1. we know
they know
Progressive Enterprises buys into
virtualization with SAP and IBM
Overview
■ The Challenge helped Progressive upgrade ■ Key Solution Components
New Zealand supermarket business-critical SAP financial Industry: Retail, Wholesale
operator Progressive Enterprises software to SAP R/3 Enterprise with Applications: SAP® R/3 ®
looked to build its business SAP ERP Financials and Enterprise, SAP ERP Financials
organically and by acquisition. implement a new WMS on the IBM Hardware: IBM System i5™ 570,
The company wanted to introduce System i5 570 platform. Progressive IBM BladeCenter® HS20, IBM
new SAP applications and a new is also replacing individual servers System x™366 and 460, IBM
enterprise-wide warehouse with virtual servers running under System p5™ 510, IBM
management system (WMS), but VMware on IBM BladeCenter and TotalStorage® Enterprise Storage
the existing infrastructure, made IBM System x platforms. Server® 850, IBM TotalStorage
up of numerous ‘islands’ of 3584 Tape Library, McDATA Fibre
storage and processing, was ■ The Benefits Channel Switches
incapable of supporting these New consolidated infrastructure Software: IBM i5/OS®, IBM AIX 5L®
plans. easier to manage, reducing V5.3, Windows XP, VMware, IBM
workload for IT staff; seven-day DB2® Universal Database™, IBM
■ The Solution backlog on SAP software-based Tivoli ® Storage Manager V5.3
Progressive consulted IBM Global electronic invoicing system Services: IBM Global Technology
Technology Services, which eliminated, enabling real-time Services
provided a one-stop shop solution processing for improved supplier
to build an IT infrastructure relationship management;
capable of supporting new SAP increased performance cuts daily
applications, meet demands for backup times from eight hours to
scalable storage, and grow in two and a half; SAP software
exact step with the business. responds 50 per cent faster; IT
Starting with a new IBM-based function matches business
storage area network (SAN), IBM demands more rapidly and cost-
Global Technology Services effectively.

2. With around 45 per cent market share, management system (WMS) and
Progressive Enterprises Limited is the upgrade to newer versions of SAP
“The new IBM biggest player in the New Zealand software to take advantage of
grocery store sector, employing some enhanced reporting and control
infrastructure has given
18,000 people nationwide in more capabilities. This required a complete
us a great deal of than 170 supermarkets and overhaul of the existing server
flexibility. With convenience stores. In addition to architecture, which in turn depended
centralized storage, we operating the Foodtown, Woolworths on providing an integrated storage
no longer run out of and Countdown supermarket chains, solution.
Progressive is the franchise
capacity on individual
coordinator for the FreshChoice and Graham Spencer, IT Infrastructure
servers, and server SuperValue groups. Manager, comments: “The existing
virtualization has infrastructure was relatively inflexible
enabled more efficient The Progressive business had grown and difficult to manage. Storage
use of the available both organically and through capacity was locked into discrete
corporate acquisitions. As a result, its groups of servers, so that while some
computing power.”
IT infrastructure was fragmented into systems were running out of space,
Graham Spencer numerous point solutions running on others were over-provisioned, making
IT Infrastructure Manager
separate sets of servers and storage. it hard to respond to business
Progressive Enterprises Limited
At the corporate level, collecting, demands and management
analsying and acting on group-wide requests.
data was difficult, slow and expensive,
and was becoming a brake on “Our priority was to create a storage
continued growth. area network, which would support
the deployment of the new WMS and
To provide management information enable improved performance for our
and respond to a need to reduce business-critical SAP financial
operational costs, managers wanted applications. With the SAN in place,
to implement a new warehouse we would then be in a position to
introduce more powerful systems in
readiness for the SAP software, and
deploy virtualization techniques to
give us the ability to meet changing
business requirements more easily.”
One-stop-shop for more efficient storage
Progressive had more than 100
stand-alone Intel-processor based
servers from a number of different
vendors, with several IBM System i
platforms and some UNIX-based
servers. With a number of separate
backup and recovery solutions, it was
hard to ensure that all enterprise data
was adequately protected, and
recovering individual files mistakenly
deleted by business users was both
difficult and time-consuming.

