IBM SAP International Competence Center
7-Eleven finds SAP
applications and IBM i
provide the greatest
convenience
“Running SAP ERP 6.0 and SAP
NetWeaver BW 7.0 requires a
high-performance infrastructure,
and our business model requires
continuous availability. We knew
that IBM i and Power Systems
could provide the right
architecture to support our
strategic objectives.”
Dennis Lewis
Chief Information Officer
7-Eleven Stores Pty Ltd
“Features like dynamic logical
partitioning and integration with
Windows-based systems mean that
IBM i and Power Systems can provide
near-100 per cent availability for our
SAP and non-SAP applications, while
ensuring high utilization of resources
and a very attractive TCO.”
Dennis Lewis
Chief Information Officer
7-Eleven Stores Pty Ltd
7-Eleven finds SAP applications and IBM i
provide the greatest convenience
About this paper
This paper describes an implementation of the SAP® Business Suite on IBM® i logical partitions running on IBM Power
Systems™ servers at 7-Eleven Stores Pty Ltd, Australia. It describes the historical background, the current hardware and
software landscape, and future project plans.
Customer Objectives
Customer Benefits
lConvert 7-Eleven supply chain from a direct to store
lAchieved quick ROI on the investment in both hardware
model to centralised replenishment and distribution
and software
lImprove the timeliness and transparency of financial
lUpgraded from SAP R/3® 4.6C to SAP ERP 6.0 and
reporting
NetWeaver 7.0
lImplement an efficient, integrated, enterprise-wide
lUpgraded to IBM i and IBM Power Systems technology
reporting system
lIncreased revenue and profits through better stock
lLeverage years of expertise and efficient operation
management
with IBM i
lReduced deliveries into stores from 110 per week to just
lRun the proposed reporting system and existing SAP
30 per week
retail applications on a scalable, easily managed
lImproved financial reporting for 7-Eleven and its
platform
franchisees
lContinue the close integration between IBM i and
lIncreased franchisee satisfaction by reducing
Microsoft Windows servers that has provided a very
®
administrative workload.
®
cost-effective management environment.
IBM Solution
lTwo IBM Power Systems servers running IBM i V5R4
with the integrated DB2® database
lVirtualized Windows disk management provided by
IBM i
lSAP ERP 6.0, SAP NetWeaver® Portal, SAP NetWeaver
Process Integration, SAP NetWeaver Business
Warehouse (BW), SAP POS Data Management and
SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator
(BWA)
3
Background and company history
7-Eleven’s application software background and current plans
Worldwide
In 1998, 7-Eleven Stores selected ERP software from SAP as its
7-Eleven is the largest operator and franchisor of convenience
core application system and went live with release 4.0 running on
stores in the world, with annual sales of about US $36billion.
an IBM AS/400 in 1999. Over the years since, the SAP footprint
7-Eleven operates more than 34,800 stores in Japan, Australia,
has been extended and new functionality introduced. In the early
Mexico, Taiwan, Singapore, Canada, the Philippines, Sweden,
days the stores transmitted their sales data over dial-up
Denmark, South Korea, Thailand, Norway, Malaysia and China,
connections to the AS/400, which then processed this data
Macau, Hong Kong and the United States.
overnight. Now the stores are online, providing the stores’
franchisees the opportunity to query or modify stock orders and
In Australia
access financial data. In the past, 7-Eleven has run its store
7-Eleven Stores Pty Ltd is a family-owned business in Australia –
petrol sales separately on another system running OS/400. In
owned by the Withers and Barlow families. 7-Eleven was the first
2009, the company plans for the petrol sales to be managed
franchised convenience store in Australia and revolutionized
through SAP too.
grocery convenience in the country. It celebrated its 30th
birthday in 2007. There are about 380 7-Eleven stores in Victoria,
7-Eleven has been looking at new functionalities to address the
New South Wales and Queensland. About half the stores also
company’s current strategic objectives, and chose SAP as the
sell fuel. With annual sales of AUS $1.3bn, 7-Eleven is the market
most suitable solution. A number of workshops were held in 2007
leader in convenience retailing in Australia.
to determine business requirements. These requirements were
grouped and analyzed with regards to their business impact and
potential business benefits, and then prioritized. In a second
step, the process and IT implications were derived and a highlevel SAP fit/gap analysis was performed to determine if the
requirements could be met and the benefits achieved. Based on
the priorities, the IT implications were grouped together to
determine a logical sequence of IT and SAP application
changes.
