Process automation within the VW Group with Top-Logic™

In addition to Audi AG and Volkswagen original parts, Volkswagen Component is a major customer of the Top-Logic™ platform.

With Top-Logic™, the “project implement environment” (prime) became a reality at Volkswagen component. After several years of technical design and subsequent tendering, the decision to use Top-Logic™ was finally taken. After less than 3 months, the first version of the system was put into operation.

Today, Top-Logic™ is the central project control platform at Volkswagen Component. From operational project support to the automatic preparation of management reports, in addition to components, development projects from all business segments as well as infrastructure and organisational projects of all brands are supported.

Model-based configuration management for Deutsche Telekom AG’s IP TV platform (T-Home Entertain)

The IPTV platform of Deutsche Telekom AG consists of a system network with more than 2000 servers and applications in 6 test environments and a production environment.

The challenge here is the consistent implementation of technical changes throughout the system network, followed by a rollout over the individual environments to the setting of production.

For example, the switching on of another transmitter, as well as a software update of individual components, requires the customization of numerous configurations in the system network. These must be delivered correctly and fully implemented. If the result is validated, the next challenge is to roll out the modified configurations to the nearest environment. The changes cannot be directly adopted, but need to be transformed into the target environment – for example, to adapt to IP addresses and server names there.

Errors in this process, at best, lead to a time lag in the provision of IP TV services, and in the worst case, to failures of the entire service. The necessary knowledge was not formalized. There was a great deal of dependence on the responsible employees with a correspondingly high pressure of responsibility. Despite the utmost care, mistakes were unavoidable in these circumstances.

Top-Logic™ enables for the first time systematic modelling and thus the formalization of the entire configuration network up to the free configuration parameters and their interdependencies. Technical changes have been largely automated. Configuration adjustments can be simulated and validated. Dependencies are automatically shown.

Today, configuration changes are implemented centrally in the configuration model and documented there as (shared) versions. Multiple configuration variants can be viewed in parallel and further developed. The application to the affected systems as well as the transformation of configuration versions to different target environments are automated. The error rate and service delivery times have been dramatically reduced.