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This summer 1999, Hewlett Packard announcesthe industry's first SAP ATO (Assemble To Order)benchmark result for a 3-tier environment basedon Oracle. Its another in a series of superior per-formance reports for its HP NetServer LXr 8000using the Oracle8 database on MicrosoftWindows NT 4.0. The NetServer LXr 8000 as adatabase server demonstrates incredible proces-sing capacity by sustaining a rate of 9,130 fullybusiness processed assembly orders per hourwhile maintaining excellent response time,averaging well under one second per transaction.

This level of transaction throughput is the bestever reported for the SAP ATO Benchmark, overfour times more than the next best result.The HP NetServer LXr 8000 database server wasconfigured with four 500 MHz Intel Pentium IIIprocessors, each with 2MB L2 cache, 2GB of RAMand 524GB of disk storage. Running in a 3-tier

client server environment using SAP R/3 version4.0B, the HP NetServer LXr 8000 database ser-ver used the Oracle8.0.5 database supportingthirteen application servers. The application ser-vers were also 4-way HP NetServer LXr 8000machines using 500 MHz Intel Pentium III pro-cessors, each server configured with 1GB of RAM.

SAP Benchmark Certif ication DocumentFully business processed Assembly Orders/ hour:9,130Average DB request time (seconds):0.395 (dialog)/0.410 (update)CPU util ization DB server/ appl. server:97% / 72%Operating System all servers:Windows NT 4.0RDBMS:Oracle 8.0.5R/ 3 Release:4.0 BTotal disk space:524 GBCertification Number:1999011

About ATO Benchmarks:The standards for benchmarks and the test crite-ria connected to them are being set higher andhigher by companies such as SAP, Oracle andtheir hardware partners to meet the demands of their customers. One of the most recent develop-ments can be seen in the ATO (Assemble toOrder) benchmark tests f rom SAP, which displaythe complete application range in the respectivecustomer environment and can already simulatethe speed and reliability of the data throughputin advance for individual cases. The quality cri-teria are consciously set at the upper limit of thefeasible, and all imaginable factors of daily use aretaken into consideration. Although speed recordsare on the agenda, traffic safety should not be for-gotten either. To do justice to this factor, forexample, an ATO test series of SAP was completedsuccessfully on the basis of an Oracle RDBMS(Relational Database Management System) incooperation with Hewlett Packard in April of thisyear. At the same time, it produced a new recordfor data throughput and security while runningat maximum capacity.

Every successful relationship is based on thebelief that your partners will support youthrough thick and thin and always give you theirbest. The Oracle and SAP technology partner-ship operates on this principle, and together weoffer a safe and reliable integrated informationsolution the same combination used by thou-sands of successful businesses around the world.

SAP and Oracle have been technology partners forover 11 years, and are optimized to run together.In 1988, R/3 development was started on OracleRelease 6. In 1992, R/3 was first released to themarket on Oracle. SAP R/3 release 4.0 and 4.5, aswell as SAPs Business Information Warehouse,

were developed on Oracle8. And, SAP was a betasite for our latest database version, Oracle8i.

Both companies commit significant resources todrive long-term technical innovation, and tocontinually increase the performance, flexibility,and functionality of SAP R/3 on Oracle. The Oracle Development Center, based in

Walldorf, Germany, is devoted to workingwith SAP to ensure that our products integrateseamlessly with R/3.

The Oracle Center of Excellence offers Oracleon SAP consulting and provides second levelsupport to SAP/Oracle joint customers.

The Oracle Competence Center handles salessupport and benchmarking activities.

This newsletter highlights the Oracle productsand services that have been developed to ensurethe success of our joint customers. We have alsofeatured just a few of our joint customers whohave experienced first hand the benefits of theOracle/SAP technology partnership.

Why do three out of four of SAPs R/3 customerschoose Oracle as their underlying database?Because the SAP/Oracle partnership delivers en-hanced performance, guaranteed quality, andimproved bottom-line results time and time again.

SAP on Oracle the technology partnershipthat is committed to your success.

