News – ICG

3+ years in the making, €2.5M in licenses – how IC built a ServiceNow win from scratch

This is what it looks like when you take your time to build something solid. A careful, module-by-module rollout ended up becoming a group-level ServiceNow success – worth more than €2.5 million in licenses.

The client is a large utility group formed through several company mergers – and along with that came a handful of disconnected systems used for request management, project tracking, and ITSM. From in-house tools to Jira and HP ITSM, they had it all – separately.

IC has been working with the client continuously since 2022. By June 2025, based on the team’s recommendation, they selected ServiceNow as the platform that could grow with them and unify their needs.

Why did the sales cycle take over three years?

For one, they started small – the client tested the project management module in their own environment with minimal risk. Also, a solution like this impacts multiple departments across the organization, so it required wide internal support. And finally, it’s not a cheap platform – if compared feature-by-feature, it might not win on price. But the value lies in the big picture.

That’s where the team came in – and credit goes to Benyovszky Balázs, Teodor Hellinger, and Ilija Jovanovic, who guided the client through the decision-making process and helped them see the true value of integrated enterprise systems.

The result?

More than €2.5 million in license revenue, plus an additional €1+ million in services over the next two years.

36 hours of downtime, a Saturday night call – and one state system saved

What happens when the IBM Director calls at 8 p.m. on a Saturday? That’s exactly what happened – and thanks to one colleague’s dedication, millions of people regained access to critical government services.

A critical public service system had gone down – border control, central residential login, everything. The root cause: a 10-year-old IBM XIV storage system, hosting nationally critical data. The real issue? There was no active support contract, despite multiple proposals from Syspro over the years.

Although this organization had been an IC client for many years, recent purchases had been made elsewhere, for political reasons. But when everything stopped, they didn’t call those vendors. They called the manufacturer. And the manufacturer called us. Because they knew where the real expertise was.

By 9:30 p.m., Attila Vas was on-site. He quickly identified not just a hardware failure, but several layers of accumulated issues – some made worse by earlier unsuccessful attempts to fix things. With real data loss on the table, we worked with the client to launch two parallel plans:

– Troubleshoot and recover the failed system,

– And in the meantime, deliver a 100 TB IBM v7000 from our own warehouse to allow immediate backup restoration.

By 11 p.m., the new storage system was installed and running. IBM’s international support team was also involved overnight, and after nearly 24 hours of work, the original device was brought back online with fully consistent data.

Attila worked in the server room from 9 p.m. Saturday until 4 p.m. Sunday. Truly the hero of the day.

The client was deeply grateful, and at executive level committed to rethinking their procurement strategy – with a clear intent to prioritize value-driven partners going forward.

They ghosted the experts. A few years later, the client came back.

A few years ago, a politically connected company approached SCMax for help presenting IBM Tririga to the owner of a massive building complex. The sale went through. Then they disappeared. But the story didn’t end there.

Their core business wasn’t IT – they were in cleaning services – but they made promises, and we supported the presales process for nearly six months, free of charge.

The sale went through.

But they delivered the project without us. No explanation, no thanks – and worse: once they realized their own team couldn’t handle the implementation, they even sent a headhunter after our engineers.

Let’s just say, we weren’t exactly on speaking terms after that.

Fast forward a few years: complaints started rolling in. Things weren’t working as expected. Eventually, a vendor audit revealed major issues with the setup – including missing licensed components.

That was the last straw. The client decided to cut ties with their previous supplier and reached out to SCMax – this time directly.

And not just for Tririga. Now they’re also exploring Maximo-based asset management.

Looks like we’re not just back – we’re in it for the long run.

From zero to bold steps: how IC Bulgaria hit the ground running

They’ve only just joined the IC family – but Inter Computer Bulgaria is already making a name for itself locally and regionally. Here’s how far they’ve come in just a few months.

Inter Computer Bulgaria was only launched a few months ago – but they’re not wasting any time.

