Severn Trent Water is implementing a document and data archiving strategy as part of the roll-out of a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system from SAP AG, for more than 5,000 users.

The FTSE 100 water and sewerage company, which provides services to more than eight million households and businesses across the Midlands and mid Wales, is running a major business transformation programme to deliver the lowest charges and best services to its customers. The implementation of new SAP® based business processes is a key element.

The first phase was successfully completed in December 2009 and the company is now working on a 2nd phase, focused on improving its asset management processes and field workforce service. Macro 4 has been selected to help deliver the initiative using its Columbus archiving solution and will be working with Severn Trent Water to develop the strategy for data archiving to control the growth of the database that underpins the SAP applications.

“We want to follow best practice by having a plan in place right from the start to address how we archive static and historical data away from the live database,” explained Myron Hrycyk, Severn Trent Water CIO. “We know that managing the size of the database will help ensure the system performs at optimum levels and keep operational costs down.”

According to Macro 4, which is an SAP software solution partner, managing the volume of data within SAP applications can produce a number of benefits.

Tim Frazer from Macro 4 explained: “Many people tend to leave historical data such as older financial transaction information within the live system instead of migrating it to an archive. Over time, if you let this build up, it forces the SAP applications to work harder. It can lead to slower response times and higher running costs, plus much more data is kept on costly tier 1 storage than is necessary. Backups, restores and upgrades also take longer because there’s more data involved.”

Macro 4’s Columbus archiving software takes static and less frequently accessed data out of the live system and holds it within a separate archive server where it is securely stored in line with compliance requirements. Because it incorporates SAP-certified integration, end users can continue to access archived data through the SAP application itself, with similar response times.

Macro 4 was already a supplier to Severn Trent Water, having delivered a document management solution within the Customer Relations Division.

Severn Trent’s Graham Parkes, SAP program architect, said: “We were impressed with the depth of Macro 4’s specialist knowledge about the process of archiving data and documents from SAP applications. Having worked with Macro 4 before, we were also confident in their ability to deliver a complete solution to meet our individual needs, rather than just a piece of technology.”

Severn Trent Water’s SAP programme and supporting archiving programme will cover a range of SAP applications, including finance, HR, supply chain management, workforce management, asset management, projects and SAP CRM.

About Macro 4
Macro 4 is a global software company that helps organisations to improve the performance of their critical business applications. Macro 4’s solutions for application performance, document management and application availability are easy to use, fast to implement and deliver value quickly in even the most complex IT environments.

US and European subsidiaries and a network of international business partners represent the company in every major market worldwide.

Macro 4’s Document Management solutions capture, store, present and deliver business-critical documents electronically and physically in the most appropriate way to increase the efficiency of key processes, application decommissioning and customer service via the Internet or call centres.

Macro 4 is a part of the UNICOM Group of Companies.

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