JEDDAH, 29 April — On April 17 during COMDEX Saudi Arabia, Microsoft Arabia presented a special award to Saudi Iron & Steel Company (Hadeed) in recognition of their efforts in implementing technology for the advancement of their industry.
After presenting the award to Hadeed’s General Manager Muhammad Al-Jabr, Muhammad Kateeb, general manager, Microsoft Arabia, stated: “We have great technology and we enjoy seeing people reaping the ultimate benefits of its use.”
Speaking with Hadeed’s team during the press conference before the event it immediately became apparent that Hadeed had much to be proud of in the implementation of the new network environment. Hadeed’s management made the decision to dramatically change the company’s network architecture based on recommendations from its own IT Department, relying only minimally on outside consultants. This demonstrates a new maturity in the vision of decision-makers to put trust in their own internal experts. By bringing in a technology that would enable the Saudization process, Hadeed showed a commitment to the Kingdom’s youth and to the strengthening of the company’s network security. As one of the Kingdom’s strategic industries, Hadeed’s actions will surely set an example for other Saudi firms to emulate.
Hadeed is the leading iron and steel manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia. It is one of the 16 core industrial companies belonging to Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC). Located in Jubail Industrial City amidst numerous state-of-the-art operations, Hadeed still stands out as a pioneer in the use of both industrial and information technologies.
At the beginning of the 1990s, the management of Hadeed in Jubail made a strategic decision to renew their IT architecture with the goal of creating an IT environment that would serve the company’s needs into the new millennium. After a comprehensive study, SAP R/3 was selected on a Unix/Oracle platform as an ERP solution. Hadeed successfully implemented all modules (FI, MM, SD, PM, PS, CO, HR, PS and PP) for 1,400 users.
Even though the platform that was set up was the best available at the time, it was a heterogeneous environment that had its shortcomings in administration and integration. Therefore, Fayez A. Al-Saif, IT manager of Hadeed’s Information Technology Department, began to investigate the possibilities of standardizing the company’s IT environment based on Microsoft’s Windows Technology, with the vision of transforming Hadeed into a paperless organization.
“Remaining competitive in a global marketplace meant that we were depending heavily on our IT resources,” explained Al-Saif. “With the rapid changes in technology, we strive to be leaders in IT by constantly looking at the best for Hadeed. We had been operating on a Unix/Oracle platform but increasingly we realized its shortcomings like high cost, difficulty in administration and integration with other systems. When Microsoft began focusing on the corporate environment we were more than ready to investigate what they could offer.”
“Strategically, Hadeed maintains and develops a high level of technical IT staff to meet project requirements. That has always been the primary factor along with project management in keeping our IT department in the lead. We had to utilize our technical team in implementing our integrated, scalable and efficient IT environment,” said Ahmad Shaaban, Hadeed’s Chief of Application Consultancy Services and SAP R/3 Project Manager, Information Technology Department. “Managing the availability of technical resources within the departments was another challenge to ensure the continuity of projects. This was always under discussion and we felt that we had to find a way to solve the human resources issue which had plagued us in the IT department for years.”
Al-Saif continued, “Hadeed IT was efficiently implementing projects at a lower cost but lack of Unix/Oracle expertise in the local market was always a concern in establishing continuous system stability. That kept us in a constant state of uncertainty. The bottom line was that the creation of a long-term plan for human resources utilization was being held hostage by our technology.”
“We believe that Microsoft provides resources to facilitate businesses in their Windows based implementation,” added Al-Saif. “There are many Microsoft certified training facilities being established throughout the Kingdom. A strong pool of potential hires in the local market would help Hadeed keep human resources costs in line and give us peace of mind.”
A SAP Basis consultant from RealTech AG was brought in to work with Project Management on the initial study of the migration. After a comprehensive assessment was completed, a decision was made to move forward with the project and layout a detail of the project plan. Hadeed would manage the project themselves, bringing in the SAP consultant only for short periods to certify the operation. Another plus was that the proposed migration would cover Hadeed’s requirements without further expenditure for at least three years.
So a team was formed within Hadeed to investigate all aspects of the SAP modules migration. Project Management compared the actual cost of the hardware and quickly discovered that by switching from Unix to Windows they would immediately reduce costs. For example, to achieve the desired upgrade a database server and three Unix application servers would be required. Similar Windows-based servers in a clustered architecture would cost half as much. In addition, the issue of maintenance was looked at and it was found that Unix servers cost around three times that of Windows-based servers. The payback for this project would be around 18 months.
