‘The change only had positive effects’
The Flying Circus offers open source solutions for your applications, customised service, communication at eye level and a close integration of development and operations - all well and good, but what does all this mean in everyday life?
Niklas Kohlgraf knows the answer to this question. He heads the Digital Projects and Digital Marketing department at Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, one of the largest academic publishers specialising in law, social sciences and the humanities in the German-speaking world. Reliable online access to the publisher's content on the eLibrary plays a decisive role and is now indispensable for both bachelor students and professors - and therefore also for Nomos. We support the publishing house in making its range available to its customers online around the clock. Find out what we do specifically and whether Nomos is satisfied with us in the interview between Christian Zagrodnick, one of the founders and managing directors of Flying Circus, and Niklas Kohlgraf.
Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft distributes publications in the fields of law, social sciences, and humanities. At first glance, this seems far removed from Flying Circus's field of work. How did the contact come about?
Niklas Kohlgraf: I think I have a special role in this context. Christian and I – or rather, both of us – worked together as external service providers to develop Nomos' eLibrary. And we migrated it from the old infrastructure to Flying Circus. Ultimately, as product owner, I led the development team that carried out the migration of the eLibrary based on all the legacy code. The recommendation for Flying Circus originally came from pooliestudios. Specifically, it was through a project for a large bank, where they worked very closely with you at the time. I think that was how we got started in this world, right, Christian? Was that at the end of 2020?
Christian Zagrodnick: To be honest, I don't even remember how we ended up at Nomos. At the time, there were already other projects underway with the agency where Niklas was working. That's how we got in touch and started working on Nomos' eLibrary. The move must have been in mid-April 2021.
How important is the digital offering at Nomos?
Niklas Kohlgraf: We have several digital offerings. But the eLibrary stands out as one of the most important products in Nomos' digital portfolio. And that's where our main focus lies. This means that we have the largest and strongest contractual position with SLAs (editor's note: service level agreements).
What exactly does Flying Circus do for you in this context?
And what effect did the change have?
Niklas Kohlgraf: The change had only positive effects – and they were really, really dramatic! – compared to what we had before. But there are simply things that are very, very important to us: On the one hand, there's reliability, then there's the scalability of the systems – we're constantly growing and launching new eLibraries. And then, above all, there's the support at the technical and personnel level. It always works great. Actually, I think you can even take out the word “always”: it's always great. We're extremely happy. And I think the most important thing for me is that I can take the whole “operations” issue off my mind to a certain extent. I think that's never entirely the case because of my role. But I know that it always works and that we can demonstrate customer satisfaction – you can see that in our reliability. For example, we've been able to optimize many processes such as statistics generation. That wasn't often the case before.
Your collaboration seems to be going very well and appears to be based on a partnership of equals. Can you explain what you think makes this collaboration so special?
Christian Zagrodnick: As Niklas just said, we are responsible for the entire operation of Nomos' eLibrary application. We do this in a specific cooperative manner—working hand in hand, because today's complexity is such that you can retreat to “this is my turf and that's your turf,” but then you leave room for mistakes where responsibility remains unclear. We are committed to always doing the right thing in each situation so that the application does the right thing for users, rather than hiding behind the small print in a contract. On the one hand, this means that we proactively look out for compatibility issues when making changes to our platform, but also respond quickly and appropriately to unforeseen situations. And this doesn't just apply to the stability and performance of individual components, as a traditional host might still do, but our benchmark is the entire application and its accessibility for the end user – and our team takes this into account. For Niklas, this means that he no longer has to think about whether operations are set up correctly on a daily basis; we take care of that for him. And if something is unclear, it's clear that we will have a solution ready and can clarify issues – whether operational or strategic – quickly.
Niklas Kohlgraf: So it's not a stress factor. Often, operations and the whole issue of alerting and checking how the software is actually running are huge topics that you usually have to deal with in my role. Of course, I still think about it. But as Christian rightly says, it's not on my mind every day anymore. And if it is, I can just quickly dive in, get all the information I need, and make decisions. But now that I'm no longer in the product owner role and have found a good partner in Flying Circus, who works with us trustingly on various projects, I can concentrate on other, really important things.
