This white paper is an IBM case study. Gabriel India Ltd operates six main manufacturing sites across the country, and plans to open additional plants in northern India. To streamline operations and support growth, the company wanted to move to a single central enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution that would support manufacturing processes as well as finance and distribution. Visit http://bit.ly/KWh5Dx to 'Follow' the official Twitter handle of IBM India Smarter Computing.

1. Gabriel India Ltd builds a single Overview
platform for group-wide ERP with Challenge
IBM and SAP Gabriel India Ltd operates six
main manufacturing sites across
Gabriel India Ltd is the flagship Corporate growth the country, and plans to open
company of the Anand Group, which “The company is growing rapidly, additional plants in northern
is among India’s leading automotive especially as we increase our profile in India.
component companies. The group the original equipment manufacturing
consists of 19 companies that (OEM) business,” explains Edwin Solution
manufacture original equipment and Joseph, Head of IT at Gabriel India. “The The company upgraded from
components for the automotive industry Parwanoo plant was opened in 2007, its existing SAP Business One
both within India and internationally. and the Khandsa plant in 2008 – and we solution to SAP ERP 6.0, and
are already planning to build additional migrated from HP hardware
Gabriel India specializes in ride control facilities in northern India. From an and Microsoft SQL Server to a
products (shock-absorbers, front forks IT perspective, this rapid expansion fully IBM solution: an IBM DB2
and struts), which it supplies directly created challenges: we needed to create database running on two IBM
to major car, motorcycle and heavy an IT infrastructure that could grow at Power 520 servers and supported
goods vehicle manufacturers, and also the same rate as the business.” by an IBM System Storage
sells through agents and distributors as DS5020 disk system.
aftermarket products. Gabriel India had already implemented
an ERP solution – SAP Business One Key benefits
Founded in 1961, the company has – to manage the financial aspects and Created a common platform for
its headquarters and main plant distribution network of its aftermarket managing all major corporate
in Pune and operates at five other business at individual factories. However, processes from procurement
manufacturing sites in Nashik, Dewas, customers of its OEM business placed through to distribution. For the
Hosur, Khandsa and Parwanoo. greater emphasis on production control, first time, production processes
It employs around 2,900 people, and the company wanted to introduce at all six manufacturing sites will
produces 20 million units per year, a solution that would help to manage be controlled by a single central
and generates annual revenues of its shop floor processes more efficiently system, boosting efficiencies and
approximately 7 billion Indian Rupees. across all its plants. making better use of resources.
Case study

2. Moving to an enterprise-class
platform
“We liked the SAP Business One “We asked SAP
solution, but it is primarily designed for for advice, they
small to mid-sized businesses, and we recommended DB2:
Business Challenge
needed an enterprise-level solution,” it is their preferred
says Joseph. “Upgrading to SAP ERP database, and they
Gabriel India Ltd operates six main
6.0 was the obvious choice, because work closely with
manufacturing sites across the
it has strong capabilities in terms of IBM to optimize
country, and plans to open additional
production planning and materials performance and
plants in northern India.
management, and we realized we could reliability via a
use it to streamline processes and strategic roadmap
To streamline operations and
boost efficiencies by uniting all of our for synchronized
support growth, the company
plants into a single solution.” development. In fact,
wanted to move to a single central
the close alliance
enterprise resource planning
To support the move to a single SAP between IBM and
(ERP) solution that would support
ERP instance for all its production SAP is a major
manufacturing processes as well as
facilities, Gabriel India needed to advantage in all
finance and distribution.
rethink its infrastructure. Its existing respects, because
architecture – Intel processor-based it ensures good
HP Proliant machines running technical support
Microsoft Windows Server and and a stable platform
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 databases for the future.”
– was struggling to deliver adequate
performance even for SAP Business Mr Edwin Joseph,
One, and the predicted resource Head of IT, Gabriel India Ltd
requirements for SAP ERP were far
higher.
as well as their database – and we
Choosing a new infrastructure were keen to stay with SAP. Moreover,
“Our biggest concern was the when we asked SAP for advice, they
performance of the database platform, recommended DB2: it is their preferred
so we began looking for alternatives,” database, and they work closely with
explains Joseph. “We looked at Oracle IBM to optimize performance and
and IBM DB2, but Oracle wanted us reliability via a strategic roadmap for
to use their business applications synchronized development. In fact, the
2

3. close alliance between IBM and SAP AIX and IBM Power servers was
is a major advantage in all respects, a popular option,” says Joseph.
because it ensures good technical “This combination had a very good
support and a stable platform for the reputation, and we visited a number
future.” of reference customers such as SKH
Metals and Mahindra & Mahindra
Solution
Running IBM DB2 on IBM AIX enables to see how it worked in real-world
features such as Deep Compression, environments. We were impressed with
The company upgraded from its
which allows companies to reduce what we saw.
existing SAP Business One solution
data storage requirements by up to 70
to SAP ERP 6.0, and migrated from
percent while also boosting database “Moreover, we appreciated the
HP hardware and Microsoft SQL
performance. This is particularly efforts made by the IBM presales and
Server to a fully IBM solution: an IBM
valuable in database-intensive technical teams, who took time to
DB2 database running on two IBM
environments such as SAP ERP, where explain the advantages of IBM Power
Power 520 servers and supported by
improved database throughput can features such as virtualization and show
an IBM System Storage DS5020 disk
have a significant effect on overall us how we could improve efficiencies
system.
response times. and reduce IT management workload.”
The company also upgraded its
Another advantage of using DB2 with Working with KPMG, the company
network infrastructure, providing
SAP is the DBA Cockpit, which enables evaluated the IBM Power servers
faster access to SAP applications for
IT staff to manage the DB2 environment against an HP alternative, and found
users across the country.
from within the SAP interface, making that the results confirmed its positive
it easier to integrate administration impression of the hardware. The IT
tasks and save time. The Gabriel India team decided to go ahead with the
team calculated that it could reduce implementation, and set up a project
database administration workload steering committee that included
considerably by moving from local members from SAP India and IBM India.
Microsoft SQL Server instances to a
centralized DB2 solution, since a single Efficient implementation
IT team at the main site will be able to The combined project team from
manage the entire environment. IBM Global Technology Services
and Gabriel India then installed the
“We also investigated what other new infrastructure at the company’s
Indian companies are doing in their main data center in Pune, set up the
SAP environments, and we found virtualization and connected the
that running SAP with DB2 on IBM storage. The initial implementation
3

