At-a-Glance
Company expands its presence in the retail sector and beyond with an appdriven digital transformation strategy underpinned by SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for SAP Applications and SUSE Manager.
The challenge: running multichannel e-commerce for a diverse business
Best known for its ubiquitous department stores across Spain and Portugal, the company is now a thriving business group that operates in the retail, travel, IT and insurance sectors.
“Gone are the days that people think only of department stores when they think of us,” says a spokesperson. “Today, we’re embracing digitalization across all our business lines. Most notably, we’re growing our e-commerce capabilities to give customers access to our unique shopping experience across multiple channels.”
To win customers’ trust, it’s vital that the entire IT environment consistently delivers a seamless user experience — which means the leading retailer must ensure it always has rapid, reliable access to data. Therefore, the group pursued agile, future-proof technology to facilitate all its back-office processes.
“We need the right IT foundations to support initiatives like our new app and, in the bigger picture, to achieve our expansion goals,” explains the spokesperson. “We are always looking to build on technologies that allow us to simplify our processes and empower our employees to deliver these types of transformational projects.”
“We have relied on SUSE Linux Enterprise for 15 years and counting. We use a range of SAP applications, all of which run on SLES.”
The solution
SLES for SAP Applications
The new app enables the Spanish retailer’s customers to browse and buy from a catalog of over 1.7 million products, which means it needs to be able to query product data at speed and scale. This requires extremely powerful and robust backend systems.
To power these systems, the company chose SAP ERP running on SLES for SAP Applications as its core business platform. The strategic alliance between SUSE and SAP was a key factor in the company’s initial selection.
The spokesperson states: “When we were selecting the underlying platform for our SAP applications over 15 years ago, there was only one option: SUSE Linux Enterprise. SAP Labs uses SLES for its own development, which made SLES the least risky, most attractive selection for us.”
When the retailer migrated from the mainframe to a distributed server environment in 2014/2015, the leading retailer opted to retain SLES as its platform of choice for hosting a range of SAP applications.
“We never wavered in our commitment to SLES as we shifted from a mainframe to a distributed model,” recalls the spokesperson.
SUSE Manager
Today, the group runs 107 instances of SLES for SAP Applications on a combination of IBM Power and Intel servers, and it uses SUSE Manager to keep this infrastructure running efficiently and securely.
For example, SUSE Manager provides automated patch management, centralized monitoring and management features, which help the company’s IT team ensure “We have relied on SUSE Linux Enterprise for 15 years and counting. We use a range of SAP applications, all of which run on SLES.” Spokesperson that the core backend SAP systems are up-to-date and secure.
This helps to protect against security vulnerabilities and bugs that could otherwise potentially cause downtime — protecting the retailer’s internal operations as well as helping to ensure a seamless experience for shoppers using the app
The impact
By introducing its new app, the leading Spanish retailer has given customers a powerful new commerce channel that perfectly complements the in-store experience that Spanish shoppers know and love. The result? Significant growth in sales.
Revenue growth
As the company embraces digital transformation to better serve its customers through apps and other digital initiatives, its SAP applications running on SLES offer both scale and performance. The group’s strategy is paying off, with the retailer reporting revenue growth.
Optimized business-critical processes
The combination of SAP and SUSE solutions enables essential functions, including accounting, stock management and movement of goods and services across the group. The spokesperson comments, “SAP applications running on SLES are keeping pace with our expansion and diversification.”
In addition to optimizing SAP processes, SLES for SAP Applications includes the SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension, which helps the leading retailer to protect its SAP applications against unplanned downtime and data loss. Thanks to continuous data replication across clustered servers, the extension enables either manual or automatic workload transfer to another cluster outside of the affected area, keeping systems running.
As a result of SUSE solutions enabling the group’s SAP applications to run reliably, the company can keep 81 department stores, 37 hypermarkets and 194 grocery stores stocked at all times. It also makes 1.7 million SKUs available to customers through its online app, and customers can receive many of those items within two hours across 54 cities throughout Spain.
High efficiency and service continuity
The group uses SUSE Manager to automate monitoring and administrative tasks, enabling high efficiency, service continuity and a more secure IT environment.
“Using SUSE Manager, we have a central point of control for all SLES images, simplifying management of vulnerabilities and patches,” states the spokesperson. “SUSE Manager has transformed the way we handle tasks related to our operating system, allowing us to better secure and optimize our IT environment.”
Reliable support
With reliable access to SUSE support, the leading Spanish retailer can pursue its ambitious growth plans without committing precious resources to issue resolution.
“Whenever we’ve experienced incidents affecting our critical systems, the response from SUSE support has been exemplary,” remarks the spokesperson.
What’s next?
The company is making rapid, sustained progress in growing its market share in the retail sector and beyond. In challenging market conditions, the group is continuing to build a unique, varied value proposition. Making the right technology decisions has been crucial in this journey.
“Looking to the future, we’re planning to extend and tune our SAP application suite,” comments the spokesperson. “We’re rolling out SAP on SLES to new servers, which will be our next milestone. We see SUSE as a key strategic partner for many years to come.”