CASE STUDY
Why did your old system need
to be replaced?
To support our ever-growing data and
application requirements, we were looking
for a single scalable solution with reduced
TCO and a partner who can bring a reliable
solution in terms of security, high availability
and DR capabilities.
The TCO of our existing data centre is very
high and when the industry started offering
large scale solutions based on X86 platform
we decided it was time to make the switch.
It also becomes easy to manage the
skill set of the employees supporting the
operations 24x7 leveraging the advantages
of supporting a single solution hosting
multiple systems.
What was the problem with
having data distributed on
different systems?
The complexity associated in maintaining
different systems and the cost to provide
the computing resources to keep up with
the demand while maintaining acceptable
performance levels becomes too high
to handle from both administrative and
infrastructure standpoints. With the
EVEN DAY-TO-DAY IT OPERATIONS
WERE STREAMLINED.
industry Lulu operates. It gives us visibility
into the operations in a transparent manner
substantial for decision making in an
effective way. We can monitor and respond
in real time across all business verticals
and processes whether it is supply chain,
promotional management, human resources
etc, helping us serve our customers efficiently
and meet their expectations.
Why did you want to
streamline your IT and
supply chain processes?
Lulu believes it is critical to have an
efficient IT system which can enhance and
enrich your data into information usable
for the business.
With Fujitsu FlexFrame, we have found
the right match. A single solution which
can scale-up to host multiple systems
efficiently offering scalability, high
availability, cost effectiveness and
performs remarkably in terms of meeting
THAT IMPROVES USER EFFICIENCY
AND BOOSTS PRODUCTIVITY, WHICH
ULTIMATELY LEADS TO A BETTER
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AND
SATISFACTION.
advent of social, mobile and embedded
technologies and the constant need to
make decisions in real time, it became
very complex to integrate the collected
data to offer a single version of the truth
at all times.
What was the importance of
having real-time analytics?
Real time analytics is very important
considering the dynamic nature of the retail
68
INTELLIGENTCIO
our expectations across the chosen
parameters. By streamlining the supply
chain processes, we have increased
visibility and control at a lower cost and
at the same time, we are able to manage
and forge better relationships with our
supplier network resulting in a win for all
the stakeholders.
How did the new system enable
you to optimise your internal
processes and data centre ops?
Our data centre is completely virtualised
across the Lintel and Wintel infrastructure
thus optimising all internal processes in a
unique way. This improved the speed and
efficiency with which we respond to the
business needs consistently meeting the
end-user expectations all at the same time
without compromising on the best practices
in terms of data protection, security,
performance and high availability. Thereby
reducing the complexity of managing
multiple systems and solutions.
To what extent has the
system future-proofed your
company’s operations?
With the FlexFrame’s unique architecture
and landscape, we can easily keep up with
the fast-paced technological advances
and demand from our customers without
having to worry about our infrastructure
frequently. Whether it is installing a new
solution or creating a new test scenario or
upgrading an existing system we can do
it on the fly and at the same time ensure
that everything is based upon best practices
and consistently meeting the business
requirements and SLAs.
Were you pleased with
the amount of time
implementation took?
Yes. After the migration of a couple of
systems, my team could scale-up rapidly.
Once you understand the concepts of
virtualisation across SAP and how Flexframe
goes about it, it becomes easy to handle and
implement fully realising the benefits and
harmonising the best practices across your
SAP landscapes.
What have been the main benefits
of the new system?
The new system is robust, easy to expand,
offers better redundancy and can support
multiple SAP components which is critical to
the whole group’s operation . n
www.intelligentcio.com