gkd-el boosts accountability and efficiency with SAP on IBM System z

Gelsenkirchen is a city in northwest Germany with almost 300,000 inhabitants. Once the most important coal-mining city in Europe, Gelsenkirchen has invested heavily in new infrastructure to support its move towards a service-based economy.

With 84 employees, the Gelsenkirchener Kommunale Datenzentrale Emscher-Lippe (gkd-el, www.gkd-el.de) manages the entire IT infrastructure for the Gelsenkirchen city government. It also serves the cities of Herne and Duisburg, in addition to several commercial customers.

When new federal legislation required Gelsenkirchen to change its accounting practices, gkd-el determined that the existing software would struggle to cope. The applications had been built up over 30 years, and lacked both integration and flexibility.

Dieter Schiffer, Head of Data Centre at gkd-el, comments: “Our entire workflow was effectively patched together across numerous systems. To support the move to a new way of working, we selected mySAP ERP software as the most advanced and cost-effective solution. The SAP applications run under Linux on the IBM System z platform – offering excellent stability, high security and easy management.”


Dealing with double requirements

The Neues kommunales Finanzmanagement (NKF) legislation introduced by the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia requires public sector organisations to move to double-entry book-keeping. Such a radical change in working practices would have been virtually impossible to map to the existing information systems used by the city. gkd-el undertook an extensive survey of possible third-party solutions, and identified SAP R/3 Enterprise software as the best package for its requirements.

“A major advantage of SAP software was its dominance in the commercial sector,” says Dieter Schiffer. “The city plans to introduce a consolidated balance sheet for all assets in the future, so a public-sector-specific ERP solution would not have been sufficient.”


Flexible power

gkd-el selected the IBM System z mainframe platform to host its SAP applications, consolidating multiple servers to just two IBM System z models. The result is a simplified technology infrastructure, with fewer physical systems to manage, and the possibility of reduced licensing fees.

A model z800 was first introduced for testing and developing the new systems, followed by a model z990 for live production systems. The z990 runs the SAP database server for each application on IBM DB2 for z/OS. The SAP application servers run on multiple virtual SUSE Linux Enterprise Server instances under z/VM. Disk storage is handled using an IBM TotalStorage Enterprise Storage Server, and data is backed up to an IBM TotalStorage 3494 Tape Library.

“We felt that the IBM System z platform offered the most reliable technology at an attractive price,” says Dieter Schiffer. “The ability to upgrade processing capacity on demand was also important: we currently use two engines on the z990, and we can activate more in a non-disruptive manner if we require them.”

The Linux operating system offers very low total cost of ownership for gkd-el’s SAP software. Moreover, with the SAP applications running on Linux virtual servers, gkd-el has enormous flexibility and can respond rapidly to changing business requirements. Says Dieter Schiffer, “If we need to run a new application or test environment, we can very quickly provision additional 64-bit Linux virtual servers under z/VM, at no greater cost. Compared with buying, installing and configuring a new physical server each time, it’s extremely fast and efficient.”


Rapid rollout

IBM and IBM Premier Business Partners SVA GmbH (www.sva.de) and COMPAREX GmbH (www.comparex.de) worked with gkd-el to implement IBM enabling technologies for its SAP software solutions. To keep long-term support costs low, gkd-el aimed from the outset to build up internal skills and knowledge – and now has nine SAP software certified employees.

Rather than having to re-map all existing workflows and processes step by step into the SAP software system, gkd-el was able to use pre-built SAP templates, making only minor adjustments to suit its precise requirements. This methodology also enabled the city of Gelsenkirchen to re-design processes where appropriate, following the best-practice approaches embedded in the SAP software.

“Given the scale of the project, the implementation of the SAP software was completed very quickly,” says Dieter Schiffer. “We implemented the HR function – which manages almost 21,000 employees – within one year, financials in around two years, and SAP Public Sector Collection and Disbursement within just nine months.”

The SAP software system now handles 800 named users, with as many as 220 using the solution concurrently. The company’s six IBM DB2 databases each hold around 150 GB of data for the SAP applications.


Better service to citizens

The SAP software has enabled Gelsenkirchen to comply with the NKF legislation, introducing greater financial transparency and improved cost-efficiency. The employees of the Gelsenkirchen city government have also seen important day-to-day benefits. Rather than using dozens of separate legacy systems, they now have a common set of tools for accomplishing all tasks. The tight integration between the different functional areas in the SAP software has improved the accessibility of information, and has enabled greater internal efficiency.

“The IBM and SAP solution supports the Gelsenkirchen city government in delivering better service to its citizens, with improved accountability and more efficient use of public money,” says Dieter Schiffer. “We are now testing mySAP ERP 2005, which will provide better support for facility and real estate management, and we expect that the SAP software will continue to meet our needs in the future.”