SUCCESS STORY
European Centre for MediumRange Weather Forecasts
Industry• ScienceSolutions• OpenText™ Content Server• OpenText™ Enterprise Connect• OpenText™ Live Reports• OpenText™ WebReports• OpenText™ Extended ECM
for Microsoft Office 365™

ECMWF advances global weather
prediction with help from OpenText
International organization working on weather forecasting ensuresscientific accuracy, collaboration for preparedness with OpenText
Content Services solutions®

Service• OpenText Professional Services

Results
Enabled advanced searchcapabilities and content storage
Offered an audit trail for all
deliverables, providing evidence
required by mandateLeveraged OpenText expertiseto build an integrated solution
with a timely turnaround“The success wehave had with ourOpenText colleagues
is quite impressive.”
Mithat ErsoySenior System Analyst
ECMWF

ECMWF advances global weather prediction with help from OpenText

It’s like having scientists on speed dial—scientists who reduce yourexposure to weather-related disasters and support understandingof climate change.

In 2006, ECMWF migrated hundreds of thousands of documents
to the OpenText™ Content Suite Platform for easy search andretrieval functionality.

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts(ECMWF) supplies twice-daily numerical predictions to Member
States and users across the globe. In all, ECMWF has 22 Member
States, including France, Spain and the United Kingdom, as well as
12 additional Cooperating states, such as Israel and Hungary.

More than a decade later, ECMWF continues to rely on Content
Suite as its official internal repository. Thus, when the forecastingorganization was handling deliverables from external contractors,
ECMWF managers leaned on its long-time framework.

“We have more than 300 scientists in our organization,” said
Mithat Ersoy, senior system analyst for ECMWF. “The value we add
to those Member and Cooperating states is to tackle the scientificchallenges they cannot handle by themselves.”
ECMWF aims to generate accurate data, producing weather forecasts
15 days in advance and seasonal forecasts 12 months in the future. In
2012, ECMWF computer models predicted Hurricane Sandy’s landfall
seven days in advance, giving inhabitants along the Eastern seaboardof the United States an opportunity to prepare.
Founded in 1975, ECMWF also supports scientific research andmaintains one of the largest supercomputer facilities andmeteorological data archives in the world. In fact, a requirement tomigrate microfiche data from the 1970s served as the organization’s
introduction to OpenText Enterprise Content Management solutions.
Upon conversion of its historical archives to PDF, the need foradvanced search capabilities and integration with office systems led
to a request for proposal and scoring of the top performing products
against standards for ease of use. “Based on that score, OpenText
beat the other product big time,” Ersoy recalled.

Supporting Copernicus, the European Union’s earth observation
programme, ECMWF manages work from close to 80 contractors,
each producing anywhere from 50 to 500 deliverables, fromMicrosoft Word documents to complex data sets. Its research,atmospheric monitoring and a climate change program, observes
the planet for the benefit of all European citizens. By mandate, all
Copernicus deliverables must be auditable, displaying evidence ofscientific rigor and proper management.
®

The top-performing content structure centers on Content Suite,where files are stored in one location and shared according to strict
allowances, with permissions transparent to users. Contractors
outside of ECMWF upload deliverables to Content Suite, whichenables secure file sync and sharing of content stored on-premises.
Ersoy and his team plan to utilize OpenText™ Core for advanced
sharing and collaborating in the cloud, supporting their needs formany years to come.
The upload automatically triggers a workflow unseen bycontributors; an email with all captured metadata is delivered to theECMWF contract team. Upon review, scientific files are then assigned
to one of more than 40 scientists for review. Rejected files, usuallyin need of updates to meet strict formatting and style guidelines, arereturned for correction and resubmission.

“That’s the best value …
because of how easy
it will make our lives
to achieve what wewant to achieve.”
Mithat Ersoy

Senior System Analyst
ECMWF

ECMWF advances global weather prediction with help from OpenText

When the document is deemed complete and approved, thesystem automatically generates a status report that is emailed toexternal contractors.
“The complexity is completely hidden from the users,” Ersoy noted.
“There are lots of scripts, OpenText™ Live Reports, OpenText™
WebReports and various things behind the scenes; but, from theuser point of view, they [only] have a button to click.”
Simplicity and intuitive design encourage steady use acrossthe organization, even as users change every year. Since ECMWF
implemented OpenText™ Enterprise Connect, the Content Suite modulethat provides desktop integration with Office productivity applications,users easily publish material directly from within the Microsoft
applications to the repository, even without training, according to Ersoy.
As a result, ECMWF reduces management, as well as dedicatedtraining resources. “If a solution is easy to use, then you don’t needto spend money for all those things,” Ersoy said. “To me, that’s thebest value … because of how easy it will make our lives to achieve
what we want to achieve.”
In addition, through the integration of Content Suite with Microsoft
Office 365, ECMWF is extending immediate document accessibility
to managers working away from the office on tablets. As integrated®

tools supported by experienced professionals, OpenText solutions“tick all the boxes” for efficient content creation, collaboration andmanagement, according to Ersoy. By allowing users to work from asingle interface, they do not waste time jumping from system to system.
Instead, they rely on established permissions and automatic workflows
designed for optimum efficiency.
“The success we have had with our OpenText colleagues is quite
impressive,” Ersoy noted, describing interaction with the OpenText
account manager and customer support team, as well as OpenText
Professional Services. ECMWF engaged Professional Services forthe roll-out of tools and features tied to Copernicus. He reported a
six-month turnaround from the team to deliver all listed requirements.
For ongoing refinement and growth, Ersoy has come to rely onOpenText professionals for expertise in a timely manner. “I geta very quick response and they find a solution … I have seena problem being fixed within an hour and I’ve seen a problem
being fixed within a week. It all depends on how complex theissue is. The success we have had with our OpenText colleagues
is quite impressive.”

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