3. “We reviewed the market for phase: upgrading its SAP software
enterprise-class storage, and we and deploying a new WMS solution.
selected IBM as the best vendor for “With the IBM SAN
our requirements,” says Graham Progressive Enterprises has used
solution, our backup
Spencer. “With all data held on the IBM SAP R/3 software to run its finances –
SAN, storage is much easier to including general ledger, fixed assets,
window for SAP software
manage and we make more efficient accounts payable and accounts systems has been cut from
use of our disk capacity.” receivable applications – for a number eight hours to just two-
of years. The company had also and-a-half hours – and
Progressive worked with IBM Global introduced an electronic invoicing
interactive performance
Technology Services to deploy two system, enabling trusted suppliers to
McDATA Fibre Channel Switches to submit their invoices directly into SAP
is much better, too.”
manage traffic across the new SAN, software. Around 100 employees were Graham Spencer
linked to its existing IBM TotalStorage using the SAP software environment IT Infrastructure Manager
Progressive Enterprises Limited
Enterprise Storage Server 850 system every day, and Progressive’s existing
and a new IBM TotalStorage 3584 AS/400 platform could no longer cope
Tape Library with LTO3 media. IBM with the volume of transactions. A
Global Technology Services also processing backlog of about seven
implemented an IBM System p5 510 days had built up.
server running IBM Tivoli Storage
Manager under IBM AIX 5L V5.3 to The company decided to attack the
manage all backup and restore problem from two fronts, by
operations across the entire SAN. introducing both a new hardware
platform – the IBM System i5 570 – and
“Setting up the fibre-channel more advanced software – SAP R/3
connections was particularly Enterprise with SAP ERP Financials.
challenging, and the assistance from
IBM Global Technology Services was Progressive also wanted to move away
crucial to success,” says Graham from its existing in-house WMS
Spencer. “With the IBM SAN solution, solution and deploy a standard
our backup window for SAP software package from a specialist vendor,
systems has been cut from eight hours which would support voice-
to just two-and-a-half hours – and recognition for picking, and support
interactive performance is much for RFID technology.
better, too.
Rather than buying separate hardware
By engaging IBM Global Technology platforms for the new SAP and WMS
Services to provide the solution, software, Progressive simply created a
Progressive Enterprise was able to number of AIX and i5/OS partitions on
have a one-stop shop experience. IBM a new IBM System i5 570 platform. The
also provided the client with AIX partitions run one instance of
knowledge transfer services Oracle for each of the three main
concurrently with the solution distribution centres, and Progressive
implementation. uses Tivoli Storage Manager agents to
back up the Oracle databases in-
One platform, two operating systems flight. The i5/OS partitions run the
With the new SAN in place, SAP R/3 Enterprise and SAP ERP
Progressive was all set for the next Financials software.

4. “The AIX and i5/OS partitions share infrastructure, improving “By upgrading to SAP R/3
the same physical resources and manageability and reducing long-term
Enterprise on the i570,
connections to the SAN, and we can cost of ownership. The company has
share computing power between them released significant amounts of
we achieved a dramatic
as required,” says Graham Spencer. floorspace in its data centre, while improvement in
reducing heat output and cooling performance”
He adds, “Our distribution centres see requirements, and has simplified the
Graham Spencer
seasonal peaks at Christmas and physical cabling infrastructure. IT Infrastructure Manager
Easter, at which times we can borrow Progressive Enterprises Limited
capacity from the i5/OS partitions for “The new IBM infrastructure has given
the AIX partitions, to improve us a great deal of flexibility,” says
performance for the WMS. Likewise, at Graham Spencer. “With centralized
month-end and year-end we can storage, we no longer run out of
reassign resources from the AIX capacity on individual servers, and IBM Deutschland GmbH
partitions to the i5/OS partitions, giving server virtualization has enabled more D-70548 Stuttgart
ibm.com/solutions/sap
a boost to our financial systems.” efficient use of the available
IBM, the IBM logo, IBM System z, IBM System p, IBM System i,
computing power.” IBM System x, z/OS, z/VM, i5/OS, AIX, DB2, DB2 Universal
Fully virtualized infrastructure Database, Domino, Lotus, Tivoli, WebSphere and Enterprise
Storage Server are trademarks of International Business
The IBM POWER5 architecture of the Accelerated invoicing Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or
i570 enables processor resources to The combination of new SAP R/3 both.
be virtualized and shared dynamically Enterprise and SAP ERP Financials Intel, Intel logo, Intel Inside, Intel Inside logo, Intel Centrino, Intel
Centrino logo, Celeron, Intel Xeon, Intel SpeedStep, Itanium, and
between different operating systems in software with the IBM System i Pentium are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel
different logical partitions. platform has seen a significant Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other
countries. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in
acceleration in Progressive the United States and other countries. Linux is a trademark of
“We saw virtualization as the key to Enterprises’ ability to process Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both.
Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, and the Windows logo are
enabling better utilization of our accounting information, eliminating trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other
hardware resources, and better the seven-day backlogs which had countries, or both.
flexibility in dealing with peaks in built up, and providing real-time Other company, product or service names may be trademarks,
or service marks of others.
demand,” says Graham Spencer. “We information about the company’s
This case study illustrates how one IBM customer uses IBM
can now move power from interactive finances. and/or IBM Business Partner technologies/services. Many
systems to assist overnight batch runs, factors have contributed to the results and benefits described.
IBM does not guarantee comparable results. All information
then move the resources back ready “By upgrading to SAP R/3 Enterprise contained herein was provided by the featured customer and/
for the next working day.” on the i570, we achieved a dramatic or IBM Business Partner. IBM does not attest to its accuracy.
All customer examples cited represent how some customers
improvement in performance,” says have used IBM products and the results they may have
Progressive Enterprises is also making Graham Spencer. “Invoices are now achieved. Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics will vary depending on individual customer
use of virtualization to improve the processed in real-time, so we can pay configurations and conditions.
efficiency of its Intel-based systems. our suppliers more promptly and we This publication is for general guidance only. Photographs may
As its existing Windows servers come have a better picture of our cash-flow. show design models.
to the end of their useful lives, rather We worked with both SAP and IBM on © Copyright IBM Corp. 2007 All Rights Reserved.
than replacing them like-for-like the upgrade, and received excellent
Progressive is consolidating them to support. As the business continues to
virtual servers running under VMware grow, the new i570 will provide ample
on IBM System x and BladeCenter power for our business-critical SAP
hardware. systems.” © Copyright 2007 SAP AG
SAP AG
Dietmar-Hopp-Allee 16
By consolidating its server architecture D-69190 Walldorf
to IBM hardware, with all servers SAP, the SAP logo, and all other SAP products
and services mentioned herein are trademarks
booting from the IBM SAN, or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany
Progressive has rationalized its IT and several other countries.
GK12-4244-00 (05/07)