— — Product – Protosoft EN

SCHOOL MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
IN THE CLOUD

A TRANSFORMATION AWAY FROM MICROSOFT ACCESS

Since 2021, Titanom Technologies GmbH has maintained a close development partnership with ProtoSoft AG for the product Procurat! This is an administration software that understands the requirements of school administrations and combines them with technical expertise. Together, we have transferred the on-premise solution that has been established for decades into a scalable cloud system and successfully migrated numerous schools.

PROTOSOFT AG

The ProtoSoft AG is a renowned IT company that has been developing and delivering robust IT solutions to customers from various segments since 1999. These include the Procurat! school administration software, which is used at over 300 independent schools in Germany. This software was originally developed on the basis of Microsoft Access and operated on-premise in the individual schools. Procurat! includes numerous administration modules, a document repository, import and export functions and connections to common third-party providers such as Datev, making it a central component of the school infrastructure. The technology partnership with Titanom Technologies GmbH was established to further promote automation and digitalization in schools.

SECURE SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION FROM THE CLOUD

Managing schools is a complex challenge. Numerous processes must be digitally mapped and integrated into a sophisticated data structure. In addition, software that meets these basic requirements must in turn make the data available to other applications or interfaces. It should be noted that the data often cannot be transferred in full, but must be partially anonymized or aggregated in order to comply with the GDPR guidelines. This complex catalog of requirements is fully met by Procurat! The software has been developed over 20 years and has therefore been able to continuously adapt and expand to meet new requirements. However, Procurat! was previously always operated on the school’s internal hardware, which entailed a high level of effort for commissioning and maintenance. In order to offer new flexibility and achieve scalability, the application now had to be transferred to the cloud.

THIS IS THE PRODUCT

The migration of the Procurat! management software can essentially be divided into three phases: the cloud-native rewrite, the deployment and the data migration to the new cloud system. Titanom Technologies GmbH took on a large part of the rewrite and was responsible for the cloud deployment. Due to various GDPR and BSI guidelines, numerous interfaces had to be redesigned and precisely implemented during the cloud migration so as not to create any new risks.

Ultimately, individual instances were hosted by a German cloud provider using an Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) management unit. The implementation of numerous interfaces to applications that continue to be operated on-premise in the schools was ensured and the administrative data was then migrated. The standardized and centrally controlled infrastructure made it possible to significantly simplify backup processes and availability guarantees, which significantly improved the user experience of the software.

Central IaC control of cloud instances: A single instance of Procurat! was hosted for each school. These instances were managed centrally with an Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) solution. This allowed generic processes to be ensured, easily implemented and later adapted.

Interface work: During the implementation and integration of Procurat!, several dozen external interfaces had to be controlled. Many of these were partially or completely undocumented. Together with the ProtoSoft AG team, these interfaces were systematically processed and documented. They were then integrated into the new cloud infrastructure.

Carola Hojnacki
Chair Woman, ProtoSoft AG

Titanom Technologies GmbH demonstrated outstanding expertise in supporting the conversion of ProtoSoft AG’s school administration software “Procurat!” to a web-based client-server structure. Titanom played a crucial role in the development of several sub-components and took the main responsibility for the dockerization and deployment of the application. With in-depth expertise in the cloud sector and a strong understanding of the regulatory requirements of educational institutions, the Titanom team made essential contributions to the project. Thanks to the reliable cooperation with Titanom’s experts, important sub-project goals were met on time.

Jakob Stechow
Web-Developer, Titanom Technologies GmbH

Working with ProtoSoft was particularly exciting for me as it was the first time I was involved in the development of software that I was familiar with from my own everyday school life. I was able to gain valuable experience in migrating legacy code and integrating it into external interfaces. It is very fulfilling to see how this mainly technological migration work, which involved little feature development, created new added value for users. It makes me proud that I was able to contribute to this change with my knowledge of cloud development.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO FIND OUT MORE? PLEASE CONTACT US!

We look forward to getting to know you. In an initial meeting, we will check whether the missions of our companies have a common core. For us, this is the basis of a successful partnership.

LUKA VUKSANOVIC

[email protected]

Feel free to contact me!

We look forward to getting to know you. In an initial meeting, we will check whether the missions of our companies have a common core. For us, this is the basis of a successful partnership.