New Schweitzer Media Center: Scalable, efficient, user-centred

At the start of the project, we worked with Schweitzer to define the scope of the MVP and developed the technical proof of concept. As part of this process, we also conducted interviews with Schweitzer's sales team and customers to gain first-hand insights into their working processes and current challenges. The technical proof of concept included setting up the application, connecting a first publisher, integrating it into the web shop for authentication, and connecting the ERP system (or the corresponding replication database) for customer, product, and licence information.

We then iteratively expanded the basic framework: additional publishers were connected and central functions for users were added until the MVP was complete. After an internal friendly user test with Schweitzer employees and a comprehensive security check, the gradual migration of customers to the new media centre began.

A key objective of the project was to significantly improve user-friendliness. To this end, the entire user experience was redesigned. A central search function now replaces three separate search functions. Users can search both their licensed products and the publisher catalogues in parallel (via ‘Federated Search’) – and see all results at a glance.

Authentication and, in some cases, authorisation for numerous publishers is handled by Keycloak, which acts as an identity or service provider depending on the publisher's requirements.

The application runs on a container-based Docker Swarm cluster with three instances, which are operated within the Schweitzer environment and protected by firewalls.