FGH, part of the newly listed Faritec group, has successfully contracted for the supply of hardware for the first local implementation of SAPR/3 business software on the IBMS/390 platform for SENWES, the agricultural giant with its head office in Klerksdorp.
"After a number of workshop sessions with the SENWES team, we came to the conclusion that their particular needs for a SAP R/3 implementation would be best served by implementing the database server on the S/390, utilising DB2 and the application servers on the IBM RS/6000 model SP" says Hennie Kok, SAP technical consultant at FGH. "The objective is to implement a system that provides SENWES with an effective combination of quick response times, a large number of users, and the ability to manage a large database on a platform that supports their diverse business requirements."
To ensure the viability of the system, FGH and IBM will be doing a pre-load of the database and SAP software on an exact duplicate of the SENWES system at IBM's Montpellier centre in France. "As SENWES is the first South African company to base its R/3 installation on S/390, we have to ensure that its functionality is faultless" says Kok. "We believe that with this installation, a huge percentage of the country's larger operations will see the potential of this implementation. SAP R/3 has proven capable of exploiting the reliability, scalability and high availability of IBM's S/390, RS/6000 model SP and DB2 database. This is borne out by the fact that in excess of 250 customers worldwide have decided to follow this route for their SAP R/3 implementations. The combination is the perfect answer to the needs of today's large system users, and allows them to retain their investment in the S/390 and skilled personnel."
Leon Hunter, IT Manager at SENWES, is confident of the pioneering step that the company is taking. "We believe that this IBM solution offers us the best route for our IT performance, in terms of both reliability and the high volumes we require."
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