The integrated solution, implementation and support services will enable ArboNed to provide employees and clients with high availability to services and information and the option to move towards offering a complete range of Web-based services in the future.

ArboNed offers advisory health and workplace services for organisations looking to improve working practices and comply with Arbolaw, which regulates health and safety requirements for Dutch employers. ArboNed partners with employers, their employees and other stakeholders to drive down chronic worker absenteeism and comply with the policies and procedures provided by the Dutch Institute for Work and Company-related Issues. As the first Dutch arboservice provider to employ the Internet as a service-delivery medium, ArboNed has experienced major growth.

ArboNed's decision to install an HP and Oracle clustered solution was primarily driven by the need to shift from a decentralised to a centralised IT infrastructure. The clustered servers deliver the scalability, performance, availability and reliability ArboNed requires as it looks to shift its business focus to Web-based service offerings.

"In an increasingly competitive environment, and with expected new legislation that will accelerate market change, our goal is to distinguish ArboNed from the competition and to be agile enough to manage the impact of change on our business," said Hans Bisschop, financial and information technology director, ArboNed. "Together, HP and Oracle delivered a complete solution from products through to deployment, allowing us to leverage the benefits of their clustering technology for our data centre. By deploying a more dynamic, centralised infrastructure we are able to introduce Web-based services that are robust, reliable and available and will provide a solid platform that will help us react rapidly and effectively to changing business requirements."

The implementation involved switching from a decentralised client/server environment, based on IBM AIX servers with customised Lotus Notes and Domino applications, to a centralised Oracle9i Database environment with Real Application Clusters.

"Working with HP and Oracle has enabled us to transform our business, shifting to a model where the Internet is an important communication and transaction medium," said Bisschop. "Based on the powerful combination of HP Superdome servers and Oracle's database clustering technology, we can now manage client relationships and information flow more effectively with our centralised data centre."