Holland Casino modernises IT landscape

Holland Casino faced the challenge of modernising its outdated IT landscape and ensuring it was fit for the future. inQdo played a crucial role in this process, resulting in a long-term strategic partnership where mutual trust and flexibility are paramount.

Founded in 1975 as a state-owned enterprise, Holland Casino has been a prominent name in the Dutch casino industry for decades. With 14 locations nationwide, the company offers various gambling options, from table games to slot machines. Employing approximately 3,900 people, Holland Casino is a significant player in the Dutch economy and the entertainment sector.

Modernising the IT landscape

A few years ago, the organisation encountered a major challenge. The company was dealing with an outdated IT landscape that no longer met modern requirements. Jodi van Oenen, IT Development Manager at Holland Casino, explains: “We had a broad application landscape with an increasing need for these applications to communicate with each other. It became clear that we needed to structure this communication and create a sort of motorway between the applications.”

The aim was to modernise the IT landscape and make it more flexible. The decision was made to implement an integration platform (ESB, an Enterprise Service Bus) to improve application communication and allow the company to respond more flexibly to changes. “The idea was that if we wanted to implement a new package, we could simply detach the old one and attach the new one without the rest of the landscape noticing,” says Van Oenen. “We’ve since learned it’s a bit more complex than that.”

Peace of mind

Holland Casino chose SoftwareAG's webMethods as its ESB. InQdo was then selected as the implementation partner. This choice proved to be a great success. Van Oenen notes: “They are a good fit for us because they adapt to our organisation. They always provide high-quality personnel and are flexible in their services. They work on-site with us and are a strong link between us and Software AG.”

The ESB implementation went smoothly, and inQdo also took responsibility for its management. Van Oenen highlights the value of this service: “We now receive a comprehensive service from inQdo, from managing the underlying machines to the platform itself. This gives us considerable peace of mind.”

A recent highlight in the collaboration was the migration of the ESB environment to Amazon Web Services (AWS). Van Oenen explains: “As a company, we are increasingly moving towards AWS. We seized this natural moment to perform a lift-and-shift and place the system in a set of virtual machines on AWS.”

This migration brought several benefits. “It makes us more scalable,” says Van Oenen. “Although we’re not an organisation that operates with huge peaks, it does give us the ability to scale more flexibly on underlying capacity. A great example was when approaching the holiday season, our busiest period, we noticed we needed more capacity. The change was implemented so quickly. That’s very satisfying.”

A committed partner

Holland Casino greatly values its ten-year-long relationship with inQdo. Van Oenen reflects: “It’s imperative to us. You know where you stand with each other. That flexibility is great, and this is not established quickly with a new partner.”

inQdo’s involvement goes beyond just technical support. Van Oenen provides an example: “During another migration, one of inQdo’s developers raised the alarm and prevented a potential ‘production blunder.’ That says something about the level of involvement from the people at inQdo in what we do.”

In terms of security, inQdo also plays a crucial role. Van Oenen adds: “During the transition to AWS, we suddenly had to manage many security processes, which another supplier previously handled. inQdo helped us think this through and worked with our IT security team to ensure everything was properly arranged.”

Value of partnership

When asked about inQdo’s strengths, Van Oenen responds: “Ultimately, it comes down to the attitude and behaviour of the people you work with. This applies to both the team members and the management. If you can sense what a client needs in both good and bad times and are willing and able to act on that with appropriate solutions, that’s the essence. The result is a true partnership.”

In summary, Van Oenen emphasises the value of collaboration: “inQdo is incredibly flexible, works hard, and helps wherever they can. That’s just fantastic. A very reliable partner—what more could you want?”