Cologne, 27 May 2010 – The Luxemburg-based De Verband Group is giving their central SAP system a boost through outsourcing. For this, the cooperative for agricultural products and equipment has outsourced its ERP landscape to Pironet NDH Datacenter. In addition to application operation at the service provider’s high-performance data center, a corporate network for De Verband headquarters set up by Pironet NDH ensures consistent, quick access to SAP. Approximately 220 employees at 14 locations now use SAP online.

To further ensure high performance levels, the Pironet NDH Datacenter, in collaboration with the integration partner Gambit Consulting, has consolidated the SAP modules previously operated separately onto one platform.

Consistent service levels for online access and data center operation
“Better performance was one of the main reasons for outsourcing SAP operation“, says Jos Jungen, CEO of the De Verband Group. The association’s experiences in the past with regard to outsourcing, however, were not so favourable. As network connection and application operation were performed by various service providers, no one could technically and contractually guarantee quick de facto access to SAP. Now that the association has switched service providers, the corporate group now has continuous service levels for application operation and online access. "As a certified SAP hosting partner and operator of our corporate network, Pironet NDH Datacenter provides us with consistent quality assurance and the centralized management of all services which are accessible around the clock and on weekends during peak harvest times. If we need to make changes or if incidents arise, we have a contact person at our disposal“, comments Jungen.

ERP consolidation through specialist teams
Following the successful outsourcing of the SAP system, IT consolidation became a priority for the Luxembourg-based association. The cooperative company sells horticultural products, seed, animal feed and agricultural machines and manages the distribution of its members’ agricultural products. The SAP system controls central processes in all areas, e.g. for inventory management and logistics, and product assortment administration. All POS systems and electronic scales are also linked to SAP.

"Due to harvesting times and regular product cycles, the SAP system must process effecti-vely to meet peak demand“, explains Holger Wüsthoff, SAP consultant at Gambit Consulting, "In the past, the high volume of articels adversely affected ERP performance.“ For this reason, Gambit and Pironet NDH Datacenter migrated the modules previously operated separately for accounting, customer service, materials management, quality management and sales, as well as a special IS retail application to one common platform. Operation takes place at the Pironet NDH data center, where overall performance has improved significantly.

Outsourcing as a strategic option
Udo Faulhaber, Managing Director of Sales at Pironet NDH Datacenter views the service provider teamwork as a key factor for success: "Companies gain new strategic options when integration and outsourcing specialists combine their expertise. They are able to align costs with actual business needs much more quickly and flexibly while continually and promptly advancing their IT landscape.“ Following the outsourcing of their SAP systems, the De Verband Group is planning to integrate other applications to the newly established infra-structure, which includes external application operation and quick network access. "Our long term objective is to fully utilize the potential of our outsourcing strategy to continually increase the added economic value of our information technology“, comments Jos Jungen.

Pironet NDH Datacenter is a leading ICT outsourcing vendor for German small- and medium sized businesses (SMBs) and offers a full range of services for the efficient and secure operation of business applications and ICT infrastructures. Core services include holistic solutions and flexible cost/use billing models for the provision of IT resources according to modern on-demand concepts like Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or Cloud Computing.

The centralization and outsourcing of, for example, business applications from SAP and Microsoft, as well as the use of a network infrastructure also provided by Pironet NDH allows SMBs to significantly reduce their investment and operational expenses for the management of information and communication and concentrate on their core business tasks.

Customers include numerous SMBs as well as international corporations.

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