4
Investment plans
SAP solution landscape
Four phases of SAP investment have been planned to take place
SAP ERP 6.0 and SAP NetWeaver
over three financial years, starting in 2008:
Until 2008, 7-Eleven used SAP R/3 4.6C as its core business
application. In order to leverage the greatly enhanced
1 The highest priority requirement was the need for an efficient,
functionality of the newer releases of SAP ERP, the company
integrated and enterprise-wide reporting system, which
upgraded to the most current version, with SAP NetWeaver 7.0
would be addressed by implementing SAP’s business
as its base technology platform. SAP ERP and SAP NetWeaver
intelligence solutions (SAP NetWeaver BW 7.0, SAP POS DM
will provide a stable business application platform for several
and the SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator). The BW component
years to come.
could be implemented with 7-Eleven’s existing version of SAP
(R/3 4.6C), but the company decided to upgrade to the most
Over the last three years, 7-Eleven has introduced a new
current version (ERP 6.0) before implementing BW.
electronic centralized purchasing and distribution model which
has had significant results. It has:
2 The main reason to upgrade SAP first was driven by
7-Eleven’s aggressive growth strategy and the fact that
• Reduced deliveries into stores from 110 per week to just 30
maintenance for version 4.6C ends in 2009. The scope for a
per week
functional upgrade was limited to a few very high priority
• Eliminated a very time-consuming administrative burden
from the franchisees
requirements, such as integrated space management and a
conversion from the EBCDIC to the ASCII code page format –
• Resulted in better purchasing power for the business
a decision taken to keep the upgrade on a low risk path to
• Increased profit margins, which are shared between the
company and the franchisee
avoid any additional delays in implementing SAP BW.
These two initiatives formed the first phases of the IT roadmap.
Today franchisees no longer have to manage orders and
The upgrades from EBCDIC to ASCII and to SAP ERP 6.0 were
deliveries from myriad different suppliers or pay an employee to
carried out in early 2008 on time and without problems.
manage these processes. Instead, stock orders are now
automatically created by the 7-Eleven system based on sales
3 Given the high strategic importance of improving the
and inventory data. The orders are then made available to the
communication to franchisees and hence increasing the
franchisees for adjustment via the SAP NetWeaver Portal. At an
franchisees’ satisfaction, an upgrade of the store portal was
agreed cut-off time, the orders are sent electronically to a central
defined as the third phase of the roadmap. There may be up to
distributor and bulk deliveries are made as required into stores.
about 400 users accessing SAP from the stores.
This new system has proved hugely popular with the
franchisees, freeing them up to spend more time with customers
and improving their bottom line.
4 The remaining high priority requirements were grouped in a
fourth phase.
Resources and timelines for these four phases were then
estimated to derive a cost/benefit model for the roadmap
activities.
5
SAP NetWeaver BW and BW Accelerator
Significant data volumes
7-Eleven is currently implementing SAP NetWeaver BW to
Due to the significant retail data volumes produced by about 380
provide the highest-quality business reporting systems
stores, it is important for 7-Eleven to ensure that the BW queries
throughout all operational and category management functions
perform well. To this end they have chosen to implement the IBM
across the corporation. This will enable 7-Eleven to make smart
Systems solution for SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator.
decisions in relation to purchasing, forecasting, promotions
measurement, individual purchasing patterns, and store layout.
