profile in success: tcc r&d gmbh

8/7/2019 Profile in Success: TCC R&D GmbH

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Oberhausen (Rhineland) based TCC R&D provides custom-tailoredsoftware solutions for managing networks and infrastructure. Customersof the company include corporations and numerous public services, localauthorities, and medical facilities.

Network Service Management (NSM) tools monitor and provide security

for all services that information and communication engineeringprovides. They also integrate network management in the ICTinfrastructure management, thus linking logical and physical networkmanagement components.

The foundation for their tools is a component-based framework whichcan speedily be customized to customer-specific requirements viaparameterization. TCC R&D customers quickly and easily get acomprehensive view of their telecom and IT infrastructures, whichenables them to meet ever increasing compliance and documentationrequirements, such as those specified in the IT Infrastructure Library(ITIL). Since the mid-nineties, Cincom Smalltalk has been used for allproduct development.

Everything You Always

Wanted to Know About Your Network But WereAfraid to Ask

P R O F I L E I N S U C C E S S

Goal: A medium-sized enterprise plans

he enhancement of its market position in

highly competitive market dominated by

arge providers.

Challenge: Object-orientedmplementation of a series of existingetwork management solutions in ordero allow for faster responses to customernd market requirements.

election of a development environment

Based on an object-oriented approach

Providing options for developing aflexible framework architecture and forusing parameterized object classes – viameta-programming

Able to fully connect to a database

Allowing for easy GUI creation

Providing code-generating featuresindependent of the operating system

Solution: Cincom Smalltalk™

Results:

Higher-than-average growth in a highlycompetitive market – 15 to 20 percentannually

Increased productivity: developmenttimes reduced by a factor of 10

Improved quality: error rates in softwareprogramming reduced to less than 30percent

Higher flexibility: options for quickresponses to customer and marketrequirements

Outstanding integration facilities: fastand smooth interface integration

Higher profitability: discovering unused

network resources

TCC R&D Gmb



Network Governance – IntelligentSolutions for Secure Network and ICTService Management

A number of regulations have recently been enacted thatmake information and telecommunication technology partof enterprise-wide risk management. According to theCorporate Sector Supervision and Transparency Act(“Gesetz zur Kontrolle und Transparenz im

Unternehmensbereich,” KonTraG), which was introduced in1998, the entire documentation of ICT networks must betraceable. To comply with Basel II, lending regulations forbanks must include provisions for the security andavailability of ICT systems; similar provisions apply topublicly traded US companies under the Sarbanes-OxleyAct (SOX). International ISO 27001 standards includeprovisions for the ICT documentation management as well.On the one hand, companies face the challenge of meeting numerous compliance and documentationrequirements, regardless of their size and legal structure.On the other hand, operating, monitoring, and controllingthe ICT infrastructure must be economically justifiable, or

even better, more profitable.

TCC R&D addresses precisely this conflict, using a series of intelligent network management solutions for differentcompany sizes and application areas. These solutions allowfor independence, transparency, profitability and,particularly, security for the operation of IT and telecomnetworks. Using a variety of interfaces to ERP, GIS, FacilityManagement, and office solutions, they integrateseamlessly into any existing IT environment.

“In our company, technological understanding meetscreative and innovative software development. Our early

decision for object-oriented technologies pays off. Forseveral years we have been growingfaster than the market,” MargitSteinmayr, CEO of TCC R&D GmbH,describes the company’s current marketposition.

Cincom Smalltalk as the Foundation forHigher Flexibility and BroaderBunctionality

Sophisticated market- and customer-oriented solutionsrequire comprehensive integration and fastimplementation facilities at low cost. New techniques (suchas VoIP) and increasingly lean organizations – combinedwith accelerating cost pressure and ever more complex

networks – mean that the standards for networkmanagement are getting more and more demanding. Thatis why TCC R&D opted for the complete redesign of theirsoftware solutions, which had initially been written inCOBOL. “Our goal was to empower users to design objectclasses via parameterization using the new softwaregeneration,” Margit Steinmayr explains. “This seemed theonly quick and successful way to make our softwaredevelopment ready for the new techniques.” Plus, TCCR&D customers expect full release compatibility, i.e., newreleases must be introduced quickly while still maintainingcustomer parameterization.

“Cincom Smalltalk is and will remain our central development environment in the near future.”

