Case study: RDB Consulting assists tradebridge to 'bridge' its Oracle database skills gap

healthbridge, the principal healthcare information exchange company in the tradebridge stable, has contracted outsourcing specialist RDB Consulting to assist it with the set-up, management and maintenance of its mission-critical Oracle database.

tradebridge is the leading South African value-added transaction switch. It provides solutions that enable immediate, secure and reliable messaging between organisations that support underlying financial transactions.

Explains Alwyn Fourie, Group IT Manager at tradebridge: “healthbridge exchanges information between the different role players in the South African healthcare industry so that the right decisions can be made to ensure quality of care, reduced financial risk and improved administrative efficiencies. An Oracle database, which is internally managed, provides the backbone for the public key infrastructure (PKI), which is used for secure transactions. However, database management and maintenance is a highly specialised task and not the core competency of healthbridge. We thus needed to find a service provider with a proven track record and the necessary expertise to assist with the management and maintenance of an Oracle database and bridge the skills gap.”

healthbridge's requirement was for highly skilled technicians with extensive Oracle experience to manage the configuration and maintenance of the database, and then for intermediate skills to assist on a day-to-day basis. It turned to RDB Consulting, which has provided exemplary service to tradebridge for the past three years.

Notes Gerrit-Jan Albers, Service Delivery Manager at RDB Consulting: “The healthbridge switching system is bespoke and uses a PKI for security. The company issues certificates to new clients, enabling them to transact on the system. As the entire system relies on the database, downtime means healthbridge clients are not able to run a large portion of their business. It is thus utterly mission-critical that the Oracle database is up and running at all times. RDB Consulting ensures that this is taken care of.”

RDB Consulting has been providing outsourced support and database administration to tradebridge for the past three years, ensuring high availability and appropriate management and maintenance of the database. Since contracting RDB Consulting's services, tradebridge has seen a dramatic improvement in uptime of solutions under its management, and no unplanned downtime has been experienced for the past two years.

Notes Fourie: “RDB Consulting provides on-demand database administration on an Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server for healthbridge, which made them the ideal partner. RDB Consulting assists us by ensuring the database is optimally set up and maintained, and up and running for our daily activities. It also provides us with regular feedback so we can monitor the services provided. And when we recently requested additional resources from RDB Consulting, we were impressed once again - RDB Consulting offers a very professional service and their resources are an ideal 'fit' for our environment, filling our skills gaps and providing expertise for us to fall back on should we experience issues.”

While the skills gap initially prompted healthbridge to seek RDB Consulting's assistance, other factors also played a role in their appointment. “Having RDB Consulting on board enables us to reduce some of the workload internally, and it is far more economical for us to outsource this functionality rather than hiring full-time resources,” notes Fourie.

Says Blagoja Pardulski, Group Executive Director at tradebridge: “For healthbridge, database administration is not a core competency - it just forms a small, albeit important, aspect of the overall business. Outsourcing our database administration to RDB Consulting has not only allowed us to fill our skills gap and ensure maximum uptime, it has allowed us to optimally manage our database environment in the most cost-effective way possible. They are experts in this field, and can provide the skills and support needed, when it is needed.”