They’ve already become members of BAIT, the Bulgarian Association of Information Technologies – the country’s most important IT organization. They’ve also achieved ISO 9001, 20000 and 27001 certifications, and secured official partnerships with IBM (Platinum), Lenovo (Bulgaria and North Macedonia), and several key players in the region.

Among others, ICB has teamed up with:

OpenIntegra (Bulgaria) for Maximo expertise,
Polycomp, a local IT equipment re-seller,
Balkanworks/Acronis in the cybersecurity space,
and Blend (Greece), a company known for their deep knowledge in software development, cloud, IT infrastructure, and digital innovation.

They’ve also taken part in the Digital Horizons conference, where the Ministry of Innovation and Growth presented new programs to support digitalization and Industry 4.0 adoption – backed by a combined 180 million BGN in funding.

And they’re not stopping there: ICB is now organizing a major event for the energy sector this autumn, with regional guests expected.

Big shoutout to Radoslav Kotsev, ICB’s Sales Director, who jumped into this mission with incredible energy. His local knowledge and dedication have been a huge help to the group marketing team, and we’re excited to see where this momentum leads.

IC Group’s first sustainability data project (Envizi) kicked off here – and that was just the beginning

IC Romania had a busy first half of the year – and some serious milestones to show for it. From a complex carve-out in the energy sector to the group’s very first sustainability data project, they’ve already made their mark. And there’s more in the pipeline.

One of the more complex projects IC Romania delivered this year was a carve-out involving key players from both the Hungarian and Romanian energy sectors. It was a real team effort, delivered in close coordination with our group’s CTO division. Their experience and connections helped guide the process and left the client open to future collaboration.

Even more exciting: IC Romania secured their first sustainability data project – an IBM Envizi deal of significant value. The client was convinced of the solution’s suitability by the persistent and professional work of Levente Molnár and Levente Warta, who were supported by Rastko Kadijevic in the final stage of preparing the proposal. Gabi Tomescu, CEO of IC Romania, successfully closed the deal, leveraging his role as a trusted advisor of the Client. The project kicks off in September and is expected to run through spring.

On top of that, IC Romania also closed hardware deals worth more than EUR 1,500,000, mostly in the area of storage.

It’s been a strong start – and they’re just getting warmed up.

When a project starts falling apart… call Intalion.

Not every project starts smoothly – but sometimes, getting the right people on board can still turn it around. That’s exactly what happened when a high-profile commission system project began to unravel. Intalion jumped in mid-flight, fixed the mess, and helped steer things back on course.

One of the Big4 consultancies won a major software development project for a leading Hungarian insurance company – the goal was to build a custom broker commission settlement system. They brought in a local subcontractor to do the actual development.

That’s when things went sideways.

The subcontractor started missing milestones, delivering poor-quality code, and eventually stopped delivering anything at all. The company was dissolved soon after – likely to dodge legal consequences and penalties. The end-client was furious, and the Big4 partner faced serious reputational and financial risks.

This is where Intalion came in.

Although the two companies had only worked together occasionally in the past, the Big4 partner reached out with an urgent request: could Intalion take over the failing project and help salvage it?

Intalion jumped in – halfway through the project – and took over the partially built application. The team worked through the technical mess, stabilized the codebase, and slowly began rebuilding trust with the end-client.

The solution itself is a Java 21-based monolithic system with an Angular frontend and Oracle back end. It handles broker commission calculations, invoicing, and automated document generation, and integrates with existing enterprise systems through SOAP services – ensuring stability in a complex legacy environment.

It wasn’t an easy fix, but the results were clear. The end-client recognized the improvement, and the project was saved. Since then, Intalion has delivered additional milestones, and there are now discussions underway for further development and change requests.

Lesson learned: sometimes the right call makes all the difference.

They said no. Then came the second demo. Now AI is on the table.

The client had already crossed them off the list. But after a failed PoC, one colleague stepped up, pushed for a second chance – and the result may just become the group’s first major LLM-based AI project.

