The Hartmann Group consolidates global SAP applications to just two IBM Power 750 servers

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The Hartmann Group consolidates
global SAP applications to just two IBM
Power 750 servers

Overview

 The Challenge  The Solution  Key Solution Components
The Hartmann Group is a world- With the help of IBM, the Hartmann Industry: Healthcare
leader in medical supplies. Key Group migrated to the latest Applications: SAP® Business
to its business success is close releases of SAP ERP applications, Suite 7.0, including SAP ERP 6.0,
integration with its customers’ and consolidated multiple SAP Logistic Execution System,
procurement activities, acting as servers to IBM Power servers SAP Supply Chain Management,
a highly efficient single source featuring IBM POWER7 processor SAP Advanced Planning and
of supply for thousands of technology. Using IBM virtualization Optimization, SAP ERP Human
products. Always looking for new technologies embedded in Capital Management and SAP
cost-effective ways of working, the POWER7 architecture and NetWeaver® Business Warehouse
the Hartmann Group wanted exploited by IBM AIX, the Hartmann Hardware: IBM ® Power® 750
to take advantage of the latest Group has created a high- Express servers, IBM System
SAP applications, particularly for performance, flexible infrastructure Storage® DS4800, IBM System
logistics and lot management. solution capable of handling Storage SAN Volume Controller
Adding servers to handle the increased workload, meeting Software: IBM DB2®, IBM Tivoli®
new workload would tend to business service level agreements Storage Manager, IBM Content
increase complexity and lead to and reducing operational costs. Manager, IBM AIX®
higher license, administration Services: IBM Global Business
and maintenance charges. The  The Benefits Services
company wanted a way to increase Benefits include a significant boost
the number of users and handle to logistics performance. With
higher workloads, while reducing system response times cut by 30
the operational costs and exploiting percent, staff are able to work more
the business efficiencies offered by efficiently and be more responsive
the latest SAP software. to customer demands. By reducing
the number of physical servers
from eight to two, the Hartmann
Group has significantly decreased
software license fees, reduced
power requirements by 75 percent
and cut server administration effort.

“POWER7 offers The Hartmann Group is a world leader As a long-term user of SAP applications,

unmatched scalability, in medical supplies, particularly executives could see that the latest
disposable incontinence products, SAP application functionality would
and combines with
wound management and operating be a key enabler for the company’s
IBM AIX to provide theater materials. Headquartered in strategic ambitions. The company
all the tools we need to Heidenheim, Germany, the company was particularly attracted to features
manage virtualization employs almost 10,000 people and such as lot management, which would

and clustering, so has operations around the world, enable more detailed, automated
generating sales of about EUR 1.63 tracking of goods to help identify and
there’s no need for
billion (2010). correct process inefficiencies. To
third-party software.” take advantage of the new features,

By acting as a single source of the Hartmann Group needed to
Josef Rehm, Computer Center Manager,
Paul Hartmann AG supply for thousands of products, the migrate to SAP ERP applications with
company helps large hospitals and Enhancement Pack Four, which in turn
other government and private health would place a greater workload on the
providers achieve significant supply IT infrastructure.
chain management efficiencies.
Beyond its focus on medical “Not only would migrating to the current
excellence and product quality, the SAP ERP applications enable us to
company also needs to enhance improve our logistics performance
customer service while reducing and increase supply chain efficiency,
operational costs. it would eliminate the cost of extended
support for older applications. We
Josef Rehm, Computer Center wanted a way to be able to increase the
Manager, says, “We aim to be number of users and handle the higher
preferred solution partners to workloads that the new applications
professional users, providing easy to would create, yet reduce our operational
use products, customized services costs.”
and integrated solutions. Our process-
oriented approach helps professionals Evaluating hardware platforms
efficiently and cost-effectively manage The Hartmann Group was running
their daily work for the benefit of its existing SAP applications on eight
patients.” IBM Power Systems servers, with a
mixture of POWER5 and POWER6
processors. As part of a full review,
the IT team reviewed the possibility of
implementing the new SAP solutions on
other hardware and operating system
combinations.

“Our vision and goal was to build up
a fully virtualized, industry-standard
data center. We wanted to establish a
way to extend the life of our hardware
investments as much as possible
while keeping pace with the increased
demand for resources as we deploy
additional SAP applications,” says Josef
Rehm.

