”They’ve raised the level of our technical skills”

As DKTV’s IT Director, Jesper Wistoft Nielsen faced a situation where he lacked the resources and the staff with advanced technical skills that his company required for database administration. It was both expensive and time-consuming to maintain and operate the databases. The solution to this challenge ended up being outsourcing.

Read the story and see why Miracle 42 was the right choice for DKTV (previously Dansk Kabel TV).

Chemistry and trust are important when choosing a partner – and the price must be right

When DKTV is going to choose a partner, they typically select 3–5 candidates, who are screened not only for price and the quality of their deliverables, but also for trust and chemistry, which are important factors for Jesper: “What’s important when we make our choice is that it’s a serious partner: that it’s someone we feel like we can trust, that there’s chemistry when we meet with them so that we’re able to speak openly about the issues that we need to resolve in common. And it’s of course also important that the price is competitive. This is exactly what we got with Miracle 42.”

Outsourcing became the solution

Jesper W. Nielsen characterizes the situation they faced as being business-critical. He was forced to change the way that they worked, and outsourcing ended up being the right solution. “The challenges we faced were of such critical character that it hindered the growth of our business. It was like an anchor weighing us down, so to make us more nimble and agile and quicker to respond to changing business requirements, we needed a partner.”

“If you don’t know how to build your own ship, you hire a shipwright,” says Jesper. “It’s expensive to hire a full-time DBA, and we simply didn’t have the resources for that.”

Jesper contacted Tobias at Miracle 42, and together they found the right solution for DKTV. “Since we knew Miracle 42 had the best reputation when it came to Oracle databases, we contacted them, and we were able to negotiate a really reasonable price,” DKTV’s IT Director explains about the choice of Miracle 42 as a partner.

When a partnership delivers on high expectations

There’s no doubt that Jesper  W. Nielsen had high expectations for the partnership between DKTV and Miracle 42. When a partnership ends up meeting expectations and delivers positive results, then there’s solid ground for expansion – and that’s exactly what he decided to do: “Miracle 42 helps us with the operation, support, and development of our Oracle databases, and as we’ve in fact been so pleased with the partnership that we expanded it, Miracle 42 now also helps us with our MS SQL databases.”

Reliable upgraded databases and peace of mind

Jesper W. Nielsen acknowledges that the most important thing the partnership with Miracle 42 delivers when it comes to their databases is peace of mind. Now they know that things are under control, and they can concentrate on other internal processes, such as routing tasks to technicians and cable layers and using Data Warehouse to submit reports to the Finance Department.

“We’ve been very pleased with the partnership with Miracle 42. They’ve raised the level of our technical skills and allowed us to accomplish certain tasks more quickly than we were able to before.”

Jesper Nielsen confides that the IT department staff often used to worry about the business-critical database, which was one of the first things the developers cast a wary eye on when arriving at work in the mornings. Is it running like it’s supposed to? Is it in tip-top condition?

“...we no longer need to worry about the databases. Now, we receive an e-mail with their statuses each week. We’re contacted by the Miracle 42 team if anything needs to be addressed. Miracle 42 has helped us ensure that our Oracle databases are always in tip-top condition and get a handle on whether our drives aren’t full. They’ve made it possible to upgrade our databases from an old version to the newest, most secure one. This is something that we’ve struggled with on our own for 10 years. Where we weren't able to perform the update ourselves, Miracle 42 succeeded.”

A partnership that just plain works

As IT Director, it’s important to Jesper that Miracle 42 contact persons be available whenever they’re needed. He explains that he has a great amount of respect for the high technical standards delivered by the Miracle 42 team. “What’s impressed me the most about the partnership with Miracle 42 is their technical skills and the way they approach us as a customer. Miracle 42 is proactive and takes the initiative to contact us when necessary, but we’re also able to contact them and get help immediately.”

In good hands

Jesper Nielsen is completely comfortable with the partnership with Miracle 42, which has eased the work burden associated with DKTV’s databases. He highlights the most important things here: “What I really value with Miracle 42 is the way we collaborate. I know I'm in good hands on a purely technical basis – we have talented people there. Their employees are easy to get a hold of, and they’re really pleasant to work with.”