1:1 Transition with Big Bang

Since January 2017, Gisa has been operating the entire IT and telecommunications infrastructure of BHS Tabletop in Selb, Franconia. Specifically, two complete SAP landscapes were successfully migrated. The client management, the entire infrastructure and the telecommunications systems were taken over.

The project in numbers

What this means exactly becomes clear in the project's figures: over 1700 assets were transferred with all procurement processes. Over 300 PCs and notebooks, 50 Apple Macs, 250 thin clients and 600 VoIP terminals have been migrated. This includes more than 600 user accounts and mailboxes.

200 applications have been tested and rolled out across the enterprise. Over 100 servers for specialist applications with over 11,000 GB have been migrated. An MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) network across six sites with dual connectivity was deployed. Almost 60 employees were involved in the entire process for Gisa.

Hard facts such as experience in similar projects, technical skills, ITIL certifications and manpower tipped the scales in favor of Gisa, but ultimately it was mutual trust that was the decisive factor.

External IT department

The first contact with BHS took place as early as spring 2014. From the very beginning, personal exchange was very important. At the end of September 2014, Gisa invited the IT manager from BHS.

The appointment lasted six hours and was a mixture of presentation and dialog. A good preparation before the actual start: Here, among other things, the focus was on the servers and the daily SAP business processes.

"The important thing is to take time to look carefully before making a transition"

emphasizes Ruben Kahsche, who was responsible for the project on the Gisa side. It was therefore clear to BHS: They didn't want a really big service provider, but a typical medium-sized partner that ticks like their own company.

"That was a very clear message from the customer: You are not our service provider, you are our IT department! BHS expected more than just outsourced IT. A partner who thinks strategically and sets up IT to match the company's development.

says Kahsche.

What distinguishes Gisa from other IT service providers is also its complete portfolio. In other words, offering strategy, consulting, implementation, support and operation from a single source. Especially since Gisa itself operates a data center network certified to the highest BSI security standards.

SAP Transition - Go-live at the weekend

Long preparation time and optimal cooperation on a personal level are crucial for a successful transition process. After all, everything comes down to one neuralgic point: the go-live date. Subproject manager Gabi Hofmann was responsible for the SAP-HCM integration:

"We found a rather complex SAP landscape with many interfaces. Typical for manufacturing companies were the three-tier ERP landscape and a two-tier HCM landscape.

The special feature was that the processes in production could not stand still for long. In addition, all the dependencies on the peripheral systems made the complete transition extremely difficult.

Complex initial situation

"So the complexity was very high from the start compared to other projects. It was decided to plan everything in a 1:1 transition with a real big bang. The goal was the highest possible stability and security.

All sub-projects ultimately had to converge on a single date. Even the interrelationships that were not accessible to us until go-live had to be planned in advance in the test system as well as possible."

Therefore, every step towards going live was meticulously defined in a go-live script.

In fact, the SAP systems were only allowed to shut down on a weekend. Only on Sundays was everything allowed to stand still. In December 2016, the time had come.

"Everything was shut down and the system exported. Encrypted on two hard disks and compressed with a password, it went to Halle to the data center. We project managers were all sitting at BHS in Selb.

This enabled us to analyze and solve all problems immediately together with the infrastructure staff. In the end, we had an on-time release from the point of view of the SAP systems. Our colleagues at the base in Halle had of course also worked through shifts."

Gisa is currently advising BHS Tabletop on planning the switch to S/4 Hana.