The SAP BW Accelerator presents itself as a turn-key solution,
because it combines both software and hardware in one
One illustration of this will be market basket analysis, which
package. To create the BW Accelerator solution, SAP has
identifies which products individual customers purchase, when
partnered with Intel and IBM. In essence, the BW Accelerator is a
and where.
highly scalable analytic server with an embedded SAP TREX
search engine that processes queries initiated by users of SAP
The new SAP software will make it much easier for 7-Eleven to
NetWeaver BW. Running the BW Accelerator in conjunction with
manage store cluster pricing across different states and, in the
the IBM blade server architecture offers a uniquely scalable
future, to produce KPI reports for individual stores. This means
solution.
franchisees will be able to measure their performance against
stores with similar demographics and identify new opportunities
SAP BW Accelerator includes indexes that are vertically inverted
to service their customers better and generate greater
reproductions of all the data included in InfoCubes (that is, fact
profitability for their stores.
and dimension tables as well as master data). Note there are no
relational or other database management systems in a BW
Accelerator. There is only a file system, and indexes are
essentially held as flat files.
The second principal component of SAP BW Accelerator is the
engine that processes the queries in memory. The software runs
on a scalable IBM BladeCenter. The operating system used for
BW Accelerator is 64-bit Linux, so in addition to having no
database license cost, there is also no OS license cost. The IBM
Systems solution for BW Accelerator from SAP can help
businesses analyze large amounts of critical information up to
200 times faster than alternative tools.
The hardware components that 7-Eleven chose for this role on
both production and development systems include two
BladeCenter H chassis, four blades for production and three for
development, and two DS4700 storage servers.
6
SAP NetWeaver Portal
Business solution: hardware and software landscape
7-Eleven also uses SAP NetWeaver Portal to deliver all content
7-Eleven’s System i history
into the stores. This means there are only a few applications
From 1998 through to 2006, 7-Eleven used one system (AS/400
based in the store – Web applications are the preferred
or iSeries) with multiple OS/400 logical partitions for
approach. Within the portal, 7-Eleven delivers a range of reports
development, quality assurance and production. This system
for the stores, and also runs the goods ordering and receiving
was upgraded a number of times to keep pace with store growth
processes for the stores. These functions are performed by the
and SAP functionality growth. The model history included the
SAP ERP system, and the ordering and receiving application is
S40, 740, 830 and 840 models.
easily the most demanding use of the system. The stores use the
portal to change the quantities of products ordered for their
When the model 830 was installed, 7-Eleven became one of the
stores, usually in the morning.
few iSeries customers in the world to use hardware disk
compression, which reduced disk hardware costs while
SAP POS Data Management and SAP NetWeaver Process Integration
maintaining an acceptable level of performance.
7-Eleven is also implementing SAP POS Data Management
(POS DM), a specific component of the SAP for Retail solution, in
At the end of 2005, 7-Eleven decided to split production and
order to collect, manage and analyze the vast amount of sales
development/quality assurance into two physically separate
data. SAP POS DM also provides a direct data interface into the
systems so they could be installed in different locations for
SAP NetWeaver BW system, for subsequent analysis and
greater disaster recovery effectiveness. At this time they ordered
extraction of the valuable information contained and hidden in
a 9406-550 with two activated POWER5 processors and a
sales data.
9406-570 with four POWER5 processors allocated to the
OS/400 logical partitions. In 2007, these were upgraded to the
Internal data exchange between 7-Eleven’s various SAP systems
current systems – IBM Power servers running IBM i.
is provided via SAP NetWeaver Process Integration (formerly
called SAP NetWeaver Exchange Infrastructure). This
7-Eleven has always appreciated the known IT virtues of
NetWeaver component facilitates the exchange of data and
IBM i and its predecessors, most of all its legendary reliability
information among and across a company’s internal SAP
and ease-of administration. Nevertheless, other alternatives like
software systems as well as non-SAP applications.
Windows or UNIX were also considered multiple times during
7-Eleven’s SAP history. Comparison and business cases were
The unique 7-Eleven eServices application enables franchisees
made, but each time the IBM i family proved to be 7-Eleven’s
to offer an entirely new range of products, including customer
best choice, based on its specific values and benefits like
gift vouchers or branded gift cards from well-known Australian
extreme reliability, ease of administration, integrated DB2,
retailers, at any time of day or night. In the future, 7-Eleven
sophisticated integration with Microsoft Windows, powerful
expects to be able to offer further ticketing, leisure and
backup capabilities and immense scalability.
recreational options through this system.