4. was completed on schedule, and
IBM Global Technology Services will
continue to work with Gabriel India as “We are confident that
the solution is rolled out across the the IBM infrastructure
company’s plants. we have chosen
Key Solution Components
has been optimized
The full set-up included three IBM to deliver excellent
Industry
Power 520 servers, each with two performance for
Industrial products
quad-core 4.7 GHz IBM POWER6 our new SAP ERP
processors, that would run the SAP environment...
Applications
ERP, SAP NetWeaver Business We have had no
SAP® ERP 6.0, SAP Document
Warehouse and IBM DB2 environments. hardware or support
Management System, SAP
“The IBM Power servers provide problems in the
NetWeaver® Business Warehouse,
excellent performance, and the year since the initial
SAP BusinessObjects
virtualization capabilities are very implementation.”
impressive,” says Joseph.
Hardware Mr Edwin Joseph,
IBM® Power® 520 servers, IBM “By running the SAP applications and Head of IT, Gabriel India Ltd
System x3550 M2 servers with two databases in dynamic logical partitions
dual-core 1.86 GHz Intel Xeon
® ®
E5502 processors, IBM System
Storage® DS5020 disk storage and
IBM TS3100 tape library, CISCO 24-
port SAN switches
Software
IBM AIX®, IBM DB2®
Services
IBM Global Technology Services

5. development environments for an SAP
BusinessObjects solution.
“The IBM Power
servers provide “When we have been running the main
excellent SAP ERP environment for a year or
performance, and so, we expect SAP BusinessObjects
Business Benefits
the virtualization to become a very useful tool for
capabilities are analyzing current and historical
• Near 100 percent uptime for core
very impressive. By data and identifying trends,” says
business applications on the IBM
running the SAP Joseph. “As demand for business
Power 750 server
applications and intelligence increases, the flexibility
databases in dynamic and performance of the IBM System
• Reduced administration workload
logical partitions x servers will become more and more
that saves one full-time employee
[LPARs], we can valuable.”
equivalent
adjust the allocation.
of processing and From the storage perspective, the
• Saved around 50 percent of
memory resources in team implemented an IBM System
predicted capital expenditure
real time” Storage DS5020 disk system, and
thanks to virtualized servers for
a TS3100 tape library – providing
key SAP production and other
Mr Edwin Joseph, high-performance storage and
applications
Head of IT, Gabriel India Ltd offline backup capabilities for 6 TB
of business data. To improve I/O
• Increased user productivity through
throughput and boost performance
automated data backup across
[LPARs], we can adjust the allocation for users across India, the network
around 30 servers
of processing and memory resources was also upgraded with two 24-port
in real time. Within these boundaries, CISCO SAN switches, raising the total
• Savings of more than 60 percent of
the systems autonomously manage bandwidth to 8 Gbps.
tape capacity thanks to advanced
resources in sub-second dynamics,
data compression
which ensures that each server handles Enhancing performance
its aggregate workload with maximum “With a central data center, one of the
efficiency and optimal overall system key challenges is to be able to support
utilization.” users who are working at plants that
may be 1,500 km away,” says Joseph.
In addition, three IBM System
x3550 servers with Intel Xeon “Our tests have shown that this new
processors would run production and infrastructure delivers very good

6. IBM Deutschland GmbH
D-70548 Stuttgart
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existing HP and Microsoft SQL Server have had no hardware or support or both.
environment. problems in the year since the initial Other company, product or service names may be
trademarks, or service marks of others.
implementation, and our system This case study illustrates how one IBM customer
A platform for the future administrators are now able to handle uses IBM and/or IBM Business Partner
technologies/services. Many factors have
With the hardware in place, the day-to-day management of the AIX contributed to the results and benefits described.
IBM does not guarantee comparable results. All
Gabriel India began the SAP ERP and DB2 environments without external information contained herein was provided by the
featured customer and/or IBM Business Partner.
implementation. The new solution is support.” IBM does not attest to its accuracy. All customer
examples cited represent how some customers
already live at its plant in Pune, and will have used IBM products and the results they may
have achieved. Actual environmental costs and
be rolled out to the remaining plants
performance characteristics will vary depending
over the next six to nine months. During on individual customer configurations and
conditions.
this time, the company will also switch
This publication is for general guidance only.
its aftermarket business over from SAP Photographs may show design models.
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2011. All rights reserved.
Business One to SAP ERP.
“At the moment, we have purchased
licenses for 150 SAP users, but we
expect this number to increase,
especially if we open the new plants in © Copyright 2011 SAP AG
SAP AG
the north of the country,” says Joseph. Dietmar-Hopp-Allee 16
D-69190 Walldorf
“For this reason, we have sized the
SAP, the SAP logo, SAP and all other SAP products
hardware to support 300 users, which and services mentioned herein are trademarks or
registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and
will give us flexibility as the business several other countries.
grows over the next few years.”
He concludes: “We are confident that
the IBM infrastructure we have chosen
has been optimized to deliver excellent
performance for our new SAP ERP
environment. We are already noticing SPC03295-INEN-01 (September 2011)