“During conversations with vendors, we
realized that migration from our existing

POWER5 and POWER6 systems to “The effort that would have been “Thanks to IBM’s
another processor platform, perhaps required to complete a successful expertise, we only had
running Windows or Linux combined migration of so much precious data
minor downtime during
with third-party virtualization, could to a non-IBM platform was a decisive
be significantly complex,” says Josef point in our decision to upgrade to
the whole migration
Rehm. “The solution landscape needs the Power 750 servers,” says Josef process, and system
to include high availability, backup and Rehm. “We were also impressed by availability subsequently
restore functionality, disaster recovery the predicted operational cost savings has been better than
and much more.” and the price-to-performance ratio.
99.98 percent. IBM
POWER7 offers unmatched scalability,
The Hartmann Group started to and combines with IBM AIX to provide
Global Business Services
migrate individual SAP applications all the tools we need to manage helped the Hartmann
to Intel servers running Microsoft virtualization and clustering, so there’s Group complete the
Windows Server. The Hartmann Group no need for third-party software.” migration project on
team considered that virtualization
budget and on time.
technology for the Windows Follow-the-sun migration services
environment was not sufficiently IBM Global Business Services
Internal planning was
mature for large database servers, provided migration support, with good, and communication
which entailed a one-server per teams in Germany and India with both SAP and IBM
application landscape. collaborating with the Hartmann proved to be essential.”
Group staff 24/7 to provide a follow-

“With the advantages of the integrated the-sun service. Josef Rehm, Computer Center Manager,

IBM Power Systems platform, it soon Paul Hartmann AG

became a matter of selecting the best “The advantage of giving such a
POWER7 solution for the Hartmann project to IBM Global Business
Group,” says Josef Rehm. Services is that they can flexibly
provide the skilled resources you need
Server consolidation for 24 hours a day during the project
Although the new SAP ERP process. You would need one or two
applications offer significantly people purely to manage the project,
expanded functionality and require 24 hours a day, and working with IBM
additional compute power, the Global Business Services avoids that
increased performance of the expense,” says Josef Rehm. “Thanks
POWER7 processors allowed the to IBM’s expertise, we only had minor
Hartmann Group to consolidate from downtime during the whole migration
eight existing servers to just two IBM process, and system availability TECHNICAL LANDSCAPE
Power 750 servers, housed in separate subsequently has been better than Servers: IBM Power 750 Express with
data centers. The reduction from eight 99.98 percent. IBM Global Business IBM POWER7 processors, IBM
to two servers immediately reduced Services helped the Hartmann Group System Storage DS4800, IBM System
software license costs, cut system complete the migration project on Storage SAN Volume Controller
administration effort and simplified the budget and on time. Internal planning Software: IBM DB2, IBM Tivoli Storage
IT landscape. was good, and communication with Manager, IBM Content Manager, IBM
both SAP and IBM proved to be AIX, SAP Business Suite 7.0,
One server runs the core SAP ERP essential.” including SAP ERP 6.0, SAP Logistic
applications while the other runs SAP Execution System, SAP Supply Chain
Supply Chain Management – and Leveraging virtualization Management, SAP Advanced Planning
each server acts as the other’s hot The Hartmann Group runs a total and Optimization, SAP ERP Human
standby in case disaster strikes. The of nine SAP production instances, Capital Management and SAP
servers support some 300 concurrent with consolidation and development NetWeaver Business Warehouse
users, accessing 2.2TB of SAP ERP environments for each, and three Users: 300 concurrent users, 3,000
production data and around 700GB of instances of SAP Solution Manager. users overall
SAP Supply Chain Management data. The Power 750 servers are divided into

logical partitions (LPARs) that allow features available on the IBM POWER “The POWER
all 30 application instances to run platform. Live Partition Mobility allows architecture offers
independently, and additional LPARs live SAP applications to be moved
outstanding capabilities
are available on the hot standby server from one LPAR to another, even
to act as failovers in case something across servers, without interrupting
to move workloads
goes wrong at the primary data center. production. For the Hartmann Group, from one system to
Live Partition Mobility enables another, across LPARs
“Our systems need to be available continuous production even during or physical machines,
24/7, as this central data center system maintenance or upgrade,
as needed, providing
provides SAP applications and other allowing fully 24/7 operations from
services for our locations worldwide,” only two servers.
excellent business
says Josef Rehm. “Organizing flexibility.”

