Munich/Cologne, 18 August 2015 - With immediate effect, Christoffel-Blindenmission Deutschland (CBM) will obtain its entire IT and TC environment from the BusinessCloud of the CANCOM Group. This includes all applications and also a UCC (Unified Communications & Collaboration) solution. CANCOM will also equip the staff at CBM headquarters with Microsoft Surface Tablets. In modernising its IT, the development aid organisation wishes to become more mobile and more flexible in future both in Germany and abroad so that it will be able, for example, to set up communications structures more quickly in regions where it is providing relief.

'As a development aid organisation we require a secure IT environment which functions smoothly so that we can receive and forward important information promptly,' explains Martin Cremerius, Head of IT at CBM Deutschland and CBM International. 'We are also extremely sensitive with respect to the security of our donor data and have particularly stringent requirements for data privacy.' CBM is subject to the German data protection law and also to the special data privacy provisions of Protestant Church law. These are consequently an integral part of the contract with the CANCOM Group. The CANCOM data centres are all located in Germany. The cloud services provided via these are governed by the German data protection law and incorporate fixed availability commitments (SLAs). The services are also certified according to the international standard for information security ISO 27001.

Applications and communication solutions from the German cloud
The CANCOM subsidiary Pironet NDH supplies Christoffel-Blindenmission with computing capacity, storage space and IT applications from its cloud environment in accordance with requirements. The application environment is provided via Citrix. The applications include not only MS Sharepoint, Office and Exchange, but also the central ERP application Microsoft Dynamics NAV. CBM Deutschland uses this system for central management and documentation of all processes connected with the receipt of donations and funding. In addition, the development aid organisation employs another MS Dynamics NAV for its sister company CBM International, whose task it is to distribute, manage and coordinate financial support for international aid projects on a targeted basis.

In addition to the application environment, the CANCOM Group has also transfered the entire CBM communication environment into the cloud. Thanks to the new UCC solution which is based on the CISCO communications platform, CBM will in future be able to utilise the software client 'Cisco Jabber' for its communication, both for classical telephony and video telephony and also by use of a chat tool. Furthermore, a new switching and WLAN environment enables locations around the world to be connected automatically to the internet - together with all network and security settings. The technological basis for this is provided by the Cisco solution 'Meraki'. This permits the CBM staff to access necessary information extremely rapidly.

Productive anywhere
To allow the organisation's staff to switch seamlessly between a stationary and a mobile workstation environment and to be productive wherever they are, CANCOM is equipping CBM with some 200 Microsoft Surfaces of the latest generation. These devices can be employed as tablets or notebooks when mobile application is required or - enhanced by the relevant peripherals - as stationary workstations. All Surfaces will be provided preconfigured by CANCOM. To do this, the IT service provider will import the requisite system environment onto the devices on a bulk basis.

'The example of Christoffel-Blindenmission clearly demonstrates that we at CANCOM are able to fully satisfy the IT requirements of companies. For instance, we support our customers in converting to the cloud using future-oriented applications and terminals. We provide all services highly secure and highly available with the CANCOM BusinessCloud from our German data centers,' says Rudolf Hotter, COO at CANCOM.

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