EditorialDon HaigVice PresidentCorporate AccouOracle Corporati

based on Oracle

World record- with Oracle8.9,130 Assembly Orders/ HoursATO 3-Tier Benchmark basedon Oracle

Editorial

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Oracle8i 64-bit Option

Oracle8i - The Database for SAP BusinessInformation Warehouse

2Oracle Management Pack for SAP R/ 3

3Oracle Fail Safe, High Availability Solution for NT

3Oracle8 for SAP Ready-to-Run R/ 3

3Oracle Consulting Services for R/ 3 Customers

3Oracle Warehouse Integrator for SAP R/ 3

4Oracle on Linux, NTBenchmark with Data General

4Colgate Palmolive

5Pacific Coast Feather

6SunAmerica

7/ 8Imperial Tobacco Ltd., UNIX Benchmark with IBM

N o. 3 O R A CL E - S A PNEWSS E P T E M B E R 1 9 9 91 6 , 6 4 0 S D - U s e r o n U NI

w o r l d r e c o r d - m o r e o n p a g

C r o s s i n g 4 , 9 0 0 S D - U s eN T - s e e p a g e 4


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SAP R/3 is now available with Oracle8i 64-bit data-

base technology. The 64-bit technology enablescomputer systems to be faster and be more man-ageable. Available on a number of hardwaresystems, this technology also enables customersto increase their database size to multiple tera-bytes. Because of added memory capacity, thenumber of concurrent users allowed to runagainst the database increases exponentially aswell.

The benefits of 64-bit system and database tech-nology are now automatically available to theR/3 application. As a result, the R/3 application onOracle8 64-bit is faster and even more scalablethan on a 32-bit database.

Providing the 64-bit database technology for SAP R/3 is another outstanding milestone in the11 year technology relationship between SAP and Oracle,

said Gary Bloom, executive Vice President of Systems Products at Oracle. Again, Oracle istaking the lead in making the latest databasetechnology available to an important set of customers.

The 64-bit technology allows more business datato be stored in main memory by leveraging the64-bit client libraries of Oracle8. This is of parti-cular interest within the SAP Supply ChainOptimization Planning and Execution (SAPSCOPE) initiative, where new reporting, fore-casting, planning and optimization functionalityentails processing of very large data volumes in

main memory. With SAP R/3 on 64-bit Oracle8,SAP is providing customers the most innovativetechnology to allow real-time, high-volume pro-cessing of business data in main memory, statedKarl-Heinz Hess, Member of the ExtendedBoard of SAP AG. SAP R/3 with 64-bit Oracle8is currently available with R/3 Release 3.1 and4.0 on Compaq Tru64 UNIX, HP UX 11, IBMAIX 4.3 and Siemens Reliant UNIX.

The data warehouse is often the most strategicsystem of a company.

Efficient use of a data warehouse requires a data-base system that is capable of managing andrapidly analyzing large quantities of data. Oracleis the undisputed technology and market leaderin the field of data warehousing, with 60% of theworlds data warehouse applications running onOracle databases. Simplified management is thekey to maintaining premium system performance,said Gerhard Kuppler, Global Alliances Directorfor SAP. The SAP Business Information Ware-house (SAP BW) is an independent compo-nent of the SAP Business Framework architec-ture. It is designed as an open solution and is de-livering Business Application ProgrammingInterfaces (BAPIs) for non-SAP data integrationand third party analysis tools. Oracle8i is thedevelopment database for the SAP BW.

This ensures use of the most advanced Oracle tech-nologies for SAP BW and guarantees optimumperformance. Some of the advanced features of Oracle8 that are available with SAP BW include: Partitioning Bitmapped Indices Star Query Optimization Hash Join Optimization Cost Based SQL Optimizer- Parallel Query Technology- Parallel Access- Parallel Index Scan- Parallel Sorting- Parallel Table Structure with and without Log

- Parallel Index Rebuild- Index Organized Tables- Read Only Table Spaces- Dedicated Temporary Table Spaces- Variable Database Block Sizes up to 64KB- Materialized Views

Available Fall 1999, Oracle Mana

ment Pack for SAP R/3 builds on OrEnterprise Managers host and datamanagement infrastructure, makSAP environments much easier to nage. Administrators will now be ato monitor different R/3 platforms, Rdatabases and R/3 applications frone single console. All this resultlower administrative costs and increadministrator productivity.

Oracle Management Pack for SAP R/3 allowcomprehensive monitoring and collection of from multiple systems, extending its reachprovide graphical monitoring of SAP R/3 apcation servers. It includes features for optimmonitoring and deployment of R/3 across apption servers, including collection and managemof data relating to system performance immediate notification of potential problethrough an advanced event system.

