How TRIGO & 3-S-IT built the ÖGB's massive data-driven education platform

About the Company

3-S-IT is the central IT company and specialist for the ÖGB and trade unions in Austria. The company consists of 50 or so employees providing software infrastructure for me.mbers, officials, committees, and employee representatives. It has established itself as the Austrian IT specialist for government-related organizations and NPOs and has been a client of TRIGOs for many years now. Together we have successfully implemented their clients' — the ÖGB & Austria's largest trade unions — custom education platform: SchIP; a software for trade unions to set, manage, and develop their other educational events and programs. This is how the project went:

The Challenge: replacing stale technology with a modern framework

3-S-IT came to TRIGO with many challenges and requirements regarding one of their core client projects, SchIP:

• An external audit had found security issues within the current technology, and the company knew something needed to be done about it.
• The current solution was prolonged and not equipped for scalability: "If you clicked on a certain function, you could grab yourself a coffee while waiting for the results to show up — the old system was very slow, not user-friendly, and it wasn't suited for scalability either" — says CTO, Günther Lamprecht looking back.
• Because the software was built on a legacy Framework and the skills weren't accounted for in-house, 3-S-IT was very dependent on another external software service provider, which didn't put them (or their clients) in a good position.
• It was clear what the 3-S-IT's client needed: a completely new tech stack built on modern platforms like OpenShift, yet the company didn't have the skill set to accommodate it in-house, which is why they decided to reach out to us.

How trade unions create educational events and seminars with SchIP

The end goal was to create a system that is as flexible as possible, enabling the ÖGB and other trade unions to manage their further education events and programs in the best possible way. At the same time, the client wanted to leverage data to improve the product's overall experience and prepare for future developments.

Requirements of the project

The technology needed to allow the ÖGB and other trade unions to:

• Create and manage educational events
• Sustain trade union member relationships through the platform
• See when members join or drop-off
• Provide relevant data sets for future developments
• Serve as a best practice project and as the foundation for future technological endeavors

Overview of members signed up to the event or seminar in SchIP

Our solution: SchIP built on OpenShift for long term scalability

We spent months talking to the trade unions and all the relevant stakeholders to provide the best possible solution. In the end, we found one that supports the 3-S-ITs and its clients' long-term strategic goals. We developed a technology stack built on OpenShift that offers state-of-the-art technology that can scale. It also enables 3-S-IT to publish applications quickly — all managed in one central hub.

"We managed to integrate a container system, backed by a security concept and integrated SSO system — essential for the long-term strategy. OpenShift is a great standalone, secure, and flexible solution that speaks for itself." — Günther Lamprecht, CTO of 3-S-IT.

Leveraging this technology also means 3-S-IT:

• Doesn't have to take care of hardware
• VMs don't need to be configured
• The Red Hat system is an established system with a massive community behind it to keep it running
• Hosting is outsourced
• Image infrastructure is standalone - fully functioning pipeline
• QA & monitoring can be automated
• SSL certificates are easily integrated

How trade unions can edit their educational event or seminar with SchIP

How we work together

We work very closely with 3-S-IT and communicate regularly. While the project was extremely intense during the development and implementation of SchIP, we now operate in feature development sprints.

• Daily communication takes place via Slack, Email or Shortcut for project management
• TRIGO has set days in the week dedicated to improving and developing SchIP's new features
• Frequent & regular feature deployments
• Shared responsibility for quality assurance

Outcome

With SchIP, we managed to deliver a technology that meets 3-S-IT's, ÖGB's, the trade union's and their members' requirements. A large-scale solution that is secure can expand in the future and manage massive amounts of data for business intelligence.

How this benefited the client

These were just some benefits CTO of 3-S-IT, Günther Lamprecht, mentioned:

• 3-S-IT could provide state of the art technological solution to their client
• Successful implementation in the ÖGB and across Austria's largest trade unions
• SchIP manages all trade union educational programs and all of their members
• 3-S-IT was able to gain invaluable know-how and skills to build their in-house team of developers

TRIGO has their ear to the ground — they take care of various projects and clients, which means they are constantly confronted with new technological challenges and have the relevant expertise to deal with them.

This company knows what technology stacks are necessary for API variants, what technologies are required for data management systems, and the correct libraries and design systems to leverage. TRIGO is not just a service partner for us but also a software development consultant who can offer us incredibly valuable technological know-how, which we can then use to develop our skill set and team. It has been an invaluable partnership over the years, which continues today, and is a collaboration 3-S-IT definitely wouldn't want to miss.

Günther Lamprecht

CTO of 3-S-IT