A scalable cloud-based content services solution

UVu is the new content services and workflow automation platform from SCC Document Services (SCC-DS), enabling for the first time a single, consolidated and unified view of business processes to help manage information and improve compliance across all systems.

UVu empowers organisations to manage content, documents, data, and back-office processes through a dedicated, cloud-based ecosystem, regardless of whether information resides within the UVu platform or third-party systems and repositories.

The platform formally launches in 2021 following 18 months of careful development, despite consecutive national lockdowns in the UK as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

To support the development and launch of UVu, it needed a cloud partner capable of enabling growth and flexible enough to manage the challenges of the pandemic, whilst demonstrating expertise and passion for the project in equal measure.

UVu chose Oworx.

 

Ticking the boxes

Security, scalability, speed and, crucially, availability, are what separates UVu from its competitors. The new platform needed a cloud hosting partner that could enable each of these differentiators in a way that was cost-effective during the early stages of UVu’s development and quickly scalable through launch and subsequent growth phases.

Having initially partnered with another provider that fell short of the full flexibility required by UVu, Oworx was able to demonstrate a deeper understanding of UVu’s requirement and broader expertise to support the on-going development of UVu, taking a consultative, hands-on approach.

From day one of the partnership, Oworx was able to significantly reduce UVu’s existing spend on its data centre hosting. In turn, this added instant credibility to UVu, with SCC-DS able to show customers exactly where their data is and that it is being managed securely.

Craig Bragger, Presales Technical Consultant at SCC-DS, said:

“In 2019, we began strategic discussions around our approach to document management and wanted to create a solution to rival the existing market leaders. With UVu, we have achieved this by hosting our own cloud-based platform that simplifies document management and makes it easy, all from one place.

“Oworx has been invaluable in supporting the development of UVu from its earliest stage, taking over from the initial provider who, through no fault of its own, wasn’t the right fit for what we needed. We’re lucky to have very specialist expertise within the wider SCC group, and partnering with Oworx meant we could get access to leading cloud experts and a tangible solution that adds credibility to UVu as well as greater flexibility than other public cloud providers.

“Oworx was able to demonstrate an understanding of the model and help identify additional opportunities, whilst standing up a suitable cloud environment quickly – all during a global pandemic.”

 

A strategic approach

UVu is a modular solution, enabling applications to be bolted onto the platform where necessary and removed when not needed. This is why scalability was key, in order to help SCC-DS maintain a strategic view of UVu and develop a solution rather than fill, and pay for, a fixed amount of hosting space.

The benefit to Oworx and SCC-DS being inherently linked, as part of the same group of companies, was also apparent as the partnership developed.

Craig continued:

“Oworx enables us to stand up servers to a higher spec and bring them down again as needed. We can turn apps on and off again as data becomes apparent and this really helped us take a strategic approach to build UVu.

“When we gave Oworx the green light, we had service stood up within 48 hours. From that, we had servers running within hours. They’re quick and reactive but also incredibly proactive, working with vendor partners to follow-up on technical queries and resolving tickets on our behalf. It frees my team and I to concentrate on the platform, carry out testing, and get UVu ready to launch.

“It’s no secret we all fall under the same umbrella – but with very distinct specialisms and operating models. Oworx and UVu have a colleague-lead conversation but that’s all to do with the way Oworx partners with its customers and the culture fit between our two organisations. We’re very lucky to have a quicker route of escalation but SCC-DS and UVu are very much a customer of Oworx – and we’re so pleased with the success of the relationship so far.”

 

Building confidence

UVu is now in its final stages of development, due to launch in 2021. Partnering with Oworx from the beginning has enabled UVu to create its initial customer proposals including market-leading turnaround times for delivery of its cloud hosted solution, with the first raft of customer onboarding imminent.

Looking ahead, SCC-DS hopes to continue building a long-term partnership with Oworx, as more customers require more servers and greater resource and the UVu platform grows into a fully managed enterprise solution.

Craig concluded:

“We know how reactive Oworx is – so we don’t have the typical lead time of two or three weeks for a hosted solution. The onboarding of our first customers will be an important milestone for UVu and Oworx have helped us achieve this with confidence. We’re proud of what we’ve built and Oworx has played a significant part in helping us do it – and will continue as a trusted partner throughout the growth of UVu and iterative development of the platform.”