Unifying IT Systems from Edge Through Core to Cloud with Dell

⇨ A German mineral water supplier aimed to enhance sustainability and demand forecasting through the implementation of an edge computing application and an upgrade to SAP S/4HANA.

⇨ The company faced challenges in accurate forecasting due to complex operations and the absence of automated measurement systems, which motivated the integration of real-time data collection from 300 sensors.

⇨ By partnering with Dell Technologies and adopting all-Flash storage, the company significantly improved system performance, reducing restore times from one day to just 30 minutes and enabling real-time analytics with SAP S/4HANA.

A leading supplier of mineral water in Germany wanted to improve demand forecasting to enhance its sustainability efforts by developing an edge computing application. The company also planned to upgrade its operational systems to SAP S/4HANA and required IT infrastructure to support these enhancements.

As customer demand grew, the company expanded its facilities from 10 to 14 sites and focused on sustainable water extraction. This needed automated measurement systems, improved forecasting, and integrated data management. However, the company’s complex operations made forecasting difficult. While the company wanted to manage their key resource, mineral water, in a sustainable way, it involved ensuring that all bottling facilities received the right amount of water at the right time. But, the absence of automated systems presented challenges and manually collecting data became an impediment to accurate forecasting.

The company consulted Dell Technologies who in turn introduced its partner, Intense, SAP IoT solutions expert. Intense developed a cloud-based edge computing application to continuously collect real-time data from 300 sensors which included data about filling levels, temperatures, and flow rates, was used for improved forecasting and planning. The goal was to optimize the amount of water pumped from the source, aligning production with fluctuating customer orders to enable just-in-time production.

The company also relied heavily on SAP ERP and the SAP HANA database platform for key business processes such as invoicing and shipping. To keep pace with technological advancements and prepare for the discontinuation of SAP Business Suite 7 maintenance, the company planned to migrate from SAP ERP (ECC) to SAP S/4HANA over the next 1-2 years. This transition would allow the company to access to near real-time analytics, among other advanced features. However, the transition also required upgrading their hardware infrastructure to handle the increased data processing and performance demands of SAP S/4HANA.

The company partnered with Dell Technologies, a long-standing partner that had supplied Dell PowerEdge servers, networking, storage, and VMware solutions. The company’s decision to adopt Dell All-Flash storage for the migration was driven by positive experiences with Dell’s previous VNX storage systems. The New platform significantly reduced system restore times from one day to just 30 minutes and improved data retrieval rates by a factor of 1,000.

The adoption of SAP S/4HANA, supported by SAP HANA processing capabilities, resulted in significant business improvements and the company could leverage real-time data for business intelligence, supported by a stable, high-performance infrastructure certified for SAP S/4HANA.

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