LIGEPE in the cloud for attendance management at a public research body
A national public research body adopts LIGEPE in the cloud on Azure for attendance management, with a PostgreSQL database and REST clock-in services.
The client
A national public body working in scientific research, with structured administrative processes and a need to ensure continuity, reliability and security across its information systems.
These include staff attendance management: an area that involves every employee every day and is governed by working hours, contractual rules and regulations specific to the organisation.
Key results
- From legacy infrastructure to a cloud environment
- New attendance system configured around the organisation’s rules
- Modern database platform
The starting point
The attendance system in use ran on ageing infrastructure: servers, operating system and software were no longer supported, and the existing environment could not simply be moved or upgraded.
The organisation therefore chose to adopt LIGEPE as its new attendance management system, installed in the cloud on its own Microsoft Azure environment, with a PostgreSQL database and an architecture designed from scratch.
Another goal was to move beyond the old way of transferring clock-in data, based on an exchange table processed periodically.
Key challenges
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01
Unsupported infrastructure
Servers, operating system and software components made it impossible to reuse the existing environment: a new architecture had to be designed rather than replicating the old one.
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02
Organisation rules to configure
LIGEPE had to be configured around the working hours, profiles, contractual rules and regulations in use at the organisation, ensuring continuity of established processes.
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03
Historical data to migrate
Data from the previous system, held in an Oracle database, had to be converted and loaded into the new PostgreSQL database while keeping the required history.
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04
A new system in the cloud
The new environment had to be built on Microsoft Azure, connected to the internal components and services that attendance management depends on.
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05
Clock-in data interoperability
Clock-ins arrived through an exchange table and a scheduled import. The aim was a more structured integration based on REST services.
The solution
Labinf Sistemi handled the new cloud installation of LIGEPE: designing the architecture on Microsoft Azure, configuring the application around the organisation’s rules and migrating historical data from the previous Oracle database to PostgreSQL.
The work was organised in phases: first a test environment for data conversion, configuration and testing, then go-live in production on Azure and post go-live support.
The new architecture
- New LIGEPE installation
- Configuration around the organisation’s hours and rules
- Historical data migration from Oracle to PostgreSQL
- Frontend server for the web application
- Dedicated PostgreSQL backend server
- Hosting on Microsoft Azure
- On-premise VM for data conversion
- Pre-production test environment
- REST web service for clock-ins
- Post go-live support
The frontend and database are hosted in Azure, while an on-premise virtual machine supports data conversion. The new system thus starts on a modern platform, without carrying over the legacy applications of the old infrastructure.
REST web service for clock-ins
In the previous system, clock-ins were written to an exchange table and then processed by a scheduled job.
With LIGEPE, Labinf Sistemi enabled a REST method, integrated into the application’s services, through which the organisation’s time-recording system enters staff clock-ins directly. The exchange uses a JSON layout and the same authentication as the other services.
The benefits
- From legacy infrastructure to a cloud environment
- New attendance system configured around the organisation’s rules
- Modern database platform
- Application layer separated from the database
- Test environment before go-live
- No reliance on unsupported components
- Data history retained
- Clock-ins exchanged through REST services
- Architecture ready for future developments
Benefits tied to architecture and integration, without disrupting established processes.
In short
The project shows how a public body can replace an attendance system running on obsolete infrastructure with a modern cloud solution: a new LIGEPE installation, historical data migration and clock-in integration handled as a single path, without interrupting staff processes.
