SEEBURGER Cloud Customers Are Getting The New Message Tracking

Welcome back! In our recent article on the new SEEBURGER message tracking, we looked at why it’s important to migrate to the new version.  Now it is time to carry out this migration for our SEEBURGER Cloud customers. In this article, we’ll be looking at how SEEBURGER is planning to carry out the migration, what the main focus is and what new features customers can expect to benefit from.

How are customers going to be migrated from the old system to the new system?

Migrating from the old version of the SEEBURGER messaging tracking to the new version requires careful planning and implementation.  The process encompasses four steps.

Analyzing the old message tracking system

The first step is to thoroughly analyze the existing message tracking. This analysis takes place before the actual migration and involves evaluating user profiles, configuration settings, search profiles and other relevant aspects. This is necessary as the existing message tracking may have been adapted to customer requirements, restricting the ability to view data per user. The analysis ensures that all these aspects can be smoothly migrated to the modified functionality of the new message tracking.

Porting settings into the new message tracking system

In the second stage, we carefully port the configuration settings and user profiles to the new message tracking. Some adjustments will be necessary – for example, for security reasons, although user accounts can be transferred to the new message tracking, the passwords cannot. Users will therefore receive a login URL to the new message tracking by email, alongside the request to immediately set a new password.

For this process to run smoothly, it is crucial that all user accounts contain valid e-mail addresses. We shall therefore be asking customers in advance to ensure that the email addresses in their user accounts are valid and up-to-date. User accounts without valid email addresses may not be successfully migrated.

From this point onwards, SEEBURGER Cloud customers will be able to manage their users themselves and will no longer be dependent on SEEBURGER support. Previously, adding a new user required a time-consuming change request on the SEEBURGER ticket system. This, and the associated waiting times for processing user requests and adjusting permissions, are now a thing of the past.

The SEEBURGER BIS platform 6.7 and all its associated apps are now based on a completely new user management system. From version 6.7, users will be administrated through the “User Management Service” (UMS). The UMS works in a similar way to its predecessor, but has differences and enjoys extended functionality. Customers are represented in the UMS by “organizations”, whereby all users on a customer’s system are assigned to the same organization. Within their organization, customers can manage their users themselves, including their roles and granting access to various applications such as the new Message Tracking in the UMS.

In both the old and the new Message Tracking, users can be organized into groups in order to control the visibility of data or to grant access to activated applications (business services). You can find further details on this in the “User Management” chapter of the online help service.

For more granular access control, it is possible to further subdivide the EMS organization into “organizational units”. The customer is responsible for setting up and managing the organizational units. The customer also determines which users are assigned to which organizational units. By assigning MTGROUP codes to each organization/organizational unit, the customer also controls which data is visible to each organizational unit. Further details can be found in the online help linked above.

The following illustration shows the relationship between application management and user management in the UMS.

Each customer account initially has at least one administrator who controls the rights of the users in their organization. The other users in this organization initially only have access to the standard message tracking function. The administrator can grant these users more access by assigning them to the corresponding groups and roles in the UMS application.

The administrator can also appoint additional administrators by granting specific users in his organization access to the UMS application. We recommend taking a restrictive approach when assigning roles and rights in order to minimize potential risks. Persons with restricted rights also only have limited options for action. Ultimately, the customer decides who they want to appoint as an administrator.

Transition phase

During the migration, the old and new message tracking will run concurrently for a period of time. This means that both are active and being filled.

The login URL, which is provided by e-mail when the access data is received, directs users to the SEEBURGER BIS 6.7 installation. In addition to the existing apps, message tracking and the UMS are also made available there.

What is new is that the messages and attachments (payloads) that were previously stored unencrypted in the file system are now encrypted and stored in the SEEBURGER DataStore. This significantly increases data security and protects the data from damage caused by unauthorized system access.

This parallel operation allows users to gradually get used to the new system and gives the teams time to identify and solve any problems before the old system is shut down.

Shutdown after an appropriate transition phase

The old Message Tracking will only be finally switched off after an appropriate period of parallel operation in which it has been ensured that the new Message Tracking is working properly.

At this point, it is important to emphasize that only the old message tracking is being deactivated. If a customer still has other BIS 6.5 applications in use, these will remain unaffected for the time being.

What’s going to happen next?

During 2024, all SEEBURGER Cloud customers will be given the opportunity to migrate to the new Message Tracking. We are currently in the meticulous planning phase and will reach out to customers as soon as all necessary conditions have been met. If customers have any questions or concerns, please use our contact form to reach out to us. We are committed to ensuring a smooth migration and will be available to you throughout the process.