Project overview

Guarantee traceability acrossFondation de France’s entire ITprocess

Standardize monitoring to optimize the work of the IT team

Provide information andcommunicate transparently about the service’s activity

Solution Centreon EMS (*)

Centralization of data which facilitates management and decision-making

Surveillance automation and standardization to optimize operational work

Development of best practices in line with the foundation’s governance philosophy

Business challenges Client benefits

Centreon’s IT monitoringsolution helps Fondation de Franceachieve its goal of efficiency, traceability and transparency

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(*) the Centreon EMS monitoring solution, formerly known as CES Complete, includes Centreon Open Source, Centreon EPP, Centreon MAP, Centreon BAM, CentreonMBI and support/maintenance.

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The Fondation de France seeks todevelop philanthropy in France. Withits 196 employees, and supported by504 volunteers and 410,000 donors,it supports projects run by NGOs,community groups and individuals(9,100 in 2016, i.e. nearly 174 millioneuros). It supports 828 foundations,providing them with all necessarymeans and services to take action ontheir key issues. “Our foundation isprivate and independent, and doesnot receive any grants”, indicatesSébastien Bernard, IT OperationsManager at Fondation de France. “Inthis respect, it makes it a point of honorto guarantee the efficiency of donationsand real transparency around its work.That is why IT must be able to tracebusiness line processes and provideappropriate information during thevarious checks to which it is subject, bethey internal through the auditors orexternal through the Controller andAuditor General.”

Since 2006, the Internal ResourcesDepartment, a team of fifteen or so,

has been equipped with a monitoringsolution assisting the IT departmentin its role of ensuring optimaloperational quality and meetingits specific requirements. The ITOperations team, which in particularguarantees quality of service for thefoundation’s entire business lineapplication environment (CRM, ERP,financial management, etc.), hasexpanded over the years and nownumbers some 43 people.

“Initially, we opted for Oréon (which hassince become Centreon) and we havedeveloped our monitoring at the samepace as the software solution”, explainsSébastien Bernard. “We are using theCentreon EMS suite which enables us toautomate the surveillance of numerousapplication processes, something whichis useful for a small organization likeours where every project managermanages a large portfolio ofapplications. Moreover, the measuresprovided by Centreon enable us toobjectively report on the availabilityof applications and infrastructure.”

Fondation de France was created in 1969 andis France’s leading philanthropic network. As afoundation working for all causes, it acts in all areasof public interest via its own action programs and byfacilitating the work of the 828 funds and foundationsunder its umbrella. Independent and private, it doesnot receive any grants and can only continue it worksthanks to the generosity of donors and testators. In view of its status and its specific line of work,the financial resources of the Fondation de Franceare subject to regular audits and controls. Theseobligations have a direct impact on its IS (which,consequently, must be able to trace and protectprocesses). In order to guarantee correct operationand the quality of the service delivered, the InternalResources Department implemented a monitoringstrategy using Centreon solutions in 2006. Over morethan 10 years, its good practices and monitoring scopehave changed markedly, in step with the functionalimprovements proposed by Centreon, enabling it tooffer a high level of quality for its IT resources.

With Centreon, we have gone beyondtechnical monitoring

towards monitoring ofapplications, as well as management and

decision support tools.

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Inorder to take

into account thespecificities of our work,

it is imperative that our ISrespond to issues surroundingthe traceability of

financial resources andtransparency

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The decision to develop a monitoringstrategy was not driven by the ITscale itself (350 hosts over 2 sites,4,500 services) but rather by thelevel of quality required for use of theIT resources.

That is why the IT Operations teaminvested in the Centreon solution, intraining and in the associated bestpractices in order to go beyondsimple technical monitoring.

“We have expanded our monitoringscope and we are generating syntheticdashboards. We share them with theentire IT department in the form ofmonthly reports which provide usupstream with KPIs on the availabilityand performance of our applications”,clarifies Sébastien Berbard. “We generate reports which wesupplement with Centreon BAM in orderto create an applicative vision ofmonitoring which is coherent with thereality of our IT services.”

On a day-to-day basis, the ITOperations team also uses Centreonto better manage and detectincidents and to limit any impact onits IS during IT failures.

Another strength is the excellentt e c h n i c a l a n d c o m m e rc i a lrelationships with the Centreonteams and the software publisher’slistening skills, something confirmedby the IT Operations Manager whosays that “it is a pleasure to work withthem”.

The IT Operations team has alsoobserved that the Centreon solutionreally influences how it works,something which has led to anevolution towards better practicesover the years. “We particularlyappreciate the standardization ofprobes (plugins) which simplifies ourday-to-day work, the fact that theproduct is open source which enablesus to develop our own plugins and thepossibilities provided by the aggregationof data collected via tools such as

Centreon BAM, Centreon MBI andCentreon MAP”, emphasizes SébastienBernard. “Thanks to Centreon, the teamhas developed its methods andpractices and is able to produce a highlevel of quality of service. Centreonhelps us fulfill our tasks and provides uswith factual elements which reflect asclosely as possible the reality of our ISin order to manage IT resources andoptimize our investments.”

The benefits providedby Centreon, such as

the use of monitoringdata and the releaseof indicators, have a

direct impact on howFondation de France

operates “

”

With Centreon, we aremoving away from the subjective and perceptionto work on concrete andcoherent data in order toimprove our efficiency on a daily basis. For us, it hasbecome inconceivable tofulfill our duties withoutthis kind of tool. “

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About Fondation de France

With nearly 50 years’ experience, Fondation de France is thecountry ’s leading philanthropic network. It brings togetherfounders, donors, volunteer experts, experienced employeesand thousands of organizations, all committed and driven by thedesire to act. Thanks to such players who are located acrossFrance, in rural and urban areas, it is in direct contact with localissues. Fondation de France works in all areas of public interest,be it by providing assistance to vulnerable people, medicalresearch, the environment, culture or education. It intervenes in two ways: through its own action programs andby facilitating the work of the 828 funds and foundations underits umbrella. Independent and private, it does not receive anygrants and can only continue its work thanks to the generosityof donors and testators. In total, more than 160,000 publicinterest projects have been implemented since 1969, the year itwas created.

Website: www.fondationdefrance.orgTwitter: @Fondationfrance

For more information to try or buy, visit: www.centreon.com

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