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A game-changer in a time of crisis

Norway’s Business Compensation Scheme

The portal for the Norwegian government's COVID-19 compensation scheme (kompensasjonsordning.no) is estimated to have distributed several hundred billion kroner to Norwegian businesses during the coronavirus crisis, and Itera played a central role in setting up and operating the solution.

MAIN ORGANISATIONS INVOLVED:

Finance Norway

Bits

DnB

Itera

The Norwegian Tax Administration

The Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation

OUR KEY EXPERTISE:

Microsoft Azure Functions

Microsoft Azure Service Bus

Infrastructure

Cloud Advisory

Security

Man with mask looking out of window

COVID-19 has been the biggest test for Norwegian business and industry in modern times. Acting through the Norwegian Ministry of Finance, the government implemented an action plan in early March 2020 with the aim of ensuring that Norwegian businesses did not become insolvent as a result of the pandemic.

Man sitting in front of computer taking notes

A number of the largest financial institutions and public sector organisations in Norway were engaged to build an automatic digital solution designed to help protect jobs throughout the coronavirus crisis.

Large-scale mobilisation in record time

Kompensasjonsordningen.no saw the light of day in record time; the solution was developed in the space of a little over three weeks.

Thanks to the large-scale collective effort, several hundred thousand companies have used the portal. The Ministry of Finance reports that Norway’s authorities estimate that the solution has paid out around NOK 20 billion per month.

During the process, Itera was chosen to act as a consultant in relation to architecture, capacity planning, operations and monitoring for the cloud-based solution. Itera’s overall role was to ensure that the operations phase was a success.

It is extraordinary that we, together with the customer were able to create this type of functionality and reliability in such a short amount of time. Particularly considering that the employees who delivered it were working from home.

Bjørnar Engebretsen

Director of Hybrid Cloud Services at Itera

Embracing the changing workplace

Madame Joseph-Michel Ginoux (1888–1889) by Vincent Van Gogh. Original from the MET Museum.

Madame Joseph-Michel Ginoux (1888–1889) by Vincent Van Gogh. Original from the MET Museum

Woman looking at computer screen

Integrated operations processes

Bits AS, the banking and finance industry’s infrastructure company, engaged Itera to develop and manage an operations solution in Microsoft Azure. Itera was also tasked with providing expertise and advice in relation to the solution itself.

Henry G. Marquand (1897) by John Singer Sargent. Original from The MET Museum-1

Henry G. Marquand (1897) by John Singer Sargent. Original from The MET Museum

As a result, work on the digital solution was brought under the same operating processes as the Tenant and Subscription administration between Bits and Microsoft Azure with established automation, governance and cost control.

Two men looking at computer screen

The process before, during and after the compensation scheme was developed has been described as agile, and this made it possible for what is a relatively sizeable solution to be put in place so quickly. The project would also not have been possible without the digitalisation that has been carried out in recent years in the finance industry and by public sector organisations.

The solution is monitored 24/7 using Azure and various dashboards. These tools provide overviews of the solution’s performance, status and availability, as well as tools for automatically operating the solution in the cloud. A system for monitoring for and following up incidents, including the option for escalation, was also set up.

What we achieved

  • When the solution first opened for businesses to apply for compensation, 6,000 applications were received over the first weekend – without any performance-related problems.

  • Several hundred thousand businesses have so far made use of the portal.

  • The project was developed in record time – it was production-ready three weeks after the start date.

  • A secure and stable operating solution.

  • Quick and scalable high-quality support.


It is estimated that around NOK 20 billion has been paid out through the solution every month.

What made this possible was our ability to fully use the opportunity space by combining cloud technology with a modern DevOps-based delivery model. We are proud of our contribution to the portal.

Bjørnar Engebretsen

Head of Hybrid Cloud Solutions, Itera

Joachim von Ekensteen

Joachim von Ekensteen

Head of Itera Sweden