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Industry: MSPs
Location: Sweden
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Implema helps SMBs maximize efficiencies and improves decision-making with SUSE

Highlights

  • Successfully migrated ten customers to SAP HANA in time and within budget.
  • Optimized solution for SAP software ensures reliability and performance without manual tuning.
  • Enables more cost-efficient operations of SAP applications than other Linux distributions.

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Implema is a leading SAP consulting and hosting company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Employing 100 people across 10 offices, the company focuses on SMBs. Implema manages consulting and implementation projects, and also provides operations services certified by SAP for SAP HANA and other SAP applications.

At-a-Glance

To compete effectively in a tough global economy, keeping costs under control is vital — especially for small and midsized businesses (SMBs). To help its SMB customers identify opportunities to improve efficiency and make better-informed decisions, consulting and hosting service provider, Implema, wanted to offer SAP HANA at a cost-effective price point. By selecting SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for SAP Applications as its platform for SAP HANA, Implema is now delivering exactly that.

The Challenge

As the aftershocks of the global financial slowdown continue to reverberate across Europe, SMBs are especially vulnerable to pressure on revenues. To protect against a volatile economy, control over costs is essential, but identifying opportunities to improve cost-efficiency can be a challenge.

Implema wanted to help its clients on their analytics journeys, and realized that in-memory analytics with SAP HANA would deliver the all-important capabilities. To realize its goal, Implema needed a future-proof, reliable and cost-efficient solution for SAP HANA.

Peter Wiotti, Head of Business Area Basis & Hosting at Implema comments: “There is growing interest in the in-memory platform SAP HANA and companies are beginning to look at the next-generation business suite S/4HANA. To strengthen our market position, we must satisfy evolving client demands at a competitive price.

“We also wanted to win new clients and grow our business. Many small companies don’t have the knowledge and resources to operate SAP HANA themselves. To tap further into that segment and convince new clients to work with us, it was essential to build up SAP HANA competency quickly and launch a bespoke hosting service.”

“SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications allows us to provide our clients a smooth path to the latest features and the next-generation business suite SAP S/4HANA.”

SUSE Solution

Implema looked for a reliable, easy-to-manage platform for SAP HANA and selected SLES for SAP Applications. Peter Wiotti explains: “A proven, low-maintenance operating system optimized for SAP software was exactly what we needed. We decided to make SLES for SAP Applications our strategic platform for SAP HANA.”

Today, Implema runs more than 30 SAP HANA instances on SLES for SAP Applications using VMware vSphere virtualization, hosted on HPE servers and storage solutions.

Implema is currently deploying SUSE Manager. Peter Wiotti elaborates: “As the number of SAP HANA instances we run on SLES for SAP Applications is growing quickly, we want to refine our operations and increase staff productivity with SUSE Manager. Automating updates and patching will help keep service quality at the highest level without requiring system administrators to spend more time on basic tasks. This is crucial to enable sustainable business growth.”

The Results

Implema benefits from an easy-to-use platform that combines the proven stability of SLES with specific optimizations for SAP software. Peter Wiotti confirms: “We did not have much experience with Linux prior to launching our SAP HANA offering. SLES for SAP Applications helped us getting started rapidly. The close collaboration between SAP and SUSE ensures client applications run quickly and reliably without manual tuning.”

The SUSE solution comes complete with priority support and a separate update channel. Patches get tested by SAP and SUSE, increasing stability and continuously improving performance.

Implema has successfully migrated ten customers to SAP HANA on time and within budget, and without any issues. When new clients sign up with Implema, they gain access to the SAP HANA platform by default.

Peter Wiotti adds: “We are very satisfied with SLES for SAP Applications, and we’re confident that we made the right choice. The operating system is extremely stable and the administration requirements are low, enabling us to operate our services cost-effectively.”

Implema client Patrik Bergström, Manager IT Operations at AVARN Security, says: “Running SAP HANA ourselves was not an option—we do not have the Linux skills in house to take on such a complex platform. We talked to SUSE and Implema and got a very positive impression of their competency and collaboration. After half a year, we’ve had no issues; working with Implema was definitely the ideal decision for us.”

Peter Wiotti concludes: “We are very pleased with what we have achieved, and we’re already looking to the future. For example, we are considering migrating other SAP applications from Microsoft Windows to the SUSE platform to reduce operating costs. To boost availability further and minimize the need for disruptive maintenance windows, we also plan to deploy SUSE Linux Enterprise Live Patching.

“Without a doubt, SLES for SAP Applications allows us to provide our clients with a smooth path to the latest features and the next-generation business suite SAP S/4HANA.”