A leading U.S. food-service distributor needed to react more quickly to changes in market and customer data stored in its ERP and CRM systems. The company was using third-party business intelligence software, but creating new analysis models required formal, time-consuming IT projects. To address this issue, the company deployed Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2. Business users can now perform custom data analysis using familiar Microsoft Excel tools, without the need for IT intervention. Custom analysis now takes hours instead of weeks or months. Faster and more flexible data analysis will help retain customers and obtain new business, and eliminating third-party BI software will save U.S.$75,000 a year. The company also expects to save $450,000 by using SQL Server 2008 R2 data and backup compression features and $250,000 by migrating its data warehouse from IBM DB2 to SQL Server 2008 R2.
Situation
A leading U.S. food-service distributor offers food products to restaurants, schools, hospitals, hotels, cruise lines, and government customers. With offices in multiple states, the company employs several thousand people.
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SQL Server 2008 R2 gives us the functionality we had hoped for but were never able to achieve by using third-party BI software. Eliminating that product will save us U.S.$75,000 in licensing costs each year.  |
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Database administrator at a food-service distributor |
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To remain competitive, the company must be able to price its products as accurately as possible, achieving sufficient profit margins while keeping costs to customers as low as possible. Accurate pricing requires accounting for factors such as weather-related crop damage, transportation costs from different suppliers, and fluctuations in retail prices in customers’ markets. “We sell food products, but it is really a data company,” says a senior database administrator at the company. “The most important part of our competitive advantage comes from being able to evaluate different suppliers, calculate how to get the best price, and consolidate shipments to reduce freight charges.”
Another important focus for the company is customer data. “When the economy dips, discretionary spending such as dining out is one of the first things people cut,” says the database administrator. “The more we know about how our customers are being affected, the more we can help by offering services, such as menu rebuilding, to reduce their costs.”
The company collected extensive supply, market, and customer data in its customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The company’s IT department used Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services to provide views of the data to business users, but this process was not as agile as the company wanted. If users’ needs changed—requiring new, custom analysis—the process of creating new views of the data would involve time-consuming support from the IT department. “Any time an analyst or other user wanted to look at data in a new way, it required a formal project plan, a budget, and a timeline that was anywhere from weeks to months,” says the database administrator. “And that time delay limited the usefulness of whatever analysis we ended up producing.”
The company tried to give its employees more flexibility by deploying third-party business intelligence (BI) software, but that solution was difficult to use and required extensive training. The company needed a self-service BI solution that would interoperate with the Microsoft products the company was already using. The new solution had to improve the company’s ability to react to data in near real time by giving users more control and reducing the IT department’s involvement in day-to-day data analysis.
Solution
In July 2009, the company began evaluating a beta version of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 data management software. “We were particularly interested in Microsoft SQL Server PowerPivot for Microsoft Excel,” says the database administrator. “It sounded like this technology would give our users a lot more flexibility, especially because so many of them were already heavy users of Microsoft Excel.”
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Policy-based management in SQL Server 2008 R2 will reduce our install time by more than 10 percent and make it easier to achieve a standardized environment. |
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Database administrator at a food-service distributor |
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In September 2009, the company began deploying a solution based on SQL Server 2008 R2. “We’re planning to make some additional changes, so the solution is still in a proof-of-concept phase and is limited to our headquarters,” says the database administrator. “But we’ve already seen that it meets all of our requirements.”
SQL Server PowerPivot for Excel integrates Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services with the company’s Microsoft Excel 2010 spreadsheet software. Now, the company’s financial, operations, and sales staff can use familiar Excel tools to build PowerPivot workbooks that perform custom analysis by assembling and relating data from the company’s ERP and CRM systems. Once the company completes a planned deployment of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 in June 2010, staff will also be able to use Microsoft SQL Server PowerPivot for Microsoft SharePoint. With PowerPivot for SharePoint, they can access other users’ workbooks in browser windows and take advantage of shared services and infrastructure to query and manage workbooks.
Company administrators are benefiting from policy-based management and data and backup compression in SQL Server 2008 R2. With policy-based management, the company can configure and manage all instances of SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 in its environment from a single location. Administrators can easily create highly detailed policies for security, database options, object-naming conventions, and other settings. Predefined policies are also available out of the box.
Compression capabilities in SQL Server 2008 R2 reduce the amount of space needed to store tables, indexes, and backup versions of databases. Data compression can be configured with the Data Compression Wizard to be applied to specific tables or indexes and does not require making changes to any applications that supply data to SQL Server 2008 R2. With backup compression in SQL Server 2008 R2, the company is able to compress database backups without having to compress the database itself. Once the deployment is complete, the company expects a data compression rate of 70–80 percent.
