Data Sync Manager gets the vote from the Electoral Commission of South Africa

What system challenges does the IEC face?

The Electoral Commission (IEC) refreshes data on its non-production SAP environments from time to time in order to facilitate accurate testing of development changes, support pack upgrades and training. The refresh involves a number of time-consuming manual steps which need to be executed accurately. Most importantly, any refresh to a non-production environment requires production system downtime.

Aside from downtime and effort, the other drawbacks are:

• Excessive demands on system resources; the entire system is refreshed even if only one month’s data is required.
• There is no mechanism to copy a single object (e.g. an employee to replicate problem scenarios accurately)
• No data scrambling takes place in any of the SAP training, quality or sandbox environments, which carries an audit and compliance risk.
• Performing a fresh installation (e.g. for a new training system) is a long and complicated process.

Why the IEC chose Data Sync Manager

What was needed was a solution that could handle frequent SAP data refreshes and master the above-mentioned difficulties. The IEC embarked on a thorough investigation to evaluate candidate SAP data-copy solutions on the market. Comprehensive specifications were drawn up and bids invited on the IEC’s eProcurement system. The outcome was that Data Sync Manager complied fully with the IEC’s particular business, technical and functional requirements.

Data Sync Manager meets the IEC’s requirements

Reduce footprint of non-production SAP environments

DSM will copy subsets of Production data, slicing by time or company code or both. Typically, the DEV system uses a smaller slice of data than the QA system.

Reduce downtime during client refreshes

DSM requires no downtime, so the system remains available during the entire refresh process.

Provide up-to-date data for testing in Development and Quality Assurance

DSM can copy the most recent data, or the very oldest historical data – the choice is yours.

Protect sensitive data in Development, Quality Assurance and Training systems

A sophisticated masking engine protects sensitive data whilst ensuring that it remains usable for testing. Scramble either during or after the copy.

Create reusable data for the Training system

Clone a representative piece of data (e.g. an employee) so that each trainee works on the same data. If the data becomes unstable after a training day, import the same template to reset the data, ready for the next training session.

Shorten the end-to-end refresh time

DSM’s slicing, high-speed performance, and automatic post-processing shorten the refresh cycle dramatically and reduce risk.

Allow functional teams to copy their own data for testing

Functional users (including test teams and business end-users) can select and copy their own data as and when required, without bothering the basis team.

Reduce demand on the Basis team

With the simpler, automatic and shorter refresh process, basis resources can focus on core tasks. DSM will even notify them of progress on a Sync, no “babysitting” needed.

Avoid additional hardware, but maintain system security

DSM is an add-on that is installed by SAP transport. It requires no additional hardware and it resides on the SAP system itself in its own namespace. No additional ports or system accesses are required.

Provide audit reports indicating who copied what and when

The DSM Monitor Desk tracks full details of what was selected and copied, including what scrambling was applied. There are also audit reports that can be run periodically or on demand.

Allow a partial copy that refreshes only SAP HCM data

DSM Client Sync has an HCM-only profile, which allows HCM data to be brought into an existing client without affecting data in the other modules.

About the IEC

The IEC is responsible for managing all the electoral processes in South Africa relating to the National Assembly, the provincial legislatures and the municipal councils countrywide. Its mandate is far-reaching and includes voter registration, ensuring a smooth voting process and managing the logistics of elections. Although publicly funded and accountable to parliament, the IEC is independent of the government.