AST Enterprise Systems Management (ESM) Cape Town, a member of the Advanced Software Technologies-Abraxas (AST-A) Group, has won a R1 million tender to provide an end-to-end application performance management solution to Engen Petroleum, the African oil company.
Engen`s core business is the exploration for and production of crude oil and gas, the refining of crude oil, the marketing of their primary refined petroleum products in Africa and the provision of convenience services through their retail network.
Peter du Plooy, IS Manager for Engen, says that they are in the process of moving from mainframe-based SAP R/2 to open systems SAP R/3. The more mature and stable mainframe environment has sufficient systems management applications available for performance assessment.
"With the added component intelligence and complexity in the client server environment, end-to-end systems management becomes more important, as opposed to merely taking a component by component view," adds du Plooy. "Our users` experience of our service is based on their interaction at the client workstation level and they are not concerned with the multiple components along the way. Without the end to end view our service delivery and the customer`s perception of our value are reduced."
Engen needed to implement technology that either provided a similar level of component management with aggregation into a higher level summary or install technology that extracts information from the various management applications.
"The tender was awarded to AST ESM as they had a good understanding of our needs, the problem definition and the required solution," explains du Plooy. "AST ESM has a good cultural fit and ties in with our desire for sound supplier competencies resulting in lasting partnerships. They also provide products with technology maturity, as well as offerings that fit in well with our current architecture."
"The purpose of system performance management is to deliver appropriate service levels and availability for the enterprise`s business applications, using the computing resources available," says Lenard Hall, Account Executive for AST ESM. "With our skills and experience and our suite of performance management tools, AST ESM will help Engen to reduce its IT costs and allow Engen IS to deliver consistent performance for their clients."
The performance management solution consists of BMC Software`s PATROL suite and Envive Corporation`s Envive solution. Together these products will enable Engen to anticipate problems and take corrective action before the client is affected.
The Envive solution consists of two products, Envive Stopwatch Pro and Envive`s Service Level Manager.
Envive Stopwatch Pro allows organisations to measure and document application and network response time for SAP R/3 transactions from the end-user`s perspective. Envive`s Service Level Manager (SLM) is a comprehensive SAP reporting solution that tracks SAP metrics at multiple levels to fulfil the separate needs of the business executive, IT executive, and SAP administration team.
"The three month project will be managed by AST-A staff and includes skills transfer as part of our deliverable solution," adds Hall. "The project will be completed before Engen goes live with its SAP R/3 environment."
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Advanced Software Technologies-Abraxas (AST-A)
Advanced Software Technologies-Abraxas (AST-A) provides comprehensive and integrated ICT-based solutions to an increasing range of global corporate clients. AST-A`s best-of-breed software, excellent service delivery capabilities and our solution focus makes us your ideal strategic partner.
AST-A focuses on industries such as mining, financial services, manufacturing, telecommunications and government. We have specialists in management and IT Consulting, IT Communications, Enterprise Systems Management, IT services, ERP Solutions, Outsourcing, Technology Rentals and Training.