Christian Zagrodnick: We always have this triangle consisting of the actual application owner, the developer, and us. And when this triangle works well, it is extremely powerful.
Do you ever meet in person, or how does the collaboration work?
Christian Zagrodnick: Personally, we have rarely met in person due to our professional commitments. However, this works well with the help of video conferencing. It is also important to see each other and not just talk on the phone. We have met in person before, but not for the project.
Niklas Kohlgraf: We use all means of art to communicate with each other. So many people resist working in a ticket system—both customers and service providers. And they always want their own systems. There is definitely a flexible approach here. It's great that this can be adapted at Flying Circus.
Christian Zagrodnick: We naturally seek contact on important issues. But when it comes to day-to-day business that Niklas isn't directly involved in, we generally handle it ourselves. We then report back later to keep the customer informed. I believe that being able to make decisions without having to go through a huge process is also part of a trusting relationship. After all, it's our job to make sure the application works. If it doesn't, we haven't done our job. And under this premise, we also have a certain amount of creative freedom.
Let's move on to a specific application: the eLibrary. What makes it special?
Niklas Kohlgraf: For a whole range of our customers, it is extremely important that they can access our content quickly and easily. And that is exactly what the eLibrary does. This starts with students working on their bachelor's theses who need information about our application, and extends to doctoral candidates and scientists who also rely on our publications. Naturally, they want to be able to access the content 24/7. Accessibility is essential here, especially during regular business hours. But actually 24/7, because we've noticed that people are still sitting in front of the eLibrary at all hours of the day and night. And we see that they are engaging with the content, which is great. Flying Circus helps us with this because they also familiarize themselves with extremely specific sub-processes of such a product and ensure that people always have access to the areas with the permissions assigned to them.
Christian Zagrodnick: At the technical level, we look at where the critical points are. Are the individual components stable enough? Do we need redundancies at the application level? And we take a close look when something fails: What happened? Can we do anything about it? Was there insufficient RAM, or do we need more hard drive space or something else?
Niklas Kohlgraf: We also have a group chat where I get information and can veto a measure if necessary. But I usually just read through it quickly and give brief feedback. Then it's fine. Otherwise, I don't get involved because I know it works. I think that's really, really important.
Can you tell us something about the contracts you have with each other? Which type of contract has proven to be the most effective?
Niklas Kohlgraf: I think the most important thing is the SLA, i.e. the contractual basis. However, I can also say that we have never had to take a critical look at the SLA because I feel that professional pride at Flying Circus ensures that certain things do not go too far. That is why, as a decision-maker on the customer side, the most important thing for me is to have the SLA in the drawer. However, the relationship of trust has ensured that we have never had to discuss it, not even in the slightest.
Christian Zagrodnick: No, we do that ourselves. We monitor availability and response times. And if something isn't working properly, the customer automatically receives a credit note in accordance with the contract. They don't even have to ask for it. We don't sell hours that we work, it's about this: you have your application, which has a certain level of complexity. And the customer pays us a monthly fee to take care of it – regardless of whether we have more or less to do with it. It may be that we have a lot to do at certain times or less at other times. But that doesn't affect the customer's costs. So the whole thing is a kind of insurance and covers everything.
Last question: Niklas, how likely is it that you would recommend Flying Circus to others? 0 is extremely unlikely, 10 is extremely likely.
Niklas Kohlgraf: More than 10! Both professionally, in my role at Nomos, and privately. When it comes to the right scope lanes, Flying Circus is always my recommendation. At the end of the day, there is no other place for me in that context.
Christian Zagrodnick: We also make every effort to look after our customers. And we critically examine whether cooperation makes sense in the first place. This ensures that we can work together optimally.
Thank you very much for talking to us!
Christian Zagrodnick: Sure!
Niklas Kohlgraf: Thank you very much!