75 per cent of SAP customers are running tapplications on an Oracle database. Manythose customers have entered or will shortly ethe 24-hour economy, and need to be sure ttheir systems run as near to 100% as it is posswith current technology. As the leading proviof non-proprietary mission-critical data manment solutions, Oracle is committed to hR/3 customers meet the challenge of 99.9availability, and will continue to expand its dmanagement offerings to allow these customto take advantage of the latest advances in mon-critical computing said Gerhard KuppGlobal Alliances Director for SAP.

SAPs continuing strategy of closer R/3 integrawith Oracle will eventually enable R/3 userbenefit from Oracles ground-breaking Intecomputing technologies, which will enable enprises to become 24-hour operations. WOracle as strategic technology provider, customers can be sure that their systems remain highly available, scalable and manageno matter which computing environment thopt for.

2

Option64-bit OptionOracle8i

Business The Databasefor SAP BusinessInformation WarehouseTM

Oracle8i

Packfor SAP R/ 3Oracle Management


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High availability is one of the key demands of

SAP R/3 customers regardless of the hardwareand operating system used. As the central nodeof the R/3 systems three-tier architecture, thedatabase server plays an important role in highavailability and fail-safe operations. Oracle offersan excellent high availability solution, calledOracle Fail Safe to companies which run theirR/3 applications on NT.

The foundation for setting up a failsafe databaseserver system on NT is to configure two NT ser-vers as two nodes of a cluster. Each of the twonodes possesses its own, dual-ported disk sub-system, to which each node has exclusive accessduring normal operations. An Oracle Fail SafeR/3 configuration defines one of the two nodes asthe production system, to which all the R/3application servers are connected. The secondnode of the cluster serves as the fail-safe node,but can also perform other tasks in the meantime.

In case of failure of the production database server,Oracle Fail Safe immediately switches all neces-sary resources from the production node to thesecondary cluster node, and restarts the Oracleinstance there.The R/3 application servers auto-matically establish a new database connection tothe Oracle instantly on the failsafe node, withoutrequiring intervention by the end user or databaseadministrator.

We are pleased with the high availability,robustness and ease of use of the Oracle Fail Safe database solution. In SAP stress testswith up to 300 users, the Oracle8 Fail Safedatabase was up in a minute after both plan-ned and unplanned failovers,

said Karl-Heinz Hess, Member of the Extendedboard of SAP AG. SAP customers immediatelybenefit from this highly-available, cost-effectivesolution. Oracle Fail Safe is included in everyOracle database license for R/3 on NT fromOracle7 Release 7.3.3 onwards, and is supportedfrom R/3 Release 3.1G and later , including R/3Release 4.0 and 4.5 with Oracle8.

SAP has developed a solution package, Ready-to-Run R/3, that is especially adapted to the requi-rements of small and mid-sized businesses. Withthe objective of considerably reducing the intro-duction and implementation phase and minimi-zing the administration needs of R/3 solutions,SAP and its partners have put together a pre-in-stalled, pre-configured packaged solution. Thissolution makes it easier, quicker and more eco-nomical for small and midsized businesses tointroduce the R/3 solution. Oracle is one of thedatabases currently available with the SAPReady-to-Run R/3 solution. The Oracle and SAPcomponents have been optimized to work to-gether and with special configuration files anddatabase procedures operation of the Oracle data-base is largely automated. Customers can now

benefit from Oracles industry-leading databasewith solutions from Compaq, Hewlett-Packard,IBM, Siemens-Nixdorf and NCR.

Oracle offers extensive R/3 database services forSAP customers. The expertise available has deve-loped through day-to-day work with R/3 solutionsat SAP, and it ensures that you receive the best

possible support for running your R/3 solutionsmoothly. Through the Oracle Center of Excel-lence for SAP, Oracle Consulting offers a com-prehensive set of services including core techno-logy consulting, workshops, also migration andintegration services.

Core Technology Consulting offers expertise inthe areas of performance optimization, OracleParallel Server, hot standby databases, table setupand reorganization especially for management of very large databases, and backup/restore/recoveryfor mission critical systems. Workshop themesinclude R/3 specific standard and customizedtraining for database administrators .

Migration Services are available for companieswhich want to migrate their SAP R/3 installationfrom a non-Oracle database to Oracle.