The company is so pleased with SQL Server 2008 R2 that it plans to use the software for data management throughout its IT environment. The company has already begun upgrading all instances of SQL Server 2008 and migrating its data warehouse from IBM DB2 software to SQL Server 2008 R2. “Not only will migrating our data warehouse save us about $250,000, but our users will be able to access their information with tools they love,” says a solutions architect for the company.
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The self-service business intelligence features in SQL Server 2008 R2,… will help us gain additional market share at a time when most companies in our industry are seeing their market shares shrink. |
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Database administrator at a food-service distributor |
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Benefits
SQL Server 2008 R2 will save the company time and money by replacing third-party technologies and simplifying administration. Users with more independence and flexibility will help the company price its products more accurately in response to changing market conditions, helping the company gain market share.
Saves U.S$75,000 a Year in Licensing Costs
Because SQL Server 2008 R2 gives the company the self-service business intelligence capabilities it had previously sought through a third-party product, the IT department can eliminate that product, saving money and simplifying its environment. “SQL Server 2008 R2 gives us the functionality we had hoped for but were never able to achieve by using third-party BI software,” says the database administrator. “Eliminating that product will save us $75,000 in licensing costs each year.”
Reduces Time for Custom Analysis from Weeks to Hours
Because the new solution helps business users analyze data with familiar tools, they can achieve results more quickly. “Before the new solution, producing a custom analysis of market or customer data would have required a formal IT project that could have lasted weeks or even months,” says the database administrator. “Now, with SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server PowerPivot for Excel, users can pull down whatever information they need in no more than a couple of hours.” And because most company users are already familiar with Excel, there is very little training involved. “With SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server PowerPivot for Excel, our business users can interact with data immediately using knowledge they already have.”
One example from the many scenarios the company is now testing is one in which analysts can use PowerPivot for Excel to combine sales data from the company’s data warehouse with sales forecasts stored in Excel. “Thanks to SQL Server 2008 R2, users can now see information on performance against the budget in real time,” says the solutions architect for the company. “Across all of our branch offices, that will save us more than 80 hours each week—and this is just one of the many similar opportunities for timesavings that this solution makes available to us.”
Another benefit of the increased ease of access to vital data is a more positive relationship between the IT department and the rest of the company. The solutions architect says, “On the IT side, it feels fantastic to provide our users with so much power, flexibility, and independence, instead of having to act as a gatekeeper that is always saying ‘no’ or ‘we will need a project request for that.’”
Simplifies IT Environment
In addition to cost and time savings, eliminating the third-party product will ease management of the IT environment. “Whenever we look at bringing something new into our environment, we always want it to replace something we are already using, instead of adding yet another process and layer of complexity,” says the database administrator. “One big plus of SQL Server 2008 R2 is that it consolidates so many capabilities into one package.”
Saves IT Time and Data Compression Costs
With policy-based management in SQL Server 2008 R2, administrators will save time configuring new instances of SQL Server. “Our environment is growing very quickly, so we put up a new server at least every two weeks and often more frequently than that,” says the database administrator. “Policy-based management in SQL Server 2008 R2 will reduce our install time by more than 10 percent and make it easier to achieve a standardized environment.”
The company also benefits from the data and backup compression capabilities in SQL Server 2008 R2. “Without SQL Server 2008 R2 data compression, we would have had to use a third-party product that would cost us about $3,000 for each of our 150 instances of SQL Server,” says the database administrator. “That will save us $450,000 in the long term. We’ll upgrade the first 25 servers this year, so SQL Server 2008 R2 backup compression will save us about $75,000 right away. That’s money we can spend on further expanding our users’ abilities to form the strongest possible relationships with our customers.”
Improves Competitive Advantage
By giving users fast, flexible access to business data, the solution will help the company retain existing customers. “The more costs we can reduce for our customers, the more customers we can keep, instead of losing them to competitors,” says the database administrator. “With the self-service business intelligence features in SQL Server 2008 R2, we will be able to price our products more accurately in response to changes in market conditions and customer behavior. We think that will help us gain additional market share at a time when most companies in our industry are seeing their market shares shrink.”
By keeping its prices as low as possible, the company expects to increase its market penetration. “If we can consistently provide customers with more value than the other suppliers they are using, we have a better chance of becoming their sole-source vendor,” says the database administrator.
“Because SQL Server 2008 R2 helps us unlock so much value that used to be hidden in our data,” the database administrator continues, “it is already of critical strategic importance to this company.”
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 delivers higher scalability for mission-critical environments, more efficient IT, and expanded reporting and analytics through self-service business intelligence.
For more information about Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, go to:
www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/R2-editions.aspx
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