downtime for maintenance, migration Active Memory Expansion (AME)
or management is extremely difficult increases the available capacity of
Paul Hartmann AG
to arrange – so the flexibility of the physical memory for workloads
the POWER7 servers is a major such as SAP applications – and also
advantage.” provides a boost to other workload
types, such as transactional or web
“We run a fully virtualized solution applications. AME uses on-the-fly
which allows us to respond very compression technology to reduce
quickly to changing requirements the demands on physical memory,
and to the demand for temporary which increases system performance
systems. For example, during the SAP without requiring additional hardware
ERP upgrade we needed about eight investment.
additional systems for testing. With
POWER7 running multiple LPARs “Active Memory Expansion on
and using Live Partition Mobility, we POWER7 allows the Hartmann Group
were able to create new virtual servers to reach its system performance
exactly as we needed them, with objectives and fulfill its service level
no need for additional investment. agreements within the most cost-
The POWER architecture offers effective investment in POWER7
outstanding capabilities to move technology and appropriate system
workloads from one system to another, memory,” says Josef Rehm. “We use
across LPARs or physical machines, an AME expansion factor of 1.8 in the
as needed, providing excellent SAP environment with no impact on
business flexibility.” performance.”

“In addition, the POWER7 processors Integrated SAP applications
provide performance improvements The Hartmann Group migrated to the
of perhaps three- or four-fold for the new SAP ERP releases in a phased
same power consumption. Moreover, program based on its business units,
if you compare the total processing starting with its Eastern European
capacity available with POWER7 operations as a pilot project. The
processors when compared with, for first step was to deploy the base
example, a traditional server farm or SAP ERP 6.0 components, and
blade solution, POWER technology is then Enhancement Pack 4. The
significantly more efficient.” company has implemented all the
core components, such as financials,
Features of IBM POWER7 controlling, sales and distribution,
The company is taking advantage materials management, warehouse
of Live Partition Mobility and Active management, production planning
Memory Expansion, both unique and many others.

The SAP Supply Chain Management Hartmann Group in terms of both “SAP applications and
(SCM) solution runs essential productivity and confirming the long- IBM technologies help
forecasting and replenishment, term strategy. We decided to use DB2
the Hartmann Group
demand planning and transport more than 10 years ago, and, looking
planning and vehicle scheduling back, we have to say this has been
fulfill its strategic
(TPVS) applications. The Hartmann confirmed as the best choice for the ambition to be the
Group uses the analytical and Hartmann Group.” preferred solution
predictive capabilities of SAP SCM partner for healthcare
and TPVS to serve its global customer “Of course we also knew that the
professionals. Our
base as effectively as possible, on the combination of POWER systems and
one hand optimizing its logistics and DB2 would offer the best combined
process-oriented
on the other ensuring totally reliable performance, which in business terms approach helps
service – essential in the healthcare translates to lower expenditure to professionals efficiently
marketplace. achieve the same business service. and cost effectively
We are looking to take advantage
manage their daily
“The POWER7 platform allows the of DB2 compression features in the
Hartmann Group to take maximum very near future, which will reduce our
work for the benefit of
advantage of the SAP applications, data storage needs and may increase patients.”

where we can analyze the wealth of performance, too.”
data rapidly and efficiently, constantly
Paul Hartmann AG
searching for improvements and better The Hartmann Group uses IBM
ways of working,” says Josef Rehm. Tivoli Storage Manager for backup,
“The very large workloads generated restore and archive processes, with
by forecasting and replenishment and data stored on devices from multiple
by TPVS are easily managed by the vendors. Tivoli Storage Manager
POWER7 platform, and we can use provides storage management
the IBM virtualization technologies capabilities from a single point of
to allocate compute capacity control, simplifying the protection
dynamically to each task as necessary and management of data even as
while continuing in full production.” it continues to grow. Tivoli Storage
Manager addresses business
Support from IBM software continuity issues by helping to shorten
The Hartmann Group uses IBM DB2 backup and recovery times, and
throughout the business to support maximizes application availability with
SAP and non-SAP applications. advanced data recovery management
During project planning, the team technologies.
considered migrating to other
database technologies, and Most importantly, Tivoli Storage
concluded that the benefits offered by Manager helps to control storage
the very close integration by DB2 were management costs with its simple
overwhelming. interface and easy integration with
storage devices from IBM and other
“In the end, migrating from DB2 vendors.
to another platform was not a
consideration,” says Josef Rehm. “We To manage the physical storage
have built up excellent experience environment, the Hartmann Group
with our DB2 environment and are has deployed IBM System Storage
very satisfied. We know that SAP SAN Volume Controller (SVC), which
works closely with IBM to improve consolidates available disk storage
performance on DB2 and optimize from multiple vendors’ devices into a
both systems, and this collaboration single virtual pool, managed by a single
offers clear advantages to the console. Virtual storage volumes can