Integration Services provide tools and servicesfor accessing R/3 data. Customers can create data-base links to access R/3 tables from other appli-cations. The Oracle Center of Excellence for SAPhas also created an interface to connect directly tothe R/3 applications, enabling customers to con-stantly write to and read from the database. Thisinterface is called the Oracle Transactional Bridgefor SAP.

The Oracle Warehouse Integrator (OWI) forSAP R/3 provides an easy-to-use interface to theSAP data repository, integrating the R/3 systemas a data source to an Oracle data warehouse.

Customers can utilize the full range of Oraclewarehousing technology, while taking advantageof SAP-certified interfaces to access R/3 metadataand generate SAP-certified BAPI calls and SQLcode to extract data from SAP R/3.

The OWI for SAP R/3 enables customers to: View the SAP data-dictionary providing acc-

ess to English definitions of table and columnnames from the original German-languageabbreviations

Browse SAP's Business Objects Repository

(BOR) Extract, using the Remote Function Call facility Support SAP's BAPIs

Using metadata-driven design and generation,the OWI for SAP R/3 reduces the risk, cost andtime required to develop and maintain extractsfrom SAP for an Oracle data warehouse.

Leveraging the Performance and Scalability ofOracle8iA data warehouse capable of providing qualityanalysis for the kind of Business Intelligence andDecision Support necessary to enhance your com-petitive position relies on both scalability andperformance. Oracle8i offers both features, conti-nuing the tradition of ongoing advancement inanticipation of marketplace demands, and theever-increasing requirements of data warehousing.

Now you can leverage Oracle8is new functiona-lity in several major areas directly related to thedemands of data warehousing, among them: Summary Management Performance Improvements Data Management Data-Movement Infrastructure

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ReadyReady-to-Run R/ 3Oracle8 for SAP

for NT Oracle Fail Safefor SAP R/ 3

High Availability Solution

Servicesfor SAP R/ 3 CustomersOracle Consulting Services

IntegratoIntegrator for SAP R/ 3Oracle Warehouse


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DG

Linux

Built on the foundation of Oracle8i, the Oraclefamily of warehouse products includes OracleWarehouse Builder (OWB), an integrated systemfor design, implementation and ongoing mana-gement of enterprise data-warehouse and data-mart solutions; and Oracle Discoverer and OracleExpress server and tools for reporting, querying,and analyzing metadata.

Management tasks, including generating and

building the warehouse, scheduling jobs, crea-ting extracts, viewing job status, and restartingjobs, are all managed via the Oracle EnterpriseManager (OEM).

40,000 Linux Developers running on Oracle8Leveraging their industry leadership positionsfurther to meet customer business requirements,Oracle Corp. and the Oracle/SAP CompetenceCenter in Walldorf have announced this springthat Oracle8 for Linux is available. Oracle alsoopened Internet developer registration for Oracle8ion Linux via the Oracle Technology Network(OTN), and announced that the first 20,000registrants will receive a free early access CD.Through this special offer OTN members canregister at http://technet.oracle.com and havean Oracle8i on Linux CD shipped to them directly.As part of the previously announced OraclePartner Program First-to-Market initiative forindependent software vendors (ISVs), SAP haschosen the Oracle dataserver as one of their majorLinux database platforms. Intensive tests at SAPwith Oracle8 on Linux have confirmed Oraclesposition as the leading provider of database pro-ducts for the ERP market. The availability of Oracle8 for SAP R/3 on Linux will allow custo-mers to choose a proven alternative operatingsystem for their Intel-based database servers. Itexpands the scalability of their SAP environ-ment, and increases performance and highavailability.

How do you make one of the world's largest con-sumer packaged goods companies, with 38,000employees, and some $9 billion in sales eachyear, more competitive? For the ColgatePalmolive Company, one of the world's largestconsumer packaged goods companies, part of the

answer is a global information architecture, whichColgate is building using SAP R/3 and Oracle8.

Colgate's brands, which include names such asColgate, Palmolive, Mennen, Ajax, and Hill'sScience Diet pet foods, are familiar in more than200 countries around the world. Headquarteredin New York city, the company began to move toits SAP and Oracle system in February 1996, aftermaking a strategic decision to move off of a mixedenvironment AS/400s, System 36s, DEC VAXes,and IBM mainframes and standardize world-wide on SAP and Oracle, running on Sun Micro-systems Enterprise Servers. At the same time, Col-gate consolidated its worldwide computer opera-

tions into two data centers in North America

Today, more than 1,000 of Colgate's employaround the world are using the system, Colgate relies on it to run nearly all of its options in North America. The company is mov

steadily towards its goal of having 95% ofcompany worldwide running on SAP by theof the year 2000. The system is giving Colgastrategic advantage by reducing inventories making the company more profitable.

