Data Archiving for Littelfuse Paved the Way for One Day SAP ERP ECC 6.0 Upgrade
Industry: High-tech Manufacturing Geography: USA Employee Size: 6,550 Revenue Range: $500 Million - $1 Billion The Client Littelfuse is a multinational electronics manufacturing company based out of Chicago, Illinois. It provides circuit protection products to companies in the areas of over-voltage, over-current and integrated technologies in the automotive, electronics, electrical and silicon segments. The company is also the leading provider of circuit protection for the automotive industry and the third largest producer of electrical fuses in North America with revenues over $660 million. Littelfuse solutions can be found in virtually every product that requires electrical energy, from automobiles to computers to telecom devices. Background Increased database size to two Terabytes (TB) of space Current operating system was inefficient for reporting, queries and searches Solution YASH selected for the data archiving initiative and SAP ERP ECC 6.0 upgrade Standardize the data archiving process and analyze complete database Implementation Eight resources were employed to conduct the data archiving process Extracted files were then validated per Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) compliance Benefits Resulted in 60% reduction in size of the database Database size was reduced from 2 TB to less than 800 GB Required a comprehensive data archiving process Sought to upgrade its SAP business suite from SAP ERP ECC 5 to ECC 6.0 Conduct data cleansing for seven years worth of data SAP upgrade to SAP ERP ECC 6.0 executed within one day instead of a week Further increased from 800 GB to 6 TB and conducted a second phase of data archiving process Considerable reduction in transaction runtimes, sales order display times and other runtimes Financial documents audit ready as per IRS (for US) and GDPdU (for Germany) regulations
In 2009, Littelfuse increased its database size to two Terabytes (TB) of space, but its current operating system was inefficient for reporting, queries and searches. Due to the increased database size, an extended amount of run time was required to execute these activities and retrieving data from the database to display sales orders was not time efficient. Littelfuse required a comprehensive data archiving process to increase the system performance and reduce system backup and recovery cost. The goal was to define and implement a standard archiving process and document procedures for data archiving, data recovery, and data destruction. After a successful completion of data archiving, Littelfuse sought to upgrade its SAP business suite from SAP ERP ECC 5 to ECC 6.0, which required archiving first for a smooth SAP upgrade. Littelfuse realized the following business drivers: Large disk space purchases were regularly required Decreased system performance and increased run time Appropriate retention periods for different geographies for regulatory compliance Fine-tuned system for easier upgrade Pre-Archiving analysis of archiving data objects for business impact Requirement of lower recovery cost and robust system backup
With extensive experience executing data archiving for multiple clients and having previously supported Littelfuse for various functions and technologies, YASH Technologies was selected for the data archiving initiative and SAP ERP ECC 6.0 upgrade. YASH would standardize the data archiving process for Littelfuse, and as part of the archiving procedure, would analyze the complete database across all modules of Littelfuse. 30 data archiving objects were identified, which were from different SAP modules included: Sales and Distribution (SD) Materials Management (MM) Finance and Controlling (FICO) Transportation Management (TM) Quality Management (QM) Basis Before the initiation of the archiving process, YASH conducted data cleansing for seven years worth of data. Standard SAP procedures and standard naming convention of files for uniformity would be utilized for data archiving.
Eight resources were employed by YASH to conduct the data archiving process. Its complete SAP system was analyzed for the business impact of the objects to be archived. Based on the previous experience of similar exercises, YASH always recommends SAP s Data Retention Tool (DART) for extraction of the data and storing to ensure audit requirements are achieved prior to archiving. These extracted files were then validated per the mandatory Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) compliance and to make audit ready. YASH also provided advisory services and suggested retention periods to Littelfuse based on SOX compliance. There were different retention periods in various geographies for disparate local regulations, and these files were validated for retention regulations of IRS in USA and GDPdU for Germany. Additionally, YASH created data retrieval process documentation for users for complete end user adoption. YASH provided business process procedures to display documents for user requests to see from archive files. The successful archiving paved the way for an easy upgrade of the SAP System for ECC 5.0 to ECC 6.0. The upgrade was executed within one day instead of a week as a result of prior successful archiving. In 2012, Littelfuse database further increased from 800 GB to 6 TB. Littelfuse was in the process of migration towards Windows from its former AS400/Unix systems. As a result, YASH conducted a second phase of the data archiving process. The process followed for this was along the similar lines as done in the previous initiative. Littelfuse transitioned from using DB2 back end database to Windows server where SQL Server was the back end database. This data archiving process, coupled with the windows migration, had automatically compressed the size of the database to 800GB. The compression mode of windows was useful in compressing the size of database.
The successful execution of the data archiving process resulted in 60% reduction in size of the database. The database size was reduced from 2 TB to less than 800 GB. As a result of the archiving process, there was considerable reduction in transaction runtimes, sales order display times and other runtimes. YASH provided a custom solution for client functional reports using archive and non-archive data. Littelfuse realized additional benefits, which included: SAP Upgrade time reduced from a week to one day as a result of data archiving SAP DaRT recommendation helped Littelfuse to make their financial documents audit ready as per IRS (for US) and GDPdU (for Germany) regulations Advisory services provided on retention periods for disparate regulations Analyzed the business impact of the archiving objects to ensure no business disruptions
For more information, please visit www.yash.com or email info@yash.com. About YASH Technologies YASH Technologies focuses on customer success. As a leading technology services and outsourcing partner for medium and large global customers, we leverage technology and our flexible delivery models to drive performance and business value throughout a customer s enterprise. YASH s comprehensive service approach incorporates a holistic view of our customers that extends beyond delivery. This approach integrates enterprise solutions and services, proprietary best practice offerings, strategic application and maintenance outsourcing, as well as consulting and integration services. YASH is a SEI CMMI (Level 3) and an ISO 27001:2005 and ISO 9001:2008 certified company with U.S. and India headquarters and regional sales and development offices spread across five continents. YASH Technologies Global Presence www.yash.com/contactus AMERICAS EU AUS ASIA World HQ: 605-17th Avenue East Moline IL 61244 USA Toll Free: 877-766-8934 Tel: 309-755-0433 Fax: 309-796-1242 2014 YASH Technologies. All rights reserved. Referred products/ services may be registered trademarks of belonging companies. Littlefuse-Data-Archiving-CS-YASH-0614