An Austrian-owned industrial service provider, active in more than ten European countries, is set to become the first IC Group client to adopt an AI solution built on IBM watsonx and a large language model.

The client’s challenge was clear. Although their engineering team numbers in the hundreds, only a handful of experts – internally known as the “Jolly Jokers” – can handle complex or non-standard maintenance issues. These few specialists are constantly interrupted by colleagues who rely on their know-how. The company needed a way to scale that knowledge without burning out their most valuable people.

The goal? A searchable, AI-powered knowledge base that less experienced engineers could consult independently.

The approach? A custom-developed LLM solution using IBM watsonx.ai.

But the project almost didn’t happen.

In the first PoC demo presented by the IC team, critical features failed. Confidence was shaken, delivery seemed uncertain – and the client dropped them from the list of potential vendors.

That’s when Sascha stepped in. He convinced the client to give them a second shot and pushed the Hungarian team to deliver a flawless second round.

It worked. The demo was strong enough to earn back the client’s trust and secure a spot on the shortlist. Now, all signs point to a successful deal closing – and to a major milestone for the group’s AI journey. Congratulations to Sascha and everyone involved. Let’s get it signed.

When the country counts on it, you can’t just hope it works.

Some systems just can’t go down – and when they’re tied to national-level financial services, there’s no room for error. ICody recently stepped in to take over full support for one of the most critical IT infrastructures in the country. The new support contract covers everything from hardware to firmware – and yes, we even had a v7000 on standby just in case.

At the end of April, ICody signed a new maintenance and support contract with FINA (the Croatian Financial Agency), covering their central mainframe infrastructure. This includes full support for IBM z12 hardware and firmware, proactive services, and a support line backed by IBM.

Although the system is stable and critical, it didn’t come with much of a safety net. With this new agreement, they are now responsible for keeping it up and running – no matter what.

The deal was made possible through close collaboration with local IBM technical staff and partners, and it reflects the trust built across the region. The service period runs until the end of 2025, and preparations included everything from rapid response plans to standby equipment – including a fully functional v7000, ready to ship if needed.

A huge thanks goes to everyone involved in making this happen – both in Croatia and across the wider group.

What happens when IT breaks – twice?

What do you do when your ERP crashes overnight – or your data center gets showered in fire suppression dust? In both cases, the PCS team jumped in, fixed what was broken, and walked away with long-term partnerships.

Story 1 – Crisis averted, trust regained

A major IT outage hit one of their clients after a routine system and network maintenance. Their Microsoft Hyper-V infrastructure collapsed, virtual machines began restarting every hour, and core business applications like ERP were either freezing or completely unusable. The result? A logistics system brought to a standstill, and a company unable to operate.

PCS was on the scene immediately. Even though they weren’t the only support partner involved, the team took charge. We stabilized the broken clusters, restored a basic level of functionality, and then worked for two days and nights to fully recover the infrastructure. Once the dust settled, we didn’t stop – we redesigned and rebuilt the environment to be more resilient and stable.

The result: a fully recovered system, a re-architected Hyper-V environment, and a renewed partnership. The client chose to extend their support contract with PCS – a real vote of confidence. Huge thanks to Dávid Takács, Dávid Csordás, and Krisztián Deák for their relentless effort.

Story 2 – From fire suppression to full service

When your data center fills with fire suppression dust, you’ve got a problem – especially when hardware starts failing one by one. That’s exactly what happened to another key client, and they knew they needed help. Fast.

During the bidding process, instead of just submitting a proposal, PCS offered an immediate solution: they would set up a secure, temporary data center and start replicating the client’s data – before the final contract was even signed.

In just one and a half weeks, we had everything up and running: new infrastructure, a complete replication setup, and full operational stability. That was enough to earn the client’s full trust. They signed a three-year contract with PCS to build and operate their entire Budapest infrastructure, including a full backup and virtualization redesign.

Kudos to Viktor Korner, Attila Paizer, and Krisztián Deák for making it happen – fast.