Tremendous successColgate had clearly defined business goals fERP system. It wanted not only to reduce invtories, but to shorten the time it took to get pducts into consumers' hands, and provide beservice to its customers. The SAP/Oracle syhas been a tremendous success in all three arsays Joe Pisciotta, Colgate's Associate DirectTechnical Services.

Palmoliv

4

Colgate Palmolive

SAP and Oracle are giving Colgate a strategic advantage, reducing inventories and making the pany more profitable.- Joe Pisciotta, Associate Director of Technical Services Colgate Palmolive Compa

Oracle on LinuxOracle8 for Linux forSAP R/ 3 available

R/ 3 NT Benchmarkwith Data General onOracle 8

Record breaking results - surpassing 4,9 00 SDPhiladelphia, September 13, 1999 - Oracle hasonce again proven itself as the underlying highperformance database by beating previous per-formance results for SAP R/3 with DataGeneral on an 8-way 8900 platform.

"These outstanding results demonstrate that theOracle8 database on Data General provides themaximum performance and scalability for SAPR/3 solutions. This combination delivers theproven reliability, scalability and flexibilitydemanded by large SAP R/3 implementations,said Donald Haig, Vice President of CorporateAccounts, Oracle Corporation. Both the Oracleand Data General have worked together as aseamless team to achieve this fantastic bench-mark result, Haig continued.

The user number was achieved with SAP'sSales & Distribution (SD) standard applicabenchmark running on Data General's AViiOenterprise servers using Intel's Pentium III Xprocessors and Data Generals CLARiiONfibre channel storage solutions.

"We are also very pleased with this result of teams, and the value implications it has

customers, said Rich Clifton, Vice PresideApplications Competency Centers at DGeneral Corporation. By applying the lOracle 8i technology, our 8-way 8900 platfoand our expertise in large ERP configuratiwe were able to set this significant new rewith a much smaller configuration. This resumore than 8.6% higher than the previous bNT result, and it was done with 1/3 fewer CPWhen coupled with the industry leading HAvailability characteristics and performance rantees we offer for this environment, we now pushed cost effective computing baseWindows NT, Intel, and Oracle to new heigof enterprise computing.

Ask for more information at the Oracle bootSapphire US, #515, Data General #332 or san e-mail to [email protected]


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BenefitsPacific Coast Feather went live in four monthswith application components including FinancialAccounting, Controlling, Sales and Distribution,and Materials Management. The company now hasa fully integrated system that provides realtime

information companywide, with added functio-nality that has improved the quality, quantity,and flexibility of enterprise-critical information.

Babcock cited two examples of the enhancedvisibility into corporate operations provided bythe Oracle and SAP solution.

Corporate buyers can look at the productionschedule to see what raw materials are requiredto replenish inventory, she explained. And cus-tomer service planners can look at orders andcompare the data against raw material availabilityand capacity to ensure the viability of deliverydates.

The Oracle/SAP R/3 solution also allows thecompany to get a clear picture of profitability.We now have the ability to look at what it coststo produce a product compared to our standardcosts to determine if we have met our margingoals, Babcock said. We can also do an analysisof substitutions, examining the costs of substitu-ting a higher-priced raw material if were shorton the one specified in the order to meet a deli-very date.

Enhanced customer service

Information is now readily available to custo-mer service representatives at our corporate site,said Babcock. They know instantly what pro-ducts are available and when they will ship. Ourorder turnaround has improved 40 percent.

Increased inventory accuracy

The company used to shut down their plants forthree days four times a year to take a physicalinventory. Due to the increased accuracy of in-

ventory information in the SAP/Oracle system,they have been able to save costs by reducingthat to twice a year.

Reduced cycle time

It used to take Pacific Coast Feather about threeweeks to produce internal financial statements.Today, the company produces them in four days.The solution has also enabled better financialanalysis. We are now able to track financial acti-vities on an ongoing basis throughout the month,Babcock reported. Because all the information isin real time, we can detect problems more quicklyand identify errors as they occur. This allows usto immediately determine the source of the pro-blem and fix it, rather than waiting until themonth-end closing to figure out why the num-bers were different than expected.

