CASE STUDY

For almost a decade Version 1 has powered the databases responsible for the operations of a leading international publishing group.

In conversation with Gerry Wilde, IT Director, Independent News & Media PLC

Independent News and Media

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What does it take to steer the IT strategy of a news and media group, when such seismic changes are affecting the newspaper industry? Gerry Wilde, IT Director for Independent News & Media PLC, has optimised the performance and scope of his IT infrastructure and staff, leveraging out-sourcing agreements that minimise costs – including a long-term partnership with Version 1.

Independent News & Media PLC (INM) is a leading international media and communications group, with its main interests in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

Responsible for IT strategy and operations for Independent News & Media across the island of Ireland, Gerry Wilde is more familiar than most with the challenges of right-sizing IT operations.

Like other newspaper groups, INM has had to act deci-sively to combat seismic changes in the newspaper industry, including pressure on advertising revenues and competition from non-newspaper news media. The company is a digital-first organisation, maintains strong

readership levels in its core print titles in Republic of Ireland and the Northern Ireland, and remains the larg-est newspaper contract printer and wholesale news-paper distributor on the island of Ireland. Its interests also include a significant investment in APN News and Media which has media interests in both Australia and New Zealand.

So how does Gerry play his part in helping INM mini-mise costs while protecting the performance of such mission-critical IT systems? Those systems are directly responsible for putting papers on newsstands every morning and delivering digital content for the No.1 news website in Ireland, independent.ie (source: June 2014 comScore), with over 9 million visits monthly.

As reliable as the daily paper

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Q: Gerry your relationship with Version 1 started almost a decade ago. How have your IT needs changed as a company?

A: We’ve had huge challenges: resourcing for example is a big issue for us. We are very conscious of costs. Given the criticality of the support service required to meet the demanding needs of our business opera-tions it’s vital that we always have access to excellent IT skills. That’s where our relationship with Version 1 comes in: they supply the best in the industry to us, and we don’t have to worry about hiring or retaining people in what is a very competitive market for IT staff.

They invest in and commit to ensuring the Consultants supporting our systems are certified and skilled in the latest technologies so we don’t have to.

From what we’ve seen over many years in dealing with Version 1, their employees are not only extremely approachable but also a fount of knowledge when it comes to technical expertise. Having entrusted them with management of the databases that underpin our publishing software – the software that produces all content for print and supplies all print content to online media - that’s the reassurance we need.

Q: Which systems does Version 1 support for you?

A: They manage our Oracle 11g RAC database environ-ment 24 by 7, 365 days a year: that’s one of the most business critical databases in our entire operation, because it’s our publishing database for all our print products. We need to make sure that it is fully opti-mised and running and there are no issues; it’s located here in our data centre in Talbot Street and a replica DR database environment is in our data centre in City West. Version 1 proactively manages and monitors

“Version 1 has been a trusted partner to Independent News & Media Group for over a decade now. We have entrusted our critical databases to their Managed Services team on a 24-7 basis and performance is superb. We have security of mind that the technical competence of the team looking after our systems is first class. These systems need to be as reliable as the daily paper, and they are; that’s down to the expertise and dedication we can rely on from the team at Version 1.”

Gerry Wilde, IT Director Independent News & Media PLC

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both databases, conducts upgrades and all patching. All aspects of the database are being supported including availability, performance, security, backup, recovery and business continuity. They’re watching and checking it 24 hours a day and its performance is superb. These systems need to be as reliable as the daily paper, and they are, and that’s down to Version 1.

Q: As an IT Director, is outsourcing something you try to avoid, or something you embrace?

A: We would definitely be advocates of outsourcing. For instance we don’t have network engineers on-site; the whole wide-area network and all our networks within our different companies are outsourced. But to make it work, you need to manage your outsourcing. You can’t just sign the contract and forget about it: you’ve got to work very closely with your outsourcing partners. They’re just an extension of your IT department, and like anything else within IT, if you manage and monitor it correctly, it’s going to work. You also need your own checks in place.

We’ve used outsourcing for so long that we know how to get the best from those kinds of relationships: if we do get issues, we contact the suppliers immediately. It’s about openness of communication and trust. Ensuring

that your chosen partners are fully aligned with your business objectives and have a common knowledge of your business processes is the key to successful engagement. We have this with Version 1 and are con-fident that we can depend on them to deliver on our agreed goals.

Q: What does the future hold for you in terms of IT and innovation? You use Version 1 for database managed services: is it important to you that they have skills in other IT areas, like application man-agement, cloud, and so on?

A: Actually that is quite important to us – given the scope of our operations and the interdependencies of our systems it’s important to us that Version 1 is not a niche operator. I like knowing those other capabili-ties are there if I need them – for example Version 1 have matching capabilities across Microsoft and cloud technologies. There are things we may want to do in the future, and it’s always nice to be able to go back to a company where you have an established relationship you can trust: they are an honest company to deal with in conjunction with having the breadth and depth of technical know-how. Version 1 would be on our top-five list of companies to do business with.

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INM & Version 1 At A GlanceDatabase managed service for Oracle 11g using Real Application Clustering (RAC)

24-7 database support 365 days a year from round-the-clock Version 1 Operation Centre

Oracle database supports content management system for all Independent News & Media print-ed products including Irish Independent, The Herald, Sunday Independent, The Sunday World, Belfast Telegraph Group and all of our regional titles in the Republic of Ireland.

Managed service includes proactive support for all aspects of the database (availability, performance, security, backup, recovery and business continuity).

Health checks performed daily, weekly and quar-terly identify non-critical issues for proactive remediation to ensure system availability.

Additional database managed service for Progress OpenEdge 10.1B database with Progress Replication.

Progress database support underpins Independent News & Media’s financial management system serving all companies on the island of Ireland.

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