City of Luxembourg

THE CITY OF LUXEMBOURG MANAGES ITS FILE EXCHANGES WITH GOANYWHERE

ABOUT

Today, the City of Luxembourg is a cosmopolitan, friendly and modern city with many assets; many people emphasize its uniqueness and modernity and put it on an equal footing with the other capitals of Europe; it is, after all, a city that lives at the pace of our times and has preserved its human dimension.

In order to carry out all the missions of a municipal administration at the service of the residents of the City, the City of Luxembourg has about fifty administrative, technical, cultural, social and socio-pedagogical services.

To ensure the automatic exchange of files and data between its various departments and applications, the City of Luxembourg now relies on the Managed File Transfer (MFT) solution from GoAnywhere, distributed in Luxembourg by BlueFinch-ESBD.

A new solution

Mr. Claude Bisdorff, as deputy head of the IT Systems Department of the City of Luxembourg, can you explain what necessitated the implementation of a new file exchange solution?

Until 2018, file transfers between the City’s services or between the applications used by the administration’s departments and those of our partners were operated by scripts, which ran locally on various servers. At that time, we did not have a centralized solution, nor did we have a view of all the exchanges that took place, nor did we have reporting or an alert system in case of problems. At a time when more and more services rely on data that needs to be updated regularly, we had to look for a solution that was more adapted to our needs.

Can you give us an example of services that require regular data updates?

There are many examples and they are not limited to the internal systems of the City of Luxembourg. Let’s take the example of a guidance system to the capital’s parking lots. In order to function properly, this system must rely on files and data relating to the occupation of parking lots, which are transmitted from our applications. Their operation implies being able to receive data from us on a regular basis to ensure optimal service. To guarantee the smooth operation of all our services, we need to organize a reliable and regular transfer between the various applications and internal systems, some of which are considered sensitive. In addition, more and more data is being made available to the public, which also requires regular exchanges of information to these platforms.

GoAnywhere MFT

Why did you choose the GoAnywhere solution?

In order to centrally orchestrate the transfer of files and data, we considered several solutions. It turned out that GoAnywhere MFT was the one that covered all our needs. Plus, it had the advantage of being easy to implement.

What were the benefits of the solution?

The solution allowed us to orchestrate all exchanges from a central point. The platform is easy to manage. It interfaces easily with all systems, applications and websites based on file exchanges. It offers us great flexibility. It integrates reporting and alert functions, facilitating the supervision of exchanges and giving us the possibility of reacting effectively in the event of a problem.

How did you go about implementing it?

We analyzed several products and obtained many answers to the questions we had. The answers we got allowed us to better define our needs and to establish specifications. A BlueFinch-ESBD consultant came to our site for 3 days to implement a proof of concept and cover all the points defined in the specifications. From then on, the centralized file transfer management solution was operational and we were able to upgrade it to meet new needs. In addition, we benefit from BlueFinch-ESBD’s ongoing support, which extends well beyond the technical aspects, even though this is not included in the contract. The teams are committed to us, always ready to help us when we encounter difficulties. This relationship is very much appreciated today.

Beyond Managed File Transfer, do you use other solutions from the GoAnywhere suite?

Yes. Shortly after implementing the first solution, we also switched to Secure Mail to provide our users with a secure solution to exchange files with each other. While MFT is used for automatic and regular data transfer, users also need to be able to exchange large files on an ad hoc basis. Secure Mail meets this need. Today, the solution has been adopted by a significant number of our agents.

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