Dramatic growth without adding headcount is the dream of any senior executive. With anERP solution from SAP and Oracle,

SunAmerica has accommodated two acquisi-tions while keeping administrative costs low.

SunAmerica is a leading financial services firm that focuses on the rapidly growing

retirement savings market. With US$52billion of assets, the company provides morethan 1.7 million investors with a broad rangeof long-term retirement savings products and investment services. SunAmerica recently beca-me a fully owned subsidiary of AmericanInternational Group (AIG).

ChallengeWhen SunAmerica faced remediating an agingnon-Y2K compliant mainframe-based accoun-ting system, it decided instead to leverage theopportunity into a companywide ERP solution.According to Terry Hirsch, SunAmericas SAP

Project Lead for financial reporting, As we did thecost-benefit analysis we saw that the benefits interms of the efficiencies gained through automa-ting various processes such as T&E, purchasing,workflow, financial reporting, budgeting, andconsolidations could be huge.

SolutionSunAmerica selected SAP R/3, a comprehensiveenterprise solution that enables the integrationof business processes. SunAmerica has alreadyimplemented R/3s financial, treasury, materialmanagement, and personnel administration mo-dules. The solution runs on a 50-gigabyte Oracledatabase. Oracle is the worlds leading universal

data server, enabling simple, cost-effective,reliable network computing. Using client/seand Web technologies, more than 1,200 usaccess Sun Solaris 2.6 and Sun Enterprise 5and 6,000 servers daily.

Why Oracle and SAP?SunAmerica has counted on the reliability of O

databases for three years. Oracle has alwaysthe database of choice for any of our missiontical database applications. We wanted a databthat was highly scalable, that would grow wus, and one that we could rely on, 7 by 24, to kus functioning, explained Hirsch.

Because of its true real-time, 7 by 24 prosing, not batch processing, explained SheLavi, SAP Project Lead organization/contro

One of the benefits of the SAP/ Or acle solution is

its brought the data closer to the user.

Terry Hirsch, SAP Project Lead, SunAmeri

The way SAP processed transactions withOracle database was far superior. We provedstress test that the solution could handle lavolumes of data. The Oracle/SAP partneris seamless from our perspective, said VladNoble, SAP System Administrator SunAmerica. The two companies work clotogether. I can get support for an Oracle queon directly fromSAP. As SAP ports its new re6

Oracle is such

a leader in the

database mar-

ket, with a pro-

ven product and

many SAP instal-

lations.

Gwen Babcock,Vice President of Information Systems,Pacific Coast Feather

SunAmeSunAmerica


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ses quickly onto Oracle, we dont have to worryabout compatibility issues.

BenefitsSupport growth

SunAmerica continues to grow rapidly. It recentlyacquired Mutual Benefit Life, and then was itself acquired by AIG. With the SAP/Oracle solution,the company is able to manage this growth

without adding staff. The SAP/Oracle solutionallows us to do more with less people, remarkedHirsch. In the administrative areas that SAP hasautomated, well be able to keep headcountlower as we continue to grow.

Improve workflow

SunAmerica has automated three processes to dateusing the SAP/Oracle solution: journal entryapprovals; purchase requisitions for supplies orcapital expenditures; and expense travel reim-bursement. Workflow prior to SAP was justshuffling paper, explained Lavi. Now users canaccess the system through a Web browser andtrack the progress of expense reimbursement orpurchase order requisitions.

Speed analysis

The solution enables SunAmerica to do moreanalysis than ever before. Hirsch said, one of thebenefits of the SAP/Oracle solution is that it hasbrought the data closer to the user. With real-time queries, users can quickly get answerstheyre looking for and integrate them into desk-top applications, such as spreadsheets. Laviadded, About 30 50,000 transactions hit ourgeneral ledger every day. Actuaries are using thesystem for reserve calculations and analysis;accountants for trend analysis; and marketing forproject analysis.

Improved financial reporting

Month-end processing cycle time has already beenreduced 2 1/2 times and will continue to becomemore efficient. By eliminating batch processing,the users of the general ledger dont have to waitovernight to get results of financials, Laviadded. We can open and close periods within aminute, not overnight. The system has automa-ted the daily average balance function for us.Were also catching a lot more errors, so dataintegrity is improved. Were streamlining pro-cesses and solving issues before they become pro-blems.

