Karstadt, a leading German warehouse company, modernized its business intelligence by implementing IBM's DB2 and Infosphere solutions, improving its reporting system 'kiwi' to handle complex inquiries efficiently. As a result, the company now enjoys significantly faster response times and annual savings of approximately €3 million. The robust architecture allows for better scalability and user acceptance, with 200,000 reports generated each month by around 2,500 users.

1. IBM Software Case Study
Information Management
Karstadt
Intelligent warehouse through data warehousing with
IBM InfoSphere and DB2
Rudolph Karstadt founded his first warehouse in 1881 in Wismar,
Overview Germany. Companies from the premium group such as KaDeWe, the
Karstadt warehouses, Karstadt Sports and the online warehouse—
Challenge
karstadt.de—are housed together under the roof of the oldest German
To create a business intelligence warehouse company. They are operated by Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH,
platform for new strategic initiatives and
applications a 100 percent subsidiary of Arcandor AG.
Solution With outstanding downtown locations and a uniform brand image,
To introduce IBM InfoSphere Karstadt is a modern marketplace with a new store design, high brand
Warehouse 9 Enterprise Edition software
name presence, and products that are in line with customer desires and
with IBM DB2 9 and to replace the legacy
system with an IBM System p cluster demand. Karstadt enjoys a 38 percent share in the German warehouse
business. The group employs 25,000 staff and has a turnover of e4 billion.
Benefit
Three times faster response times, with
responses of just a few seconds even for
“Kiwi” helps to analyze and control the flow of
complex inquiries; savings of about goods and customers
e3 million per year; high scalability for “More than two million people visit our stores every day,” explains Ralf
future applications; ideal and flexible
technological basis for Karstadt’s hard
Bruhnke, Karstadt controlling and project manager for “Kiwi”, the
goods management information system Karstadt Intranet-based merchandise management information system.
and reporting portal “A decisive factor for success is a good purchasing and sales control sys-
tem. The goal sounds easy: providing the right products at the right time
in the right quantity. Kiwi is based on a total of about six billion data
records that are used to analyze incoming goods, inventories, and sales for
each individual item. With ‘Kiwi’ we have created a modern reporting
interface that supports all users in their day-to-day business at corporate
headquarters as well as in the stores’ administrative departments.”
Basis for business intelligence: IBM DB2 and
high-performance clusters
In 2004, a point had been reached that required a new strategy for the
systems that support decision-making. Business intelligence had to
become more modern, flexible, and cost effective. “We wanted to intro-
duce innovative, complex assessment methods, benefit from diverse analy-
sis options, and create new ways to supply users with information,” says
Ralf Bruhnke.

2. IBM Software Case Study
Information Management
“About 2,500 users and
200,000 reports per
month: We would not
have been able to achieve
our ambitious goals in
business intelligence
without DB2.”
—Ralf Bruhnke, Controlling and Project
Manager for “Kiwi”, Karstadt
The legacy system was no longer able to do this. After an evaluation,
the company opted for IBM® DB2® database software to be operated on
an IBM System p® cluster due to its scalability and affordability. The
hardware platform for the data warehouse encompasses four IBM System
p550 database servers which are connected via the storage area network
to four IBM System Storage DS®4700 disk storage units for a total of
12 terabytes. Added to that are two IBM System p570 application servers
and a Microsoft® Windows® Server for monitoring, load balancing, and
batch processes.
Highly developed database functionality for
Karstadt’s “Kiwi” needs
“IBM DB2 on AIX® and System p is a particularly coordinated combina-
tion,” explains Ralf Bruhnke. “The new system allows us to save about
e3 million per year, and the sophisticated database technology makes our
‘Kiwi’ the only powerful reporting system that we need.”
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3. IBM Software Case Study
Information Management
With the database partitioning feature, DB2 can be optimally used on
Solution components server clusters, thus offering extreme scalability. “With the DB2 compo-
nent query patroller as a standard feature in workload management, we
Software
can monitor and control query starts and their execution,” adds Ralf
● IBM® InfoSphere™ Warehouse 9 Bruhnke. “By optimizing memory using row compression, we can
Enterprise Edition
● IBM DB2® 9 for Linux®, UNIX® and improve performance and save space in the disk storage and working
Windows® memory.”
Hardware
Karstadt benefits from other performance-improving DB2 features, such
● IBM System p®550
as performance optimization. In addition, multidimensional clustering
● IBM System p570
● IBM System Storage DS®4700 organizes the data efficiently and materialized query tables accelerate the
queries. Through the DB2 Self-Tuning Memory Manager (STMM),
memory management in the database is greatly simplified.
“IBM DB2 on AIX and IBM InfoSphere is the basis for warehouse
System p is a particularly activities in the hard goods sector
coordinated combination. IBM InfoSphere™ Warehouse 9 Enterprise Edition software helps
deliver DB2 business intelligence functionality. It represents the basis for
The new system allows us establishing powerful analysis and reporting systems that are viable for
to save about e3 million the future. The Karstadt reporting system itself was restructured using
BusinessObjects and SAS Enterprise Guide and Marketing Automation.
per year.”
“With the genius program developed in-house, we can query current
—Ralf Bruhnke, Controlling and Project
Manager for “Kiwi”, Karstadt
benchmark figures, for example, department analyses, brand and supplier
assessments or even seasonal analyses,” explains Ralf Bruhnke.
Individual store push reports can be sent via email. “About 2,500 users
and 200,000 reports per month: We would not have been able to achieve
our ambitious goals in business intelligence without DB2,” emphasizes
Ralf Bruhnke. “We have implemented the underlying architecture that
will enable us to handle future requirements for hard goods merchandise
management and expand the reporting portal into a control portal.”
High user acceptance
“Kiwi” was built in parallel to the legacy system. Existing reporting struc-
tures were accepted, then the innovative functions gradually introduced.
“We wanted to quickly achieve migration without major training time
and expense,” says Ralf Bruhnke. “Right from the start, it was very impor-
tant to boost the acceptance of the ‘Kiwi’ users. To this end, we placed
great value on manageability and user-friendliness.”
A major plus point demonstrating user acceptance can be quickly summa-
rized: The average response time for queries is now only 4.5 seconds.
This is almost three times as fast as last year although the number of
reports has almost doubled. IBM DB2 performance: just right for modern
marketplaces.
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4. For more information
To learn more about IBM InfoSphere Warehouse and DB2, please con-
tact your IBM sales representative or IBM Business Partner, or visit the
following websites: ibm.com/software/data/infosphere/warehouse or
ibm.com/software/data/db2
To increase the business value of Information Management software,
participate in independently run Information Management User
Groups around the world. Learn about opportunities near you at:
ibm.com/software/data/management/community.html
For more information on Karstadt, visit: www.karstadt.de
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Produced in the United States of America
December 2010
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