IT’s “pulse monitor” also works from a distance

The IT control centre at our Headquarters in Düsseldorf – it is a type of “pulse monitor” for ERGO IT: Internet traffic and numerous business applications are monitored there in real time around the clock. Since mid-March, the team has been working from a distance.

What is the current level of Internet traffic? How well do important applications work at the moment? Information on this is available in real time at the IT control centre in Düsseldorf and at the backup control centre in Cologne.

Charts on large monitors illustrate how well ERGO’s IT is working at the moment. Or an alarm sends a signal if an IT application is not running as smoothly as it should. Then it’s up to the control centre team to solve the problem.

A different type of teamwork

However, teamwork in times of Corona works differently than usual. Distance is required. At present, only one expert holds the fort at the IT control centre in the Fischerstraße. The other colleagues work partly from the backup control centre in Cologne and partly mobile from home, and monitor the central ERGO applications via stable internet lines.

A novelty for the team

Mobile working at the IT control centre? Unimaginable for a long time. Monitoring the pulse online, from your home desk – a novelty for the team. “It was quite an adjustment for us”, says Group Leader Tanja Wagner. Especially as everything had to go very quickly. March 16th was “day zero” for the colleagues at the control centre, it was the day when it was decided to separate the team and let four of twelve colleagues work permanently from Cologne. The prerequisite for the teamwork is the virtual control centre, through which the team is constantly connected.

“We were curious: Would it work right from the start? At the beginning, it was rather unusual, because we are used to working on call in a group”, says Tanja Wagner, who has been a Group Leader at ERGO IT for two years.

After all, in the control centre everything is designed to detect fluctuations and problems as quick as lightening, and in the event of an alarm to report them to the respective IT operational groups without delay.

Already after a short trial period, it became clear that it would also work online without problems. Tanja Wagner and her team are relieved: “The flow of information is not affected by the distributed workload. On the whole we are working very stably.” That is how it should stay – even in times of Corona.