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"We were looking
for a partner who could supply us not only with
the hardware, but particularly with the necessary
expertise - all from a single source. The project
wasn't exactly non-critical: we wanted to change
our hardware, operating system and database all
at the same time - and all on the same day. Our
success has proved us right!"
DIETER MORITZ, DEPARTMENT MANAGER,
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY RKES
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Raab Karcher Energieservice is consolidating its expanded system
landscape over the middle term in a target system, and is expecting
a return on investment in excess of 30%.
Clear Case for Client/Server-Based Systems
With VM/VSE, AIX and Windows NT, the IT department at Raab Karcher
Energieservice (RKES) had to maintain three operating systems.
In 1997 the parent company, Veba Group, began a search for a
new IT strategy: all applications were to be running on client/server
based systems in the medium term.
This directive was true both for the SAP applications and the
clearing system developed in-house, which was to be replaced
by a new development. The upshot of these requirements: the
future strategic system platform should be constructed on the
basis of Windows NT and Oracle.
The Right Solution - Rapidly Found
The strategy had been agreed upon, but was it the optimum way
to reach the goal of "SAP R/3 on NT and Oracle"? "We still had
R/2, with the RV and RM modules on the mainframe and we were
running R/3 under AIX and Adabas-D on an SP2 from IBM", remembers
Dieter Moritz, Department Manager of Information Technology
at RKES. This posed the question as to whether the two R/2 modules
were first to be migrated to UNIX or directly to the new Windows
NT and Oracle strategic platform.
Following a variety of financial and technical-organisational
considerations, RKES decided to migrate the R/3 modules from
AIX to NT in the first step of the new strategic direction while
simultaneously transferring the data from the Adabas-D database
to Oracle.
COMPAREX - A Reliable Partner for the
Migration
Following the tendering in May 1998, COMPAREX convincingly demonstrated
their fitness for the task at hand with an offer which was clearly
aligned with the needs of RKES, and they received the contract
in August 1998.
Looking back at the selection process, Moritz recalls: "Naturally
we had to ask ourselves if we could trust COMPAREX, as a successful
former provider of mainframes, to be as competent in the open-systems
environment as we are accustomed to them being in the mainframe
environment." "However, COMPAREX was able to show us that their
SAP expertise is every bit as good as their Tetragon expertise."
And seeing as even the competition was offering the Tetragon
solution in the USA via Hitachi Data Systems, we knew we were
on the right track at RKES. "That was the determining factor
in awarding the contract to COMPAREX", remarked Moritz.
Entering the Critical Phase
Beginning in August, only three months were allowed for the
actual migration of the R/3 systems and database - a relatively
short period of time.
The beginning was marked by numerous test runs conducted by
the team around Hedwig Klopot, Manager of the Computing Centre
Department at RKES. The objective was to test the SAP migration
tools and, due to the non-availability of the system, to determine
how much time the actual migration would require. In order to
accelerate this - as intended by SAP - the SAP migration tools
were adapted to suit the requirements of RKES and standard processes
were paralleled from the migration procedure. Time saved: three
days.
Due to the year-end closing and inventory, 15 November 1998
was the fixed date to complete the migration. And in order not
to hinder daily business, the migration was to be carried out
over a single weekend.
New Territory for SAP As Well
SAP - whose consultants advised the project throughout - was
not able to provide any information from its own experience
as to how a database of this size could be successfully migrated
in only one weekend. A joint decision was made to implement
the migration in two steps.
An initial step was the determination by project team members
in one weekend of the requirements and size of the table spaces
which would be created in Oracle. A second weekend was then
planned for the physical migration.
Successful and Right on Schedule
The migration had to be completed by Sunday, 15 November. The
final countdown began Friday afternoon, and in spite of the
fact that it was Friday the 13th, everything went smoothly.
"On Monday morning the system was ready for testing and control
by the technicians at 9 a.m. sharp", recounted Klopot with satisfaction.
And with the exception of a few printer problems under Windows
NT, the system has been running smoothly and considerably faster
than ever before!
The migration project has also been a success for RKES staff
in Controlling. The project was approved at short notice by
Veba management due to the fact that a high return on investment
was expected - in excess of 30%. On the debit side were hardware
and project costs for internal and external staff totalling
DM 2.2 million spread out over a long depreciation period. The
credit side included the disappearance of SP2. In all the costs
for the management and administration of three different system
environments was lowered considerably by the concentration onto
a uniform platform.
A Concept with A Future
With the exception of the mainframe, where the R/2 modules continue
to run, RKES is now employing Windows NT across the board. The
new strategic operating system and Oracle database are now being
run in the computing centre as well in order to make processes
more transparent.
This project was also watched with a great deal of interest
by the mother company. Looking back, Moritz recalls that: "Many
of my colleagues initially reacted to the changeover to new
platforms with a great deal of scepticism." "But we have proven
that Windows NT and Oracle comprise a very high-performance
and cost-effective platform."
IT at Raab Karcher Energieservice
The IT strategy at Raab Karcher Energieservice (RKES) is
orientated according to the following principle: Individual
software for clearing services and R/3 for administrative
tasks all run on one hardware platform, one operating system
(Windows NT) and one database (Oracle).
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