Aiming for a speedy, simple integrated system to enable economical use of IT resources, Lawson becomes an On Demand Business.

Lawson, Inc. convenience stores receive approximately 7 million customers a day. "The Hot Station in the Neighborhood" concept is aimed at providing services that are rooted in each store’s location. The company is progressively building stores that cater to changes in the social climate with enterprises that depart from the normal business category such as the store formats NATURAL LAWSON and LAWSON STORE100.

Resolution marks 30 year milestone for Lawson

Lawson opened its first store in 1975. In 2005, the theme to accompany the marking of the company’s 30th year in business was one it could share with the convenience store industry. Susumu Hasegawa, the company’s CIO and IT station director of the information systems administration, says, "I feel that the convenience store business category, in a sense, has been forced to a turning point. Over the past thirty years, our business has supported and expanded on a customer base comprised mainly of males in their 20’s and 30’s. However, the demographic has changed enormously since we started in this business. To continue to grow amid changes in the social climate, we have to think about building stores that bring in shoppers outside our usual customer base. To do this, we must not only change our range of goods but also investigate services other than traditional retailing. In other words, if we don’t change the way we do things, we cannot expect continued growth of the business."

Regarding the handling of changes and the way IT is structured, Hasegawa says, "The convenience store business category has a business model with an extremely high dependence on IT. The changes in our store building match changes in the workings of the IT on which they are based. To mark our 30th year in the convenience store business, we had the idea of putting in place a robust infrastructure to support a business model transformation that would see us through the next 30 years."

Mr.Yamamoto, leader in IT station system engineering at the company, had this to say regarding the system supporting Lawson’s business: "We had over 200 servers from a range of manufacturers spread across 4 centers. Operations were entrusted to several different contractors, and there was no uniformity in rules or levels. Since we provided servers to prepare in advance for peak periods for each work system, the system as a whole was wasteful. By simplifying this arrangement, we not only achieve a reduction in costs but also speed up system deployment when new systems are needed."

Migration to Linux on System z applications with an open standard platform

The system Lawson chose was IBM System z. Yamamoto explains the reasons for this choice. "We wanted an approach that allowed efficient migration of applications from an environment comprised of a range of different servers. Since we were focusing on a robust integrated infrastructure, it was of major importance to have robust and reliable physical hardware. In addition, by setting up virtual servers with VM on System z, the necessary applications could be developed on this in cell form, enabling shared utilization of CPU’s added on demand to cover deficiencies in the system as a whole. This configuration is simple and reduces costs."

The approach of using an open standard platform for the IT infrastructure led Lawson to choose the Linux operating system. Oracle and JP1 are used for middleware, and an Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is employed for system service. Mr. Kobatake, senior manager of IT station system engineering at Lawson, has this to say about the form of infrastructure service: "We established a framework of development and operations referencing the ITIL as the Lawson service standard. This streamlined the environment and processes on the IT infrastructure side, and also clarified the benchmark of service provision to the users." Yamamoto added, "We chose System z hardware and opted to outsource services for an infrastructure with long system life that facilitates applying the idea of service levels."

The project of this new system infrastructure was launched under the title "Project Z." Says Kobatake, "We also had the idea of building the ultimate IT infrastructure as a platform capable of accommodating social changes over the next ten years."

Consolidated hosts and distributed applications on System z led to efficient use of resources and improved the service levels

Kobatake cites server integration as a benefit of introducing System z. "Mainframe applications previously distributed at 2 data centers were housed in a single System z cubicle. Furthermore, 8 work systems, including financial accounting, communication system with stores, data exchange system with dealers, etc., that were previously run on distributed servers, as well as a number of other systems, were migrated and integrated on System z. With System z, we can utilize the CPU vacant time of each system dynamically. So in addition to handling peak periods, there’s an improvement in utilization efficiency during normal times, too. Batch processing time is also dramatically reduced, bringing financial processing time down to one fifth."

When migrating to System z, existing functions and responses of the system were maintained, and care was taken to facilitate a smooth transition. As a result of extensive testing and preparation, the migration proceeded with almost no detrimental effect on the users.

Says Yamamoto, "Host switching and other operations can be done ahead of schedule. This is extremely satisfactory in delivering cost-effectiveness, which is rare in a system migration like this."

Long-term project approach and maximum utilization of the simple System z

The migration to System z is part of a long-range seven-year project envisioned by Lawson.

Says Yamamoto, "We have almost completed the integration of one of the 4 centers and will proceed to integrate the other centers in sequence according our completion schedule. From now on, we plan to maximize the utilization of System z and will continue with an approach that reaps the benefits of integration, including lower total cost of ownership (TCO)."

The project, which thus far has focused on in-house integration of logistics, has been implemented, but currently the company is currently working on integration of the store kiosk (Loppi) support system.

Hasegawa has this to say about the approach to future store project expansion and relations with IT: "Of our three key IT words, ‘speedy, small and simple,’ I think we have now accomplished the simple part. This allows us not only development and maintenance but also increased efficiency of fundamental convenience store operations. Operation of the convenience store itself is certainly becoming more complex as we diversify to match different types of customers and their needs. But when it is necessary to make new arrangements for operations, if the supporting IT is simple, we expect to have a system in place in a short time at low cost."