Many Belgian companies face a difficult choice: how do you modernise without compromising on ‘digital sovereignty’? Popular cloud solutions cost a fortune, and you often risk losing control over sensitive data.
A1 Telekom, Austria’s largest telecoms provider, proves that there is another way. By expanding their existing HCL Domino environment, making it mobile-friendly and hosting it independently, they scaled up their B2B sales at one-twentieth of the going rate.
A1 Telekom built a B2B sales platform for 1,200 users at one-twentieth of the price of a cloud-based CRM, whilst retaining 100 per cent control over their data.
A devilish dilemma
Anyone looking for enterprise software today soon comes up against two problems: the per-user licence costs and the obligation to store your data in a US public cloud. As your organisation grows, those monthly bills skyrocket. What’s more, you lose control over exactly where your sensitive customer information and intellectual property are stored.
What many people don’t realise is that the move to such an expensive cloud platform is rarely necessary. With HCL Domino, many organisations already have a powerful and stable in-house solution that offers precisely the flexibility and security they are looking for.
Mobile and in full control
A1 Telekom Austria demonstrates how this works in practice. As a leading telecoms operator, their account managers in the field needed to be able to quickly check fibre-optic availability, update deals and request approvals via their smartphones. Instead of purchasing an exorbitantly expensive cloud CRM, they opted for a smart extension of their existing HCL Domino infrastructure:
Using HCL Nomad Mobile, they brought their familiar desktop applications directly to iPhones, iPads and Android devices. As Nomad was already included in their existing licences, this mobile transformation cost exactly zero euros extra in software licences.
Thanks to REST and SOAP APIs, Domino serves as a central ‘data backbone’ that seamlessly exchanges data with external CRM systems and IT service management platforms.
Rather than tying themselves to an American hyperscaler, A1 runs its Domino environment primarily on-premises and via Exoscale, a European cloud provider. This ensures that all data remains strictly protected under European privacy legislation.
Maximum control with minimum TCO
The result of this approach is impressive: A1 Telekom supports more than 1,200 B2B staff every day with a platform that is 20 times cheaper in terms of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) than comparable CRMs. Furthermore, a team of just two full-time staff is sufficient to manage and support the entire environment.
Domino also proved to be the smart choice when it came to updates. Following a change to GDPR legislation, the audit workflows had to be adapted, and the IT team was able to adjust the business logic immediately without any downtime.
Get more out of what you already have
Setting up a modern, mobile IT architecture does not, therefore, have to mean throwing your trusted systems overboard or sacrificing control over your data. By making smart use of the capabilities of HCL Domino and HCL Nomad, you can combine the latest functionalities with an exceptionally low cost.
Would you like to discuss this in a small group setting? We will soon be organising the Belgium Domino Sovereignty Roundtables: a series of dinner sessions where, together with Belgian CIOs, CISOs and compliance leads, we will explore data autonomy, TCO and the strategic choices for your IT architecture in greater depth.
