The dorma+kaba Group is one of the world's leading suppliers of security and access solutions. The Group has been a pioneer in the field of digitisation for some years now, having launched Kaba Mobile Access, a cloud-based, mobile access solution, in 2014.
Swisscom and the dorma+kaba Group are now strengthening their longstanding collaborative partnership with a future-oriented project. In spring 2016, dorma+kaba will launch exivo, an Internet-based access solution for small and medium-sized enterprises. exivo can be used to easily plan, configure, order, customise and install access systems, as well as for dynamically assigning rights. The solution runs on a central platform and is designed with both mechanical and electronic applications in mind. Sales partners and end users will be able to purchase the required functionality as Software-as-a-Service. Renato Serafini, business owner of exivo, explains: “exivo supports the long-term transformation of our business model, as we are now moving away from the production of mechanical door locks and focusing more on being a service business. While this does require a change of thinking among everyone involved, it also unlocks opportunities. For the first time, our partners are now able to offer their own services on the platform and in turn secure recurring revenue.”
dorma+kaba is developing the new solution in the Swisscom Application Cloud. The Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) environment allows the Development team to devote their full attention to the development of attractive application functions. In a private environment, the Swisscom cloud service reduces the amount of time that developers have to spend on all of the irritating administration and configuration tasks. Thanks to PaaS, dorma+kaba has now obtained the requisite agility and now aims to release new features every month.
What has proved be absolutely crucial for dorma+kaba when entering into this partnership is the ability to customise the Swisscom PaaS environment to the company's proprietary architecture. Andreas Häberli, CTO of the dorma+kaba Group had the following to say: “Our developers are all on the same wavelength and we were able to have a say in the design of the technical framework.” Swisscom uses modern software design methods, such as the functional breakdown of software in loosely coupled, cloud-native microservices that can all be scaled horizontally and adjusted easily. Swisscom also uses Cloud Foundry, the industry standard for cloud-native open-source platforms.
What's more, Swisscom's billing models are also impressive, as is corroborated by Andreas Häberli: “Swisscom provides easy-to-understand prices that scale on a linear basis. This is the most suitable pricing strategy for our business model and protects us from having to make expensive investments in hardware.” Further decisive factors included data storage in Switzerland and security. On the topic of the potential security concerns of SME partners and customers, Häberli stated that small and medium-sized enterprises would scarcely be able to achieve the level of security found on a continuously managed cloud on their respective local networks.
The partnership is set to benefit both parties. On the one hand, dorma+kaba can utilise the latest technology and expertise offered by Swisscom, while on the other, Swisscom is able to take advantage of dorma+kaba's industry expertise and further develop their own cloud offering. Marcel Walker, Head of Cloud & Datacenter Services at Swisscom Enterprise Customers said: “As long-established Swiss companies, we share the same values, aspire to be at the forefront of innovation and want to provide our customers with simple, inspiring and secure solutions. This collaborative partnership ensures that a value-adding ecosystem of users, developers and providers is created on the Swisscom cloud.”
The Kaba Group from Rümlang near Zürich, Switzerland, and the DORMA Group based out of Ennepetal near Düsseldorf, Germany, completed a merger in September 2015 to form the dorma+kaba Group. This merger has resulted in the Group becoming one of the world's top three companies in the security and access solutions market, with pro-forma revenue of over CHF 2 billion and some 16,000 employees. dorma+kaba has a presence in more than 50 countries as well as in all relevant markets – with both production facilities and also sales and service locations.
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