References

xSeries Concept with Linux Supports Integration Measures

ALIS Informationsmanagement GmbH, Düsseldorf

ALIS Informationsmanagement GmbH was founded in 1997 and is a 100 % subsidiary of AIR LIQUIDE Deutschland GmbH. ALIS is active across Europe as an IT service provider within the Air Liquide group, the world leader for technical and medical gases. Moreover, the company also offers external firms a comprehensive and accessible range of services in the SAP R/3 basic business and associated areas such as networks, security technologies and invoicing centres.

In the course of a larger acquisition by Air Liquide in 2004, ALIS was given the challenge in Germany of harmonising two very differently structured IT landscapes. ALIS also had to incorporate two outsourced areas and integrate them into the ALIS invoicing centre beforehand. The service provider received support from FRITZ & MACZIOL.

The customer’s desire to port SAP on Linux, inspired the team from the Düsseldorf office to come up with a concept, which envisaged a scalable xSeries x460 for the productive system, and systems x366 and x346 for test, development and further services with integration to the high performance DS4800.

When deciding in favour of the proposed solution, the scalability of the system and the price-performance ratio naturally played an essential role for ALIS. However, it was not just this. Equally important for those in charge was the common realisation of the project with FRITZ & MACZIOL and IBM as partners. The final decision was supported by the fact that FRITZ & MACZIOL, in contrast to other suppliers, takes on Linux support without problems and could also credibly ensure project realisation in the given time.

The experiences of the first few months of use have confirmed the rightness of the concept. The excellent performance has reduced the dialogue response times from 900 ms to 350 ms, and batch processing has been accelerated by a factor of 4. The clearly increased satisfaction and acceptance by users reflect these results.

For those in charge of IT, the solution implemented since March 2006 represents a reference platform. Further projects are already in the works; an SAP R/3 upgrade is planned and the Düsseldorf company would like to work alongside IBM for future implementations as well.