Neste
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The station event system and card billing system are at the core
The events and card billing of approximately 1,100 traffic and automatic stations located in Finland, Russia, and the Baltic countries are produced by a robust clustered server and storage solution designed and supported by NetNordic. The station event system and card billing system are at the core of Neste’s station network sales and smooth customer service. Neste has a network of about 800 stations in Finland and 300 traffic and automatic stations in Russia and the Baltic countries. NetNordic helps Neste’s IT management modernize the environment according to best practices and ensure business continuity.
“We value the expertise and service attitude of NetNordic’s professionals. They have known our needs and IT infrastructure since the 1990s,” says Olli Forsander, head of IT infrastructure services at Neste. “The lifecycle of our server hardware, which has been in use for six years, was coming to an end, and we decided to renew the database platform and architecture of the critical station event and card billing information systems for our station network.”
Business does not allow delays
Neste’s organization has utilized several generations of IBM Power servers in Finland, Russia, and the Baltic countries. Neste’s station network serves customers 24/7, and the automation level of customer transactions and card billing is high.
“We have over half a million transactions every day at our stations. Events and card payments occur year-round—also at night. The processing of events and data volumes must be efficient. We need high-availability technology to ensure that the information systems operate reliably around the clock. We have found IBM hardware to be very reliable, and its maintenance needs have also been minimal,” says Forsander. “The lifecycle of our server environment was coming to an end, and we started assessing the renewal of the hardware.”
Neste utilized the expertise of NetNordic’s specialists even in the preliminary planning phase. “The functionality of applications in the new architecture was ensured, and testing went very well. NetNordic was involved in all stages of the work and acted as the main implementer in some phases. The key cornerstones of our IT architecture are undoubtedly the high availability and functionality of information systems. The business does not tolerate any delays.”
Ensuring Future Business
The card billing and backend system provides information on which payment cards are allowed. “The majority of payments are made by card,” says Forsander. “Different technologies are used for payments, and we ensure the permissions for processing payments and the validity of the cards. Our station event system is integrated with card billing, and card billing is further connected to our financial systems. We continuously strive to enhance card transaction management.”
The production use of the updated architecture began in early 2018. “We wanted to minimize risks, including those related to system transitions,” says Forsander. “The server and storage architectures designed by NetNordic have operated very reliably, and we also have a recovery plan for potential exceptional situations. The technology upgrade was also cost-effective, and the project remained within budget.”
Neste’s station network has grown moderately, and new stations can be integrated into the IT environment agilely. “We want to provide even better service to our customers. Mobile payments are rapidly becoming common at our stations, increasing data volumes. We have better visibility into transactions and billing. We receive more accurate sales information faster. We are also investing in additional services, utilizing, for example, vehicle identification technologies.” An example of identification technology is Truck+, which makes refueling easier, faster, and more secure, and allows for the integration of additional services.
NetNordic offers Neste:
- An update of the clustered high-availability server architecture, data migration, and implementation.
- Continuous service for the provided IBM data center environment (customer transactions, card billing).
- Monitoring and information on the health status of the customer transaction and card billing system platform.
- Technology expertise and consulting for architecture development and change management.