CASE STUDY: ANDRITZ HYDRO

A success story 160 years in the making, available now, in a split second.

Challenge
ANDRITZ HYDRO, the world’s leading supplier of hydro turbines, has done a lot of
engineering over the years. So much so, they’ve amassed some 3,000,000+
engineering drawings to reckon with—some on parchment and others on
microfiche. Efficiently managing digitized versions of important documents like
Product Edition:
these would be task enough for any digital asset management system, but Cumulus Workgroup
ANDRITZ HYDRO’s requirements went further:
Plug-ins and Add-ons Used:
No document search may take more than two seconds. Web Publisher Pro (Canto)

Solution Assets Managed by Cumulus:

TIFF G4 files: 350,000+
Turning to Canto Cumulus, ANDRITZ HYDRO found a solution that not only
Catalogs: 14
meets the company’s speed requirements, it exceeds them—easily—returning Photos: 400+
search results in less than a second. This is good news for a company whose ever
expanding archive is today only a fraction of the size it’s expected become. Supported by Canto Partner:
Results and Benefits SCS SOLID Computer AG
(http://www.scssolid.ch)
• Digitized microfiche archives are instantly searchable from anywhere.
• No longer limited by operating system performance and management constraints.
Why Cumulus:
• Unlimited Web access with no per-user fees.
• Extremely fast file access that
Damming the data deluge It leaves the employees of ANDRITZ HYDRO virtu- exceeded strict requirements
The development of a hydro turbine results in a veri- ally treading an ocean of information. • Easy installation without
table tsunami of data that must be collected and Before Cumulus, ANDRITZ HYDRO relied on micro- support or certifications
managed. No part of a turbine assembly goes undoc- required
fiche for data storage and retrieval. Though a much
umented, from the room-sized blades, down to the
better option than hard-copy libraries—especially • Best price/performance ratio
screws that keep it all together. considering the millions of documents in play— of all tested digital asset
Then there’s the documentation needed for opera- searching microfiche archives was tedious and time management systems
tion and maintenance, all of which ANDRITZ consuming. And with more than 25,000 turbine
HYDRO is required by law to maintain for 80 years. installations worldwide—some more than 50 years • License-free cost for Web
old!—information requests could come from any- access
where at any time. • Long-term secure digital asset
The time had come for ANDRITZ HYDRO to turn the management.
tide on its data storage process—and not a moment • Virtually unlimited data
too soon. volumes
No life raft from the OS
By the year 2000, the digitization of ANDRITZ
HYDRO’s microfiche archive was underway, but the
weight of the new digital data was starting to take its
toll. The company’s computers became bogged
down with file management duties they were never
designed to do, as Michael Schulyok, manager of
CAD and computer science at ANDRITZ HYDRO,
explains.
“When we opened folders to find files, we sat for up
Microfiche archives became far too cumbersome to main- to five minutes in front of the PC and nothing moved!”
tain and use. Cumulus offered a better way.

Canto, the Canto logo and Cumulus are registered trademarks of Canto. Other company and product names might be trademarks of their respective owners.
GEN/mkCS-AndritzHydro/2009.11 Copyright ©2009 Canto GmbH. All rights reserved. www.canto.com Page 1 of 2
CASE STUDY: ANDRITZ HYDRO

HYDRO. Finding a document requires a mere

mouse click, not an information request.
“With Cumulus it takes, at most, half a second
and the stuff is there.”
Manufacturing, maintenance and repair projects
stay on schedule, because everyone knows
where to find what they need—even when the
documents they need are many decades old.
And tomorrow?
Schulyok admits Cumulus is likely to evolve a bit
in the company’s next 160 years, but he knows
one thing for sure: no matter what, Cumulus 9,
10, 11 and beyond are never going to keep
ANDRITZ HYDRO employees waiting more than
(Left) Cumulus offers Native and Web clients that offer users instant access to any files they need, which has proven a fraction of a second.
to be a much better option that the microfiche archives (right), which had became far too cumbersome to maintain
and use.

Anyone who’s tried to manage hundreds of thou-
sands of files on a PC knows Schulyok’s pain.
Swimming upstream for relief
Like any group of talented engineers would do,
ANDRITZ HYDRO tested and analyzed many
DAM systems to determine which could best
manage the company’s growing archives for the
coming decades.
Schulyok knew what he needed their DAM sys-
tem to do, and he soon found out how many so-
called “DAM solutions” weren’t up to the task.
“Most systems could manage ten to twenty thou-
sand files, but then things became difficult.”
Twenty thousand files is some 2.98 million files
less than ANDRITZ HYDRO knew it needed to
ultimately manage, so the search continued until
Cumulus was the last candidate standing.
The impressive speed of the Cumulus search
architecture appealed to the engineering sensi-
bilities at ANDRITZ HYDRO, but license-free
access for an unlimited number of Web users
sealed the deal.
“Unlimited Web access without additional license
costs finally convinced us. Other systems charge For more information
a small fortune for such functionality.” on how Canto Cumulus
can benefit your
ROI so easy, even an engineer can do it
Schulyok was able to install Cumulus himself, organization, contact your
saving ANDRITZ HYDRO money that would local Canto partner, or
have gone into the pockets of the installation
teams of other DAM systems. contact Canto directly.
He saved himself some time too, because
Cumulus lets new users start managing files right In the U.S.
out of the box—no multi-month debates on how
metadata should be organized, and no lengthy
+1 (415) 495-6545
certification classes just to become productive.
“The Cumulus manuals are excellent. After three
In the E.U.
days, I had the system under control completely.” +49 (0) 30 390 485 0
Counting on Cumulus Everywhere
Today, all technicians, engineers, designers and info@canto.com
workshop staff use Cumulus at ANDRITZ

About Canto & Cumulus

Canto has been dedicated to helping customers fully utilize their digital assets since 1990. Canto Cumulus is a cross-platform solution that enables companies
to easily organize, find, share and track their ever-increasing numbers of digital files, in any format. Canto’s worldwide network of certified developers offers an
impressive assortment of plug-ins that enhance the Cumulus product line further.
Learn more: www.canto.com

About SCS SOLID Computer

SCS SOLID Computer AG is Canto distributor for Switzerland and Liechtenstein for more than 14 years. In Switzerland already run more than 1,000 Canto
Cumulus Server Solutions. The company is a distributor since 1987, with service for more than 20 manufacturers. So far, more than 7,000 server solutions for
approximately 400,000 clients are realized with SCS SOLID-products in Switzerland.
Learn more: www.scssolid.ch

Canto, the Canto logo and Cumulus are registered trademarks of Canto. Other company and product names might be trademarks of their respective owners.
GEN/mkCS-AndritzHydro/2009.11 Copyright ©2009 Canto GmbH. All rights reserved. www.canto.com Page 2 of 2