The Coca-Cola Bottling Co. wanted faster database backup, reduced storage costs and easier and faster SAP upgrade scenarios.

In fact, it was a SAP upgrade project that brought all those benefits into play as it had to decide whether to upgrade its existing Oracle database and purchase extra licenses or move to a different database platform.

In making the decision the IT team realized it was also time to derive more performance from the business-critical SAP applications, and drive down hardware costs as well as software.

So instead of upgrading Oracle, the team decided to introduce IBM DB2. As part of the SAP upgrade project, CCBCC’s R/3 system would require a conversion to Unicode. By combining the Unicode conversion and the database migration the company achieved even more return-on-investment as expected. One extra benefit was time saved by sharing backup and test phases.

The company migrated its SAP R/3 Enterprise non-Unicode system on Oracle Database 9i to a Unicode system with IBM DB2 v.9, running on IBM Power Systems servers (model p5-560). It then upgraded its SAP r/3 to SAP ERP 6.0

“Running the SAP Unicode conversion and the database migration together produced a perfect result: the combination needed no additional downtime, and the project completed on time,” said Tom DeJuneas, SAP systems manager.

The technical decision reduced database size by 40% using DB2 compression.

“This gives us faster backup and reduced storage costs, and makes the SAP technical upgrades easier and quicker, “ said Andrew Juarez, SAP Lead Basis for Coca-Cola.

Here’s a quick glimpse at the achieved results:

• Combining the database migration with the SAP • Unicode Conversion saved time, money and caused essentially no overhead in effort for the DB migration.
• Initial migration results show that even after the Unicode • conversion, DB2 delivers a reduction in storage needs of approximately 40 per cent, as a result of Deep Compression of the SAP R/3 Enterprise 4.7 system.
• The duration of manufacturing runs was reduced from 90 • minutes to just 30 - an improvement of more than 65 per cent.
• The migration was completed under budget and ahead • of schedule, with less than 26 hours of planned downtime - saving time and costs.
• The company has reduced overall licensing and • maintenance costs by avoiding the purchase of additional Oracle licenses.
• DB2 is easier to administrate and requires less attention • from the SAP Basis database administrator - contributing to reduced costs.
• The company predicts savings in the next five years of • about $750,000.