark of X/Open Company, Ltd. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Red Hat is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation. All other third party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.