The solution also helps SunAmerica meet its

requirements for financial reporting to regula-tory agencies. Now reports can be created fasterand much easier, said Noble. We can put themout on demand, in real time.

Even for the most profitable of companies, these timeshold the greatest of uncertainties. Shifting customer preferences, stiffening government regulations, skyrocketing information demands each alonecould dampen the fire of corporate growth. Manyof todays most foresighted companies have leapt ahead of such stagnation by implementing therobust power of an enterprise information management solution from SAP and Oracle.

With a commanding two-thirds domestic marketshare, Imperial Tobacco Ltd. (ITL) handily ranks as

Canadas largest tobacco company. Headquarteredin Montreal and with seven plants in Canada,ITL employs more than 2,000 people and earnedCA $800 million on CA $1.7 billion in 1998revenues. Integrating that kind of heady success,however and preparing for even more to come threatened to overwhelm the firms disparateinformation management systems.

ChallengeITLs success had brought about the challenge of managing ever-increasing volumes of information.In the past, ITL sometimes hired temporary helpto overcome the inefficiencies of its systems. Thiswas getting more difficult to do. We were at a

point where hours of work became weeks of workand our information systems just couldnt keepup with, much less integrate, our exceptionaleffort, acknowledged Margret Nodwell, Imple-mentation Services Manager for Imperial TobaccoLtd. With six distinct inventory systems, askingfor an inventory status would soon take a coupleof days. We simply had to fix our systems.

SolutionITL integrated its systems by implementing theSAP R/3 ERP suite of applications, includingfinancial, materials management, payroll, HR,and production planning. The solution gives morethan 800 users real-time access to a 180-gigabyte

Oracle7 (and soon to be Oracle8) database.Oracle8 is the worlds leading universal data ser-ver, enabling simple, cost-effective, and reliablenetwork computing. ITL also makes extensiveuse of Oracles Designer tools to design data-bases for complementary applications.

Why Oracle and SAPSAP people really knew their application andthat gave us great confidence in the functionality,explained Paul Goyetche, Manager of Data andApplication Integration at ITL. On a higherlevel, we also knew that SAP would help usstreamline our business processes by replacingredundant systems and applications. When itcame to the database, Oracles engine offered themost robust, most mature database management

system. Weve never had a problem with Oraclein three-and-a-half years. Oracle runs smoothly,its like its not even there.

Benefits

Reduced f inancial cycle t ime

Integrating data from throughout the company,the new system has reduced the time needed togenerate crucial management reports. This isclearly seen in accounting. Both our month-endand year-end processing have been reduced dra-matically, reported Goyetche. Year end used totake us well into February; now weve got it doneby mid-January. 7

ImperialImperial Tobacco Ltd.

The SAP and Oracle solution has done Imper ial Toba cco a grea t service and w ill continue to help us move ahead.

Margret Nodwell, Implementation Services Manager, Imperial Tobacco Ltd.


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The acronym ATO stands for a test scenario spe-cifically tailored to the requirements of transac-tion-intensive processes in the production of variant models. In the past, different applicati-ons were considered and tested as isolated pro-cess chains. The ATO benchmarks, on the otherhand, combine new functions of different SAP

applications corresponding to the individuallystructured IT environment of a customer and inte-grate parts of process chains, which were pre-viously considered separate, across all used R/3system components. Other features of a typicalATO scenario include very short production times,individually grouped jobs and high sales volumes.

General IntelligibilityIndividual parts, components and modules canbe tracked easily throughout their complete lifecycles. The fingerprint and vita of each singlepart is stored. This vita can be tracked all theway back to its origin. Thanks to the automaticassignment of serial numbers, all issues of pro-duct liability as well as later service managementcan already be dealt with in the productionstage. This is a quality advantage that hardly anyother manufacturer can offer in this form.

Consequently, malfunctions of every kind can bediagnosed quickly and easily and then corrected.But this also means additionally storing enormousquantities of data on the DP side and enablingsmooth access to the information they contain.The database management system from Oracleplays a decisive role in this with the three-levelR/3 architecture model. The Oracle databaseseries is currently the most powerful in-stallation platform for commercial applicationswith respect to scalability and performance.