7
7-Eleven chooses IBM i on Power Systems
one for SAP development, one for development and testing of
For the same reasons, 7-Eleven chose the IBM i platform and
Windows applications, and one for SAP NetWeaver BW project
IBM Power Systems servers to implement the latest round of SAP
development. As in production, the development partition is
application projects, based around an implementation of SAP
running SAP ERP 6.0 and SAP NetWeaver Portal 7.0 plus a SAP
NetWeaver BW.
Solution Manager instance. This system will be used as the DR
system should one ever be required.
The production system is an IBM Power 570 server with eight
activated POWER6 processors, 128GB of memory and
IBM Power Systems dynamic Logical Partitioning (LPAR)
approximately 14TB of disk running three IBM i logical partitions:
In the past, the production system ran with fixed allocations of
one for SAP production work, one for SAP NetWeaver BW, and a
CPU and memory to the two logical partitions because the
small one to support the integrated Windows servers. The SAP
second logical partition that manages the integrated Windows
production partition runs SAP ERP 6.0 and SAP NetWeaver
servers has very low requirements of both.
Portal 7.0. This system is located off-site in an IBM data center,
which provides facilities management for 7-Eleven.
With the introduction of a logical partition for the BW component,
7-Eleven will be able to take advantage of uncapped processing
The development system is a Power Systems i550 with three
so that the two SAP LPARs will be able to share spare processing
activated POWER5+ processors, 48GB of memory and
capacity on an as-needed basis; the company can assign
approximately 15TB of disk running three IBM i logical partitions:
priorities to the LPARs to suit its business needs.
7-Eleven Australia IT Infrastructure
Site 1
Site 2
Production System
IBM Power 570 with IBM i
8 POWER6 CPUs
128GB memory
14TB disk
WAN
Connection
Development System
IBM Power Systems i550
3 POWER5+ CPUs
48GB memory
14TB disk
Partitions
SAP ECC Dev
SAP BW Dev
Windows
Partitions
SAP ECC Prod
SAP BW Prod
Windows
380 Stores
...
6 Integrated xSeries Servers (IXS)
11 System x servers attached via IXA’s
...
Store controller
POS terminals
ATM
8
6 Integrated xSeries Servers (IXS)
6 System x servers attached via IXA’s
Integrated Windows applications
•
Two domain controllers
7-Eleven has taken advantage of the excellent integration for
•
Good Mobile Messaging server, the application that
Windows applications offered by IBM i on Power Systems
provides email, calendars and other functions to 7-Eleven
servers. These applications run on either IBM System x servers
staff mobile phones
attached via an IBM Integrated xSeries Adapter (IXA), or on the
•
Web server for the Radiant POS system
Integrated xSeries Server (IXS), an Intel server on a single
•
EPS Progenesis Server, for property management
expansion card plugged into a PCI slot in the IBM Power server
•
Two SAP NetWeaver Process Integration systems –
itself. In these two environments, the hosting IBM i LPAR
development and quality assurance
provides the disk resources and management services for the
•
File sharing and other applications
Intel servers.
This environment has led to better Windows backups and
Technology deployed
simpler disk management as well as higher availability and
At the production site 7-Eleven uses either IXSs or IXA-attached
reliability for the Windows systems. The other key advantage of
servers to provide the following functions:
this approach is for DR. After restoring the IBM i LPAR, all the
Windows servers and services are immediately available. No
•
Two domain controllers
separate rebuild of the Windows servers is required. When
•
Email server
testing a new application or a Windows patch, this environment
•
IBM WebSphere MQSeries server
allows greater flexibility and provides greater confidence that
•
Microsoft SQL Server database for the Radiant POS system
unsuccessful application changes can be more easily backed
•
Two Web servers for the Radiant POS system
out by keeping a disk image before the application or operating
•
SAP NetWeaver Process Integration server
system change is tested. Additionally, 7-Eleven likes the ability to
build a server remotely, as the data centre is located a long way
At the development site, IXSs or IXA-attached servers provide
from the office.
