Hoechst SA has recently completed one of the largest SAP R/2 to R/3 migrations undertaken in Southern Africa. The three-phase project, including all ten Hoechst subsidiaries and business units, involved a new hardware platform, re-construction of the network, and the software migration with just under 500 users being affected by this large cut-over.
The migration, completed in April this year, has resulted in enhanced stability, continuous system availability and greater freedom for users, with a substantial amount of new functionality to grow into.
Hoechst SA was one of the first users of the SAP enterprise business solution in South Africa. Starting in 1989, it used R/2 extremely effectively as a vehicle to integrate acquired companies quickly into the Hoechst operation and culture. The local subsidiary, like its parent Hoechst AG, focuses primarily on pharmaceuticals, plastics, chemicals, films and fibres.
"Apart from the accounting side, there is very little in common between all our companies and business units," says Tony Hunter, group IS manager of Hoechst SA. "The manufacturing process involved in making tons of a substance, for example, is very different to that required to make a prescription 5ml drug vial. SAP proved a most effective tool to cater for the diversity of our operations."
Hoechst migrated from R/2 to R/3 because it needed the new functionality offered by R/3, and wanted to move off the ageing mainframe which was becoming increasingly expensive to run.
Over 12 of SAP R/2 customers have either already or are in the process of migrating to SAP R/3 in South Africa. George Oertel, managing director of SAP Southern Africa, attributes this to, as per Hoechst, the improved functionality, as well as ease of use, platform flexibility, Internet access and enhanced workflow capabilities.
Hoechst took the "Big Bang" approach to the migration, which made the timing of the switch-over crucial, and elevated the project to one of high risk.
"We needed a full nine days to migrate, so chose a period at the end of April this year which included two public holidays," says Hunter. "This gave us our required nine days of computer time to move data and check the system with the least disruption to our business.
"Some of the data migration jobs were incredibly long. It took us nine hours to migrate and check all our accounting data," he says. "We used standard SAP migration tools, though, which gave us very clean data on the other side.
"Because of the magnitude of this project, there was risk," says Hunter. "I was concerned at having to implement all three phases - the new hardware, newly constructed network and new software - at the same time. This, however, was circumstantial and we had to go with it. In the end, it was all completed successfully."
Training was designed and implemented by Documentation and Training International, and the implementation was done in conjunction with template solutions.
"We spent a lot of time testing, refining our data, and doing dress rehearsals for the big day, to ensure that our data would come through clean," says Hunter.
"In the end the migration itself was very successful, and actually quite easy because we had prepared well in advance and were familiar with the process" says Hunter. "During the first month following the migration, we spent time sorting out a number of small problems. Now, in our second month, things have calmed down dramatically."
Hunter says users are benefiting enormously from the 24 hour-a-day availability of the new system.
"In the past, with our mainframe set-up, we had to shut down the system at 17h00 every day," he says. "Also, our users have much greater freedom. They run their own reports as opposed to having to wait for the mainframe to produce these."
Hoechst now runs SAP R/3 on an HP platform, using EMC disc technology.
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