KNMI forecasts increased efficiency and usability with EForms and IBM Lotus Forms
Overview
KNMI (Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut) is a government organization that provides weather forecasts and warnings to the people of the Netherlands, as well as to the maritime and aviation sectors. Based in De Bilt, near Utrecht, the Institute employs around 500 people, including 60 meteorologists.
Business need:
Dutch meteorological service KNMI found that training and support costs required by its forecasting applications, developed over the years in a variety of programming languages, were rising while productivity was constrained. Time and money spent on IT maintenance, application development and staff training could be better directed to business development and forecasting accuracy.
Solution:
Working with EForms Ltd., an IBM Business Partner based in Delft, the Netherlands, KNMI consolidated its ten forecasting systems to a single application, based on IBM Lotus Forms running under Linux. EForms also developed a Java-based work scheduling system, which allocates tasks to the meteorologists and provides a checklist to ensure that forecasts are completed on time.
Benefits:
The new integrated system is designed to be easier for meteorologists to learn, reducing training workload and improving productivity. The single open standards-based solution is designed to be less costly to maintain and develop; it also enables KNMI to free itself from the proprietary technologies of individual vendors.
Case Study
KNMI (Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut) is a government organization that provides weather forecasts and warnings to the people of the Netherlands, as well as to the maritime and aviation sectors. Based in De Bilt, near Utrecht, the Institute employs around 500 people, including 60 meteorologists.
Weather forecasting is a 24x7 business, and KNMI divides the day into three shifts of eight hours, with five meteorologists working on each shift. Meteorologists need to be able to create multiple forecasts within very strict deadlines, serving aviation and maritime customers, and the general public.
Marcel Molendijk, Program Leader at KNMI, explains: “There are maybe 80 different types of weather report that we produce – some for the maritime sector, some for aviation and some for the public. Each report follows different standards, and we had gradually built up a number of IT systems to help us generate them. At one point, we had ten different applications in production, just for forecasting.”
The systems were written in a number of programming languages – Microsoft Visual Basic, Microsoft Access, Java, Delphi and others. As a result, KNMI’s IT department required a large number of highly skilled staff to maintain them – and it could be difficult to develop some of the legacy applications to reflect the changing needs of the Institute. Relying on proprietary technologies meant that software licensing could be expensive, and KNMI was locked in to its vendors, instead of being able to take the most cost-effective option for moving the environment forward.
Equally, when a new meteorologist joined the staff, training on all the different systems was a lengthy and complex process. Since almost all of the applications worked on a server-client basis, each forecasting workstation needed to be kept updated with the latest versions of the client software, limiting workplace flexibility and preventing meteorologists from being able to work outside the weather room environment.
“We decided to look for a solution that could consolidate the functionality of all ten applications into a single system with a simple interface,” explains Marcel Molendijk. “We also wanted to ensure that this solution would be fully compliant with open standards, and accessible from anywhere.”
Finding a solution
KNMI began looking for solutions, and soon discovered EForms, an IBM Business Partner specialising in solutions based around IBM Lotus Forms.
“It was important for us to find a partner that not only had a strong technical pedigree, but could also understand the complex requirements of our organization,” explains Marcel Molendijk. “EForms was definitely the right choice. One of the EForms consultants worked so closely with us throughout the project that he has practically become a meteorologist himself.”
Leveraging Lotus Forms
Lotus Forms provides a single Web interface that enables KNMI to generate, edit and store more than 50 different types of weather report form. As more of the existing form-creation applications are replaced by Lotus Forms, KNMI is reducing its maintenance, development and training workload, while increasing flexibility.
“The Lotus Forms solution makes it much easier to develop and update the IT environment,” says Marcel Molendijk. “For example, we know that a new set of international standards is going to be introduced later this year, and this will require changes to several of our reports. Previously, making changes would have been a very complex process – but with a single open standards-based platform, we can handle the development quickly and cost-effectively.”
Moving to open standards
Lotus Forms uses the XForms standard, which is based on XML. The use of open standards means that KNMI can draw on a much wider support base than with proprietary technologies – which should help to keep IT costs low and avoid vendor lock-in. KNMI is running Lotus Forms under Linux, and is also using a Java-based workload scheduling solution built by EForms.
“Linux, Java and XML are crucial parts of KNMI’s overall IT strategy, which is to move as far as possible towards an open source strategy,” says Marcel Molendijk. “It is especially important for us as a government institution to make the best use of public money, so open source software is an excellent way to reduce costs without compromising on quality, reliability, or the availability of technical support.”
Simple, browser-based interface
The Web browser-based workload scheduling solution provides each meteorologist at the start of their shift with a checklist of tasks to be completed. When a task is completed, it is automatically taken off the list, while any overdue tasks appear in red. When the tasks involve the creation of a form, a single mouse-click takes the forecaster through to the Lotus Forms system.
“It is a much simpler interface for the forecasters, so much less training is required,” says Marcel Molendijk. “Equally, the ability to access the system via a Web browser means that they can work from any PC, with no client software required.”
Marcel Molendijk concludes: “Working with EForms to build this consolidated solution was a major strategic decision for KNMI, and it has already delivered numerous benefits: increased flexibility and usability with a reduced need for user training; and a much simpler, more cost-effective maintenance and development capability.”