Oracle8 is the first of a new generation of busi-ness information systems designed to manage allimaginable data types for applications of all kindsand sizes.Thanks to its unlimited Internet capability, itsmessaging function as well as its object and multi-media data compatibility, Oracle8 is contribu-ting decisively in the general transition of thecomputer industry to Internet-supported dataprocessing. Additionally, its role as technologicalpioneer, its strong position in the global marketand the proven competence of Oracle in manage-ment of operational data guarantee performanceat its best.

Improved Teamwork

Being able to share information has broughttogether formerly distant segments of the com-pany. We were a very divisional company, ex-plained Nodwell. Everyone had their ownsystems. Divisions now share any informationthat will help us all to understand the business asa big picture.

Increased inventory accuracy

The solution has eliminated redundancy andincreased inventory accuracy. A single bill of materials instead of four allows raw materialsto be inter changeable between products and fac-tories. There was time when our products sel-dom changed, now they change often for market,regulatory, or quality reasons. The system hassimplified this transition.

Improved regulatory compliance

Keeping up with the government can be tough,but ITL is doing so more efficiently than ever.Were closely regulated by both the federal andprovincial governments, concluded Nodwell.We pay CA$3.5 billion in taxes and they wantto know exactly where its coming from SAPon Oracle lets us get to information quickly andreliably.

Increased vendor flexibility

The new systems ability to handle multiple lan-guages and currencies also allows ITL to pur-chase globally. The solution has facilitated pro-curement, sped up billing, and helped in ournegotiations with vendors, added Nodwell.

Increased MIS productivity

The new R/3 system has also freed IT staff tospend less time programming and more timeanalyzing the business. We used to have a lot of manual work interfacing and troubleshooting,detailed Goyetche. Since we have eliminatedmore than half of our distinct systems, thenumber of interfaces has reduced drastically.Additionally, through SAPs configuration, theuser can customize things that formerly involvedchanges at the programming level.

Y2K saving

Switching to a new R/3 solution saved ITL sig-nificant costs related to the Y2K bug. Becausewe were running on an old mainframe platform,Y2K compliance threatened to become a hugeproblem, relayed Goyetche We figured that,by eliminating the lines of code that we wouldhave had to rewrite, we saved CA$15 million bybeing on SAP and Oracle.

Oracle Corporation and IBM Corporation toannounced the highest performance results for the SAP R/3 4.0 application suite runningan UNIX server. 16,640 Sales & Distributusers with 4,908.433 dialogsteps/hour andaverage response time of 1,9 seconds is theworld leading benchmark.

This record-setting performance was made pble by IBM RS6000 S80 with 24 CPUs, Ctype RS64 III and 32 MB total L2 cacheOracle8.05.

We are especially proud of this world rebenchmarks because compared to previous rses of SAP R/3, version 4.0 has a 30% higconsumption rate and generates more load todatabase. So the fact that we have a higher numof users in this configuration proves onces athat Oracle8 provides the scalability and hperformance that SAP customers need, Donald Haig, Vice President of CorporAccounts, Oracle Corporation.For more information ask at the Oracle bo#515 or send an e-mail to [email protected].

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Published by:Oracle /SAP Competence Center

Altrottstr. 3169190 Walldorf, GermanyTel. ++49 (0) 6227-7 -31 252Fax ++49 (0) 6227-7 -31 299Betsy EnglessonAlbrecht [email protected]: http://www.oracle.com/sthttp://www.sap.com/partner/index.htm

Additional Contributors to his issue:Heidi von Briel, D. Bryant, Jrgen Fhrer, Donald HaigUwe Heinz, Knut Hofmann, Jan Klokkers, GerhardKuppler, Tom Stickler, Burkhard Thomas

Translationservice,Falkner Translationservice, Munich, Roswitha GreigTranslatissimo, Herxheim

Logistics:Cretschmar Cargo, A. Lotzwick

Lithos by:G+A Repro, Oeffingen

Photos:Photos on Page 2-8 from SAP archives, Uwe Heinz

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Oracle, Oracle8, Oracle8i, Oracle Express, Discoverer,Designer, Developer, and the Oracle Logo are trademaror registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation.

SAP, R/3, and all SAP product names mentioned are usfor identification purposes only, and may CopyrightOracle Corporation 1999. All rights reserved.

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