then be allocated according to need, “We have realized big performance help the Hartmann Group fulfill its
and even moved from one device to improvements with the migration to strategic ambition to be the preferred
another without requiring any changes the SAP ERP applications and the solution partner for healthcare
at the application level. storage virtualization using SVC. In professionals. Our process-oriented
areas like the controlling module of approach helps professionals
For unstructured data and other SAP ERP, the move to POWER7 and efficiently and cost effectively manage
business information, the Hartmann SVC achieved significant runtime their daily work for the benefit of
Group uses IBM Content Manager improvements, which allow us to patients.”
to provide electronic document deliver vital information to the business
management services. Content more quickly and more reliably than
Manager manages all types of digitized before.”
content across multiple platforms,
IBM Deutschland GmbH
databases and applications. Content The improved performance and
D-70548 Stuttgart
Manger is designed to provide the efficiency from the underlying SAP ibm.com/solutions/sap

scalability to grow from a single systems has also had a direct impact IBM, the IBM logo, and ibm.com are trademarks
of International Business Machines Corporation,
department to a geographically on the business.
registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. A
dispersed enterprise, ideal for the current list of other IBM trademarks is available
on the Web at “Copyright and trademark
Hartmann Group. After the ERP upgrade, average
information” at http://www.ibm.com/legal/
system response time was reduced copytrade.shtml

“The IBM data storage and from 1.082ms to 0.752ms, and Intel, the Intel logo, Intel Xeon and the Intel Xeon
logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of
management technologies help the although the new applications have
Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United
Hartmann Group to control very large an 11 percent higher demand for States and other countries. UNIX is a registered
trademark of The Open Group in the United
stores of information cost-effectively,” processor resources, overall response
States and other countries. Linux is a trademark
says Josef Rehm. “SAN Volume times have been cut by 30 percent. of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other
countries, or both. Microsoft, Windows, Windows
Controller enables us to maximize
NT, and the Windows logo are trademarks of
the use of available disk capacity as “We estimated the new application Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other
countries, or both.
efficiently as possible, Tivoli ensures our server workload during peak hours
Other company, product or service names may
data is safely backed up, and Content would rise by 25 percent, and in fact
be trademarks, or service marks of others.
Manager offers us access to and it rose by 33 percent. In practice, the
This case study illustrates how one IBM
management of multiple file types to POWER7 processors are more than customer uses IBM and/or IBM Business Partner
technologies/services. Many factors have
simplify data control.” powerful enough to manage the peak
contributed to the results and benefits
hours without problems. This shows described. IBM does not guarantee comparable
results. All information contained herein was
Benefits of the new landscape us just how much potential there is in
provided by the featured customer and/or IBM
With the POWER7, DB2, SVC and growing the POWER7 environment Business Partner. IBM does not attest to its
accuracy. All customer examples cited represent
Tivoli landscape in place for the SAP without the need for further
how some customers have used IBM products
application environment, the Hartmann investment.” and the results they may have achieved. Actual
environmental costs and performance
Group has an integrated, simplified
characteristics will vary depending on individual
IT infrastructure that is immensely Following the successful migration, customer configurations and conditions.

powerful and easy to adapt to changing the Hartmann Group is now looking This publication is for general guidance only.
Photographs may show design models.
business requirements. Just two Power at the benefits of adding SAP
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2011. All rights reserved.
750 servers support a company of NetWeaver Business Warehouse and
nearly 10,000 people, with 3,000 SAP business intelligence tools. Using the
users and more than 3TB of production virtualization capabilities of POWER7,
data. the Hartmann Group team expects
to be able to manage the increased
Josef Rehm notes, “Of course we analytical workload without the
have significant cost savings with the need to add processors or servers, © Copyright 2011 SAP AG
SAP AG
POWER7 environment, and in license a significant cost advantage when Dietmar-Hopp-Allee 16
costs alone it is highly competitive compared with many other platforms. D-69190 Walldorf

with other platforms, even before you SAP, the SAP logo, SAP and all other SAP
products and services mentioned herein are
allow for reduced complexity and lower Josef Rehm concludes, “SAP trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in
administration.“ applications and IBM technologies Germany and several other countries.

SPC03322-DEEN-00 (April 2011)

The Hartmann Group consolidates global SAP applications to just two IBM Power 750 servers

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The Hartmann Group consolidates global SAP applications to just two IBM Power 750 servers