A Secure Financial Service for over 400 Retailers Powered by CloudSigma

Customer Profile

Baldegger+Sortec AG is a family owned company that offers a complete high-quality cash register solution for gastronomy and retail end customers in Switzerland. The company has over 20 years experience and focuses on the special needs of Swiss customers. Baldegger+Sortec AG integrates different software and hardware components and provides training to customers on using their systems. Together with Sequens IT the company has developed the cloud based specialized cash register software called Arcavis – a modular, highly customizable software that focuses on the latest technologies.

The partnership of Baldegger+Sortec AG with CloudSigma enables them to offer their software as a cloud based solution making it possible for the end clients to keep their cash data safe in Switzerland and at the same time to have secure access in relation to their back office systems from everywhere. End clients can rely on a secure and accessible “Swiss made software” – two critical factors for cash operations.

“Since the launch of the Arcavis Software-as-a-Service, the platform has always been stable and the support from CloudSigma’s side has always been on an excellent level.”Ron Ritschard, Owner at Baldegger+Sortec AG

The Challenge

Baldegger+Sortec set out from the very beginning to offer a cloud-based software-as-a-service cash register product. As a small company, it would have been too much effort and too expensive for them to build and maintain their own infrastructure whilst simultaneously developing a new product. Therefore, they decided to look for an infrastructure partner so they could focus on their key strengths.
The team compared several cloud providers – the usual suspects as well as providers with a local Swiss presence such as CloudSigma and Metanet.

“Security and where we keep the data is very important for our end customers. This is all cash register data, revenues, etc., which is highly relevant for the accounting. Keeping this data safe in Switzerland was a major factor when selecting a cloud provider although not the only one.”

At the beginning of their cloud project the biggest challenge for Baldegger+Sortec was to estimate the exact amount of resources that they need to run their service.

“Our software was quite new and on top of that we didn’t have any experience with cloud infrastructure. Our initial deployment was not so big, but we knew that it was expected to grow, so the ability to scale up quickly and easily was very important.”

In addition, there was over 1TB of data traffic each month that they uploaded and downloaded. This high traffic load and the nature of their solution required a very stable, available and highly reliable IaaS solution.

“After a careful consideration, we chose CloudSigma not only because with CloudSigma the data is kept in a Swiss data centre, but also because CloudSigma excelled with its price-quality ratio.” Ron Ritschard, Owner at Baldegger+Sortec AG

The Solution

From the very beginning, the team of Baldegger+Sortec was in constant contact with CloudSigma technical experts. They always helped them meet their requirements and continue to provide support in consulting the company. This has lead to more available solutions around scalability and growth. In addition, the team of Baldegger+Sortec appreciates very much the fact that their main point of contact at CloudSigma speaks German, which results in a smoother communication and avoidance of misunderstandings.

“In case of issues or questions, we can always reach you via the Live-Chat on your WebApp and receive a response in a timely manner. This is very important for our technical people.”

Since the application of Baldegger+Sortec requires a disproportionate combination of RAM and CPU, they were able to benefit from the ability at CloudSigma to flexibly match the exact server resources needs and save cost.

“The flexibility and cost efficiency offered by the CloudSigma cloud platform is of high value for us. Also, the webapp is very user friendly and intuitive. Creating, changing and managing new servers is easy and comfortable.”

Of course, another key aspect is that CloudSigma managed to provide for Baldegger+Sortec the necessary data security and system stability needed for their software out of CloudSigma’s Swiss cloud location. ISO27001 certification of CloudSigma and their Zurich data center provider were critical factors. Additionally the date center offers 24/7 security personnel as well as video surveillance which created a perfect match to store the confidential data of their end clients. They could rely on Swiss data security compliance and also on the fact that the data never leaves Switzerland. This is not necessarily the case with other cloud providers.

The Impact

Since the launch of their SaaS solution, Baldegger+Sortec succeeded in growing their customer base from one to approximately 400 clients that use the systems every day. This means hundreds of cash registers that operate in the cloud daily, dispersed across Switzerland. CloudSigma has been able to cover the most important criteria for their successful application operation – uptime and price-performance ratio.

Since the typical clients of Baldegger+Sortec are restaurants, hotels and retail chains, having an unstable service is not acceptable. Because any outage would lead to less revenue for them. At CloudSigma, the customers of the SaaS application enjoy a highly available and stable environment. So, Baldegger+Sortec constantly receives positive feedback that the service is running fast and is always accessible.

“Our end customers report that they are very happy with the solution and the cloud performance. This is all due to the system stability in the cloud.”

Another advantage for Baldegger+Sortec is the price-performance ratio of CloudSigma. This makes a big difference for them, especially because their deployment has increased fourfold since the initial deployment. Also because they decided to enter a long-term partnership. The company has signed a three-year contract receiving a further discount as a result. Which has further optimized its IT-infrastructure costs without compromising the quality.

After the initial three-year contract, Baldegger+Sortec decided to make an evaluation of the service performance. In the meantime, CloudSigma had made some significant upgrades and system improvements. This led to a high level of satisfaction from Baldegger+Sortec, not only in terms of performance.

The Future

“Wе appreciate that you constantly upgrade your service and always come back to us, keeping us updated regarding improvements and new features.” –Ron Ritschard, Owner at Baldegger+Sortec AG

Baldegger+Sortec has strategically profited from moving to the cloud by offering a unique product to their clients; simple, intuitive, secure and functional “Swiss made” software. The company plans to further grow their client base and to increase their demand for cloud resources accordingly. A major topic in the future will remain data security. And in this regard the new Disaster-Recovery-asa-Service offered by CloudSigma is quite interesting for them.

“Disaster Recovery service is more and more on our radar these days. This is so that we can have a further guarantee for the more sensitive clients and more critical operations.”

In a nutshell, Baldegger+Sortec are very happy with their decision to choose CloudSigma as their cloud partner. In addition, they have recently decided to engage in another three-year longer term contract.