Saxo Bank Optimizes Services with Azure DevOps

Founded in 2000, BinckBank offers fast, low-cost access to leading international financial markets for private customers, companies/legal entities, and independent asset managers. Trading, investing, and saving services are offered through a variety of customized products. A notable part of BinckBank's services is the stable online platform that gives customers access to important financial markets and analysis tools. The company has offices in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Italy and enjoys a leading brokerage position in both the Netherlands and Belgium.

Top Customer Service is the Priority

As a banking service for private customers, businesses, and asset managers, it is essential that BinckBank provide access to stable, secure, and quick online platforms. The bank's platform engineering team consists of over 150 developers and IT specialists. Bart Beemsterboer, manager of BinckBank's platform engineering team explained that they were looking for, something that provides the latest functionality and facilitates easier integration with the time registration and project management applications. They were ready to transition to something new and needed guidance on the implementation plan. International financial markets are constantly in motion so disrupting client services for platform updates was not an option. 

Taking the Next Step for Optimization

Before this project, the company used a team foundation server (TFS). Our software releases occur continuously and in rapid succession. This means that testing is automated and version management is transparent. The work involved in the release process and the operations of our development team is always subject to optimization. Because a cloud solution would decrease the amount of time, work and cost involved in application management, a transition to Azure DevOps was a logical step to take, said Beemsterboer. Knowing that Xebia had expertise and experience with migration projects, he reached out to schedule a meeting and a partnership soon followed.   

Maintaining Smooth Operations

Xebia provided the guidance and experience required to maintain smooth operations during the transition. Because stakeholders were concerned about continuity, explained Beemsterboer, we needed to be sure there wouldn't be any hiccups or delays caused by the migration. Xebia removed any doubts by explaining that the process included a number of dry run tests. After weeks of preparation, the migration was successfully completed. The entire journey took less than six weeks, he said, and the project was completed on time and within the budgeted ten days of Xebia's assistance.