How data helps get more from household solar panels

What if green energy from your rooftop could actually power someone else’s home – instead of just vanishing into the grid? That’s exactly what the CTO team is working on: helping a major utility rethink how household solar power is stored, shared, and used.

Right now, a lot of the solar energy produced by households goes to waste. There’s no efficient way to store it or redirect it when and where it’s most needed. Instead of making the system greener, this creates stress on the network – and leaves potential untapped.

Since 2024, the CTO Solutions team has been working with a key utility provider to turn this around. Together, they’re designing a new enterprise analytics platform based on IBM Cloud Pak for Data, watsonx.data, and watsonx.ai. The solution acts as a Data LakeHouse, pulling together everything from sensor data to structured records in real time – and making it usable for AI and machine learning right away.

They’ve already migrated critical workloads to modernized Db2 Warehouse clusters, implemented near real-time ETL pipelines with DataStage, and introduced enterprise-grade data governance and cataloging features. The new platform also runs on a hybrid architecture that securely bridges on-prem and cloud environments – making it scalable and future-ready.

This transformation has brought together experts across multiple domains, and has been led by Senior Project Manager Márton Takács and Senior Data Architect András Pakó. Once live, the system will help store and distribute solar power more intelligently – turning it from a passive resource into a flexible energy asset that can actually be used where it matters.

When “unsolvable” isn’t an option

What do you do when a B2B platform needs a full tech overhaul – and the challenges seem impossible? The Logix ecommerce team didn’t back down. With fresh ideas, serious expertise, and one standout engineer leading the way, they turned the impossible into a greenlit project.

The HCL Ecommerce team at Logix recently took on one of their most ambitious projects to date: defining a full-scale modernization plan for a major B2B ecommerce platform.

This wasn’t just a facelift – it was a complete architectural rethink, designed to give the client a long-term edge through next-gen AI and a seamless user experience. But figuring out how to do that was a challenge in itself. The scope wasn’t obvious. The technology stack was complex. The client expectations were sky-high. And some of the issues they hit early on seemed, at first, unsolvable.

That’s when the team really came together. They brought in new talent, dug into research, held deep-dive brainstorming sessions, and kept iterating until the plan clicked. Special shoutout to Blaž Pintar, who played a key role in unlocking some of the toughest technical hurdles and driving the solution forward with clarity and calm.

The result: they not only cracked the scope – they secured the deal. This future-focused ecommerce transformation is now underway, with a clear roadmap and a strong foundation for success.

From retro tapes to z15: mainframe lives here

Mainframes don’t often make headlines – but behind the scenes, they power some of the most critical systems in Europe. At ICSS, the team has been living and breathing this world since 1997. And their latest lab upgrade shows they’re not slowing down.
Warning: contains advanced technical details, mainframe fans, enjoy.

Earlier this year, ICSS significantly expanded their internal mainframe demo lab with enterprise-grade IBM components that closely match what their clients run in production. These include a z15 CPU, DS8884 storage subsystem, TS7700 Virtual Tape Library, and a TS4500 Automated Tape Library – all delivered, installed, and ready for testing in-house. (Yes, that’s CEO János Mocsáry helping stabilize a 930 kg DS8000 unit during the delivery.)

The upgraded environment now includes:

Two mainframe CPUs (including the z15)
Two DS8000 storage systems (including the DS8884)
TS7700 VTL and TS4500 ATL
Six SAN switches (SANB and SANC)
Plus legacy components like 3490E, 3590, and 3592 Jaguar tape drives

Why keep those old systems around?

Because their clients need continuity – and sometimes, that means recovering or migrating data from storage media that hasn’t been touched in 30 years.

One of their most unique projects involved extracting archive data from 3490E EBCDIC cartridges and converting them to ASCII DVDs. It worked. The data was delivered. The client was impressed.

At ICSS, they don’t just talk about infrastructure. They build it, maintain it – and sometimes, resurrect it.