To obtain the approval necessary for migrating Hadeed’s IT operations to using a Windows 2000/SQL platform, Al-Saif had to convince higher management that a homogeneous environment would offer excellent functionality at a lower cost of ownership.
“Performance, dynamic memory allocation, self tuning and manageability are the major features of SQL server 7.0 which makes it quite easy to manage with cost effectiveness,” said Shaaban. “Integration of SQL with a Windows Platform would enable us to integrate the existing exchange workflow applications with SAP R/3.”
With Hadeed depending on SAP throughout the company, all departments were concerned about the 24 X 7 X 365 system availability. Al-Saif and his team found that they would be able to incorporate enough redundancy into the set up to provide maximum up time. To assure adequate coverage for disaster recovery, clusters would be located in two different locations. Given the go ahead from higher management, Hadeed’s IT Department examined every process within the corporate integrated systems. “We couldn’t afford to risk the live system,” emphasized Al-Saif. “The actual migration of SAP R/3 would be irreversible. A very detailed and precise plan was developed to cover other interfaced and integrated systems, in-house developed systems, teams and user test script and fall-back procedures.”
“The final hurdle was a simulated migration of the live productive system. The test ran incredibly smooth. The further along we got the more exciting it was. We had a simulation test of the monthly HR/Payroll for 4,000 employees to compare it against the existing system. The job was completed in 30 minutes using SAP/SQL compared to four hours on Unix/Oracle. We were surprised but very pleased and it confirmed that moving to a Microsoft platform was the right choice for Hadeed,” said Shaaban.
The success of the trial migration was met with enthusiasm within the company. The only question left in anyone’s mind was how quickly the actual migration could take place. Scheduled for March 2001, Hadeed’s IT Department worked hard to finalize configurations, accelerate training, plan required down time and ensure that the recovery plan was in place. They also took a close look at the short and long-term integration of the migrated system with overall global systems and future technology.
“We found that using Windows 2000/SQL makes our system very easy to manage and will bring our costs under control,” said Shaaban. “Hadeed’s existing staff are very familiar with Microsoft Windows 2000/SQL, so this is a big plus. The integration of Hadeed’s various applications based on Microsoft Windows such as Intranet Applications, Fax Server and Imaging System with SAP modules has been a great success. For example, employee monthly payroll details are now all Intranet-based, integrated with SAP, and this has completely eliminated all the logistics activities associated with a paper-based process.”
The SAP implementation at Hadeed is integrated with other systems and it interfaces with production, bar coding and other systems. Migration of such an integrated productive system made the project management task complex and required very detailed and precise planning to ensure minimum disruption to production and to meet the approved downtime. The migration at Hadeed was very well planned and smoothly performed. The entire migration process was completed in 40 hours.
“Of course we are very pleased with our system infrastructure in a homogeneous environment,” said Al-Saif. “At Hadeed we have always felt that clear vision leads to achievement. We were the first to attempt such an integration in the Middle East, just like previously being the first company to implement SAP in the area. But as other organizations become aware of our success I am certain that many will follow. I am confident that our strong IT foundation coupled with management support will enable us to continue to utilize a new generation of technologies to help further Hadeed’s business objectives. Looking at the long term we believe that Microsoft offers the best platform for Hadeed’s future requirements. It is important that we have full interfacing for SAP with excellent support. We receive that from Microsoft.”
SAP Clustered Servers Configuration (Database server): The cluster configuration consists of two systems connected as SAPSRV1 and SAPSRV2, and SAN storage. Both systems have the same hardware configuration.
SAPSRV1 configuration:
* Compaq Proliant 8500
* Eight Processors, Intel Pentium III
Xeon, 700 MHz.
* Operating system: Windows 2000
Advanced server with SP1
* Memory 4 GB
* Two 9 GB local hard drives mirrored
* Compaq NC3131 Fast Ethernet NIC
(Dual Port)
* Host bus Adapter connected to switch A
* Host bus Adapter connected to switch B
* Compaq NC6134 Gigabit NIC
Storage configuration:
* RAID 5 implementation with 13 x
18.2 GB Hard drives
* 5 spare drives
SAP Application Servers
Configuration: (three numbers)
* Compaq Proliant 8500
* Four Processors, Intel Pentium III
Xeon, 700 MHz
* Operating system: Windows 2000
Advanced server with SP1
* Memory 3 GB
* Three 9 GB Hard drives, two mirrored
with two partitions 4 GB and 5 GB.
* Two Compaq NC3131 Fast Ethernet
Cards
