Customer Case Study
Unilever
10/26/2006
Unilever Gains Lower TCO Supporting SAP with SQL Server 2005 and Windows Server
Unilever, the global consumer products giant that sells some 400 brands in 100 countries, generating 2005 revenue of U.S.$50.6 billion, needed to upgrade its SAP R\3 supply chain infrastructure that was hosted on an Oracle\UNIX solution. Seeking a lower total cost of ownership (TCO), Unilever tested Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005 Enterprise Edition (64-bit) using 1.5 terabytes of data and double the transaction loads of its U.S. operations. The company was so impressed by the results that it is deploying Microsoft SQL Server 2005 running on the Microsoft Windows Server® 2003 Enterprise Edition for Itanium-based Systems operating system, hosted on an HP Superdome computer to deploy mySAP 2004 to support its North American operations. Unilever expects a 15-percent reduction in TCO, and the scalability, agility, and reliability its operations require.
Industry: Consumer Goods Manufacturing
Size: Large, 76000 employees
Country: UK  UK

Video
Unilever
Customer Profile
http://www.unilever.com/
Unilever, based in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, is a global consumer products company with more than 400 brands, generating some U.S.$50 billion a year in sales from operations in 100 countries.
Business Situation
Unilever wanted to move its SAP supply chain management database to a platform that would provide a better total cost of ownership than its existing UNIX-based solution. The company also required scalability and high reliability.
Solution
Unilever is deploying its mySAP supply chain database for North America on Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005 Enterprise Edition (64-bit) running on the Microsoft Windows Server® 2003 Enterprise Edition for Itanium-based Systems operating system hosted on an HP Superdome.
Benefit
  • Unilever has achieved a lower total cost of ownership, high scalability and agility, and enterprise-grade reliability.
Software
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise x64 Edition
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition
Quote
"We did a full proof of concept and were able to scale it to twice the size of our business today, while still running through our most complicated quarter-end and month-end closes with this environment."
Dan Gizzo
Vice President of Infrastructure Services for North America
Unilever