A seamless migration in a critical government infrastructure

The client

ASH Szoftverház was founded in 2012 with three people; today it works with 44 developers. The company develops custom software solutions and has recently started to turn individual elements of its solutions into products. The vast majority of its partners are Hungarian and international public administration bodies, complemented over the past year by commercial and academic engagements.

The IT leader

István Debrődy started his career at Videoton Holding, partly as a developer and partly in the sale of custom software. He later became sales director, and in 2003 he bought WSH together with six co-owners. In 2012 he founded ASH Szoftverház with the same partners. He worked as the sales director of WSH until 2024, when he stepped down; today he is involved in an advisory role.

A seamless migration in a government environment

Around 2019 they came across Andrews in connection with IT security. They first turned to Andrews with operational questions, then asked for support on one of their projects that was just starting. In 2020 they began the renewal of the public procurement portal of the Directorate General for Public Procurement and Supply (KEF), which had to be operated on the infrastructure of the Government Data Centre (KAK) of NISZ.

The KEF public procurement portal is one of Hungary’s critical, nationally used government systems.

Since this is not the core business of ASH Szoftverház, it asked Andrews to carry it out. Besides operations, Andrews also supplies its own firewall solution to the client.

István Debrődy pointed out that the switch of the KEF portal from the old version to the new one took place over a single weekend, which deserves “a big round of applause” for both companies. The old site was shut down on Friday afternoon, and the new one went live at 8 a.m. on Monday, without any complaints, which is no small feat with close to 50,000 users. Naturally, this was preceded by months of planning and testing. It was hard work, but the cooperation ran smoothly and was a pleasure.

When every second counts

They are currently working on finding the cause of slowdowns that users cannot perceive, to make the portal run even more smoothly. Operating a public procurement portal 24/7 is no small task: minutes can decide whether someone can submit a bid or complete a procurement. According to István, there has never been a problem that could be traced back to the cooperation or the work of ASH Szoftverház and Andrews.

Security-conscious teams, smooth cooperation

With systems of such sensitivity, security obviously has to play a prominent role, and Andrews performs excellently in this respect. The developers of ASH Szoftverház are also conscious in this area, so the teams can easily think together. Whenever Andrews suggests something or raises a concern, it is always examined, and their advice is taken.