Optimising Coop’s SAP landscape with Data Sync Manager

The challenge: a complex three-tier SAP system

Coop Denmark A/S approached EPI-USE Labs with challenges related to refreshing their three-tier SAP System, which consisted of three different systems; SAP Retail, SAP BW/4, and ECC/HR.

These environments had limited capacity on the HANA servers, while the Production database contained an enormous amount of data. Reducing data in large SAP HANA databases was a meticulous process that demanded significant time and effort to ensure data consistency. On average, system upgrades were required every three months.

Coop sought a fast and agile solution that would aid them in minimizing the footprint of their HANA space, and realised that EPI-USE Labs’ Data Sync Manager™ (DSM) Suite was the ideal solution.

Software solutions to refresh, copy, transfer and report on data

Coop used the various components of the DSM Suite (Client Sync, Object Sync and Data Secure), along with EPI-USE Labs’ Query Manager, to address their challenges.

• Client Sync was used by the SAP Basis team to refresh data across different systems, ensuring that the Development and Quality environments were up-to-date and consistent.
• Object Sync was used by both the SAP Retail COE and the SAP Test team COE, both for select data copies and batch data copies, enabling them to transfer large volumes of data between environments for testing purposes.
• Data Secure helped the SAP Retail COE, the SAP Test team COE and the SAP ECC COE with data masking, making sure that  sensitive data was protected, and compliance with data privacy regulations.
• Query Manager was used by the SAP ECC COE team for their HR Reporting needs, allowing them to generate custom reports and insights from their ECC system.

The EPI-USE Labs software played a vital role in enhancing the Coop’s overall operational efficiency and ensuring data security and integrity throughout their systems.

Enhanced business efficiency for Coop

The use of Data Sync Manager and associated EPI-USE Labs’ services has brought significant benefits to Coop, including customized data scrambling, improved data privacy and compliance, enhanced business efficiency, new team habits, and more.

By receiving implementation and maintenance support, Coop was able to address variations in standard SAP solutions. EPI-USE Labs leveraged best practices and previous experiences to ensure a smooth and optimized implementation process.

In addition, the development of specific and customized data coding for Article Price and Price Condition data objects improved privacy and masking of personal information.

Although standard masking options were available, EPI-USE Labs provided additional value by customizing the data encoding approach to Coop's unique requirements, resulting in the development of a Coop-specific algorithm.

About Coop Denmark A/S

Coop Denmark A/S (Coop) is one of Denmark’s leading consumer goods retailers. The company was founded in 1866 with the belief that consumers who belong to a community could have access to superior and more affordable goods.

A cooperative owned by 2 million members, Coop operates the retail chains Kvickly, SuperBrugsen, Brugsen, 365discount and Coop.dk.

Together with their subsidiaries, Coop has an annual turnover of approximately DKK 50 billion, and 40,000 employees in total.