– Margit Steinmayr, CEO, TCC R&D GmbH

“Network Management” provides a tabular overview of the domain objects, in

this case switch modules including all patching



The Cincom Smalltalk re-factoring tools support the TCCR&D developer team in the reworking process of objectmodeling. This was particularly helpful at the beginning of the implementation because methodologies which had tobe extracted from several application classes could be“extrapolated” to the framework layer. This layer issituated between the basic classes (Cincom Smalltalk,Object-Lens, etc.) and the application classes and providesmodels for the various class groups. This allows for smooth

and seamless basic system enhancements, e.g., theimplementation of a new database adapter, without theneed to modify the application classes. With theframework functionality continuously improving, theapplication classes could be implemented quickly andsecurely. Unlike many other development environments,Cincom Smalltalk provides “metaprogramming” featureswhich produce a generic framework structure. As a result,modifications can be realized much more easily andquickly, without affecting the existing software functionality.

In addition, a development tool was needed which wouldprovide features for the quick realization of new solutionsat low cost without affecting either the stability of theoverall system or the existing functionality.

After evaluating available market solutions, TCC R&Dchose Cincom Smalltalk. Cincom Smalltalk is a fully object-oriented platform for developing and operating portablemulti-platform applications. “When we introducedSmalltalk as our development platform, the system

handling presented absolutely no problem,” MargitSteinmayr comments. “Language and handling of thedevelopment tools were fast and easy to learn.” Withrespect to their advanced use of Smalltalk she explains,“Factors such as the availability of database connectionsfor different formats, simple methods for desktop design,and code compatibility between different operatingsystems prove that we were right in choosing Smalltalk. Anadditional benefit is the database-supported releaseprocedure which guarantees that only released packagesare used. Comprehensive test procedures ensure thatimplemented modifications do not affect any existingfunctionalities.”

Graphical representation of domain objects: Here control cabinets (see above), as

well as network topologies or work flow representations



Increased Functionality, ImprovedProfitability and Flexibility, Fewer Errors

The targeted goals for the new implementation of TCCR&D software solutions – enhanced functionality andhigher flexibility in response to changing customer andmarket requirements – were quickly achieved. By now thewhole range of TCC R&D products is based on Smalltalk.“By consistently applying the rules of object-orientation,

both the framework classes and the application classeshave grown into a powerful development platform whichallows for the quick implementation of even the mostcomplex enhancements,” Margit Steinmayr concludes withsatisfaction." The Smalltalk community provides muchbasic functionality such as database adapters. Smalltalk hasproved to be a highly effective and secure developmentplatform. Initially we did not dare to hope that our solutionwould achieve such a tremendous functionality hub.”Steinmayr continues, “We can even store and retrieveparameterizations of domain objects. In the meantime, aspecific community has emerged for whom we provide aplatform for downloads and uploads (after our approval) of

'customized classes' on our internet site.”

Particularly when directly compared to the developmentsystems of partnering companies, Cincom Smalltalk provesits productivity and performance. “In most cases, theimplementation of interfaces requires customization orenhancements on both sides of the interface,” MargitSteinmayr explains. “Workshops for developers fromdifferent companies often showed that our Smalltalk codeis typically up to ten times more effective than our partners’code. Sometimes it is frustrating for our partners to realize

that our interface function is immediately available afterimplementing just a few methods, whereas they need toprogram extensive new methods in order to achieve thesame result,” Margit Steinmayr continues with a smile. Plus:An evaluation of service cases in the years 2004 to 2006showed that less than 30 percent of the trouble ticketsresulted from “real” software mistakes. The absolutenumber of problems was also pleasingly low.

Looking Into a Crystal Ball

As of today, the TCC R&D portfolio has reached a

functional scope which covers all customer requirements.Of course, all modules are in a state of continuousenhancement. “We closely watch the market and are opento new requirements,” Margit Steinmayr sees herorganization well prepared for the future. In addition to theclient/server architecture, the network-service-managementmodules of TCC R&D will increasingly have to support web-based user desktops and web services under XML andSOAP. With Web-NSM the first step in this direction iscompleted; in the future all other NSM-Tools will beequipped with a web interface. In addition, the subject of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is gaining importanceas a way of embedding the modules in existing tool

environments such as IBM Tivoli, HP OpenView, or CAUnicenter.

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D e v e l o p e r

F u n c t i o n a l

E n h a n c e m e n t

Developer Cobol

Developer C++

Developer Smalltalk

Functional Enhancement(Basis 1984: 100)

Neither COBOL nor C++ accomplished what Smalltalk could do – significant and

ongoing functional enhancements were not achieved until Smalltalk (and strict

object orientation) were implemented.

World Headquarters • Cincinnati, OH USA • US 1-800-224-6266 • International 1-513-612-2769 • [email protected] • cincom.com/contact-us

Cincom and the Quadrant Logo are registered trademarks of Cincom Systems, Inc. All other trademarks belong to their respective companies.© 2017, 2016 Cincom Systems, Inc. Printed in U.S.A. All Rights Reserved FORM CS071018-1 4/17

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