the following functions:
Application
Production System:
SAP Production
Windows Production
SAP BW Production
LPAR
Cores
Memory / Disk
1
2
3
4.8
0.2
3
60.5 GB / 7 TB
1 GB / 1 TB
60.25 GB / 6 TB
Development System:
SAP Development
1
Windows Integration 2
SAP BW Development 3
0.25 / 2.5 24 GB / 8 TB
0.25 / 1
1 GB / 1 TB
0.25 / 2.5 23 GB / 6 TB
9
Disaster recovery and store processing approach
Project Achievements
7-Eleven appreciates the legendary reliability of the IBM i
7-Eleven’s project objectives were completely met. The IBM i
platform (and its predecessor OS/400). As a result, while the
platform and its integrated DB2 database delivered excellent
company has a development and DR system to complement the
performance, reliability and cost savings, that fully justified the
production system, 7-Eleven has not used either a High
decision for the platform:
Availability Business Partner product or a disk hardware
replication solution for DR.
•
Smooth upgrade from SAP R/3 4.6C to the latest SAP ERP
release based on SAP NetWeaver 7.0
•
Daily backups to an IBM System Storage® 3576 tape library are
sent off-site, and if the production system at the IBM data center
Excellent performance and capacity with the new POWER6
processor-based IBM Power servers
is unavailable for a significant period of time, the tapes are used
•
for complete system restore onto the DR system. This approach
Consolidation and integration of multiple SAP applications
onto two Power Systems servers
is possible because the stores retain their pricing data on a back
•
Excellent integration of numerous Windows-based servers
office PC, and they are able to continue trading for a time without
and applications via IBM i centralized management
the backend SAP functions.
functions
•
Scalable growth path: from legacy AS/400 via System i to
IBM Power Systems and beyond
While price changes cannot be implemented if the SAP
applications are unavailable, the stores can continue to trade
•
successfully. For example, when it comes to ordering, 7-Eleven
Highly reliable two-server backup infrastructure for disaster
recovery
•
stores would order similar amounts of products as per the
previous week, using phone support to handle any changes.
Total availability near 100 per cent (less than two hours
downtime per year)
•
Extreme CPU utilization of almost 100 per cent through
efficient hardware virtualization (LPARs)
•
Low-effort system management through autonomic
computing features in IBM i and self-management features
in DB2; characteristic“ease of use” of IBM i enables longterm savings in total costs of operation (TCO).
10
“Our choice of the IBM i and Power
Systems infrastructure for our SAP
application environment has met the
needs of our business and delivered
a rapid return on investment. Every
time we have reassessed our IT
architecture, IBM i has made a
stronger business case than any
other platform.”
Project Summary
7-Eleven has been running SAP business applications on
OS/400 (now called IBM i) for nearly 10 years.
On a number of occasions through this time, alternative
hardware and software platforms for running SAP were
considered, but on each occasion the characteristic benefits of
the platform – extreme reliability, ease of administration,
integrated DB2, sophisticated Windows integration, powerful
backup capabilities and the scalability of the IBM Power
Systems architecture – meant that 7-Eleven chose IBM i and
Dennis Lewis
Chief Information Officer
Power Systems for the implementation of its upgraded ERP
7-Eleven Stores Pty Ltd
landscape, which is based around SAP ERP 6.0 and SAP
NetWeaver BW.
11
For more information:
To learn more about the solutions from IBM
and SAP, visit: ibm-sap.com
To learn more about 7-Eleven Stores Pty Ltd,
visit: www.7eleven.com.au
For more information about SAP products and
services, contact an SAP representative or
visit: sap.com
For more information about IBM products and
services, contact an IBM representative or
visit: ibm.com
Contacts:
IBM
Walter Lang
[email protected]
For further questions please contact the IBM
SAP International Competency Center via
[email protected]
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2008 All Rights Reserved.
IBM Deutschland GmbH
D-70548 Stuttgart
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