Customers Choose SQL Server to Run Their SAP® Solutions

New resources can help customers migrate with less complexity and risk to achieve low total cost of ownership.

REDMOND, Wash.— Today Microsoft Corp. highlighted the benefits customers have realized by migrating their data platform to Microsoft SQL Server 2005 to run their SAP® applications: enterprise-caliber reliability coupled with significant cost savings. Customers have experienced over 35 percent cost-efficiencies by selecting SQL Server 2005 to run their SAP solutions. These customers represent a growing number of organizations that have committed to SQL Server to support their most essential systems at a low total cost of ownership.

“We are excited about the results our joint customers are seeing as they upgrade their SAP solutions and migrate to Microsoft SQL Server,” said Martin Riedel, senior vice president and head of the Global Upgrade Office at SAP AG. “SAP and Microsoft are pushing enterprise solutions forward in exciting new ways, enabling customers to further harness the full power of their SAP applications.”

The Shoprite Group of Companies, South Africa’s largest retailer, wanted to upgrade to the SAP ERP Application Release 6.0 and to reduce the complexity and time required to maintain its nearly 4-terabyte database. Shoprite chose SQL Server 2005.

“Microsoft is a strategic vendor for us, and with in-house skills on SQL Server 2005 we knew we should look there first,” said Lyn Ginsberg, SAP project manager at Shoprite. “We did various benchmarking tests and connected with several other retail companies to understand the benefits they obtained by moving to SQL Server. It was a good move, and we’re very pleased with the results. With simplified management and enterprise-class performance, technical employees are working more effectively.”

TUV NORD Group, based in Hanover, Germany, provides testing and certification services for more than 100 industries. With a work force of more than 7,000 operating from 45 countries, the company relies on SAP applications deployed on Microsoft SQL Server 2005 to help manage its worldwide business. Working with Microsoft Gold Certified Partner VMS, TUV NORD analyzed the efficiency of its SAP solution-based deployment, which includes a 1.3 terabyte implementation of SAP ERP on a single instance of SQL Server. The VMS study found that TUV NORD benefited from 56 percent lower database administration costs than the industry average, and that it enjoyed a 37 percent lower total cost of ownership. The study credited much of the savings to the finding that SQL Server generally cost less to administer.

“The VMS Benchmarking study helps quantify the many benefits we’ve gained from our strategy to standardize our SAP solution-based environment on SQL Server 2005,” said Gunnar Thaden, chief information officer at TUV NORD. “We made the right decision in building upon SQL Server 2005 to achieve a modern and scalable IT landscape while minimizing costs.”

Systems integrators are also announcing new offers to assist customers in upgrading their SAP solutions and migrating to SQL Server. Accenture has enhanced its Rapid Upgrade Solution for SAP solutions to incorporate new capabilities developed through its work with clients across the globe. The solution draws on Accenture’s Global Delivery Network and extensive experience upgrading SAP applications and migrating platforms for more than 300 enterprise clients around the world. In addition, Accenture opted to run its own global, single instance of SAP applications on Microsoft SQL Server.

“Organizations looking to upgrade and migrate their technology systems want to mitigate the associated risks and minimize the costs while balancing practical considerations with a longer-term vision of managing their applications,” said Patrick Puechbroussou, managing director of Accenture’s SAP business. “There are proven benefits to combining an SAP upgrade with a move to migrate to the Microsoft platform.”

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) announced a new service to help customers migrate to the scalable, reliable, high-performance data platform SQL Server. The joint initiative between TCS and Microsoft provides end-to-end upgrade of SAP applications and migration to SQL Server by leveraging TCS’ Global Network Delivery Model™. TCS is committed to this initiative and will develop a set of tools, methodologies and frameworks with best practices from Microsoft and SAP. TCS is also creating a team of experts certified in migrating to Microsoft and SAP solutions. This will help create cost efficiencies and lower the risk elements associated with the migration.

“We see immense benefit for customers to move to SQL Server 2005 and lower their total cost of ownership as they upgrade their SAP solutions to SAP ERP 6.0,” said Raman Venkatraman, global relationship director for SAP at TCS. “We’re happy to be working with Microsoft to help customers migrate with low risk.”

For more than 15 years, SAP and Microsoft have collaborated to co-innovate and empower their customers with productivity-enhancing, interoperable and integrated solutions. Microsoft has been running its mission-critical SAP solutions on SQL Server and supporting SAP solutions on SQL Server since 1995, initially as a popular option for medium-sized businesses looking for a low total cost of ownership. With the performance and reliability enhancements introduced with SQL Server 2000 and 2005, SQL Server is an attractive option for companies of all sizes.

“Microsoft and SAP have long shared a commitment to delivering superior value to customers through our enterprise-class software and solutions,” said Dan Neault, general manager of SQL Server at Microsoft. “The benefits of running SAP solutions on Microsoft SQL Server are well understood, and with this collaboration our mutual enterprise customers are able to move their SAP application-based environment to SQL Server 2005 with less risk to achieve a low total cost of ownership.”

More information is available at http://www.microsoft.com/sap.

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