Refreshing SAP test data at Rémy Cointreau

Hi Eric, thanks for joining us today for this interview. You're going to tell us about your data reduction project to meet your testing needs at Rémy Cointreau. Can you tell us about your role at Rémy Cointreau? Hello Salome! I am a Systems Architect in IT. This means I search, select, scope and manage the implementation of all IT solutions that are 100% SAP or from third parties, as part of the applications landscape at Rémy-Cointreau. Now, the DSM solution was implemented several years ago in your systems. Can you give us details of the scope and the initial need in terms of implementation time? So, yes, we initially chose DSM (Data Sync Manager) to allow us to manage and refresh our five SAP systems that we had at the time more easily. There were two ERP, two BW, and an APO system and, roughly speaking, the objective was to find a way to reduce the duration of refreshes, obviously of our Quality, and, at the same time, to also reduce the volume to be copied into the target systems. The implementation of the product for the five SAP systems was done in a few months. Now the suite is operational in your systems what are the advantages of DSM, in terms of process, time, volumes? Previously, when we refreshed these five systems we called this the systems copy. For a systems copy, it took us one non-working day, plus five working days with at least two people working full-time to do this work. Manual, slow, and very laborious. Once we started using DSM, it took only half a day to do the exports, and all exports were planned and automated. All you had to do was watch them. And in roughly two working days. The whole process was simplified a lot for us because there are many operations that disappeared. This is due to the fact that DSM is transferring only the data, and therefore the entire base no longer needs to be recreated, like you do with a copy system. So, there's a real time saving? Absolutely! How did the implementation go? Actually, we, took advantage of the project to redesign our development environments. The five systems that you've mentioned, but actually, at some point we needed to reset our development environments. In order to do so, we used the two modules, Client Sync and System Builder. System Builder to reinstall the empty systems, and Client Sync to put data back, allowing us to completely recreate our new development environment. And it's this technique here which allowed us to model, to set up and to validate the proper functioning of DSM for all Rémy Cointreau systems. What about collaboration? How did it go? You had outside contractors, as well. How did end-users cope with this change? At Rémy Cointreau the SAP systems are administered by a partner called Oxya, who provides consultancy on SAP systems. And as part of the arrival of DSM, they're the ones who have been entrusted with all change management and refreshes with DSM, in just the same way we did before with system copies. And I have to say that both the involvement of EPI-USE Labs, and the simplicity and accessibility of the tool, ensured that it went really well. They very quickly adopted the tool. DSM has gained the loyalty of both stakeholders and operators. Simply, through its ease of use and the simplicity of implementation. And it's a tool where you don't need to be very technical. The feedback was very good from the teams; they're using it repeatedly. Now, the focus is on all operations of this type with these tools. And the teams are asking if they can use it; it's better. And also following the implementation, you had a project of business spin-offs. Isn't that right? Yes! Can you tell us more? Absolutely, we work with subsidiaries. We have several companies within our ERP and, as part of splitting off one of the subsidiaries, the departing company asked us to return an SAP environment with only their data. And clearly, with SAP standard tools it's not that it can't be done It turns potentially into a laborious and long process. And so all we needed to do was to just use System Builder to make an empty envelope. We used Client Sync to extract company data only. It was targeted, and we adjusted it to fill the empty system shell. And, I have to say that in the space a few days, plus a dry run, we were able to deliver an SAP system that contained only data from the target company. We made a backup; we passed it on to them. They installed an SAP system from our backup, and they were able to start right away, with only their data operational. There was also an S/4 project. It's a separate project? Yeah, that's right. It's a project that is still active today. It started in 2018 and we're into the second phase. There's been a batch which started in April 2020. The second batch begins in April 2021. But the most important thing is that we used DSM again. And System Builder to create all our empty system shells; and Client Sync to put data in. Why did we use these tools again? It's because we took advantage of this S/4 project to change data centres for our architecture. So, we started out with a data centre hosted in a private cloud. But moved to public cloud. As a result, it was necessary to recreate the whole environment from scratch (development, quality, etc). Also production. And we used System Builder and Client Sync from DSM for resetting every single one of these environments. But not for production. As we wanted SAP to certify the production installation. With the next refresh in the coming months? Yes, the refresh cycle we have at Remy-Cointreau, is between one and two a year. At first, some of our team wanted to do a lot more, but they quickly realised that it concerns people. Because still, when you refresh the data, we lose the trial runs. It's classic. So, if we lose the test data and people have work in progress, it's still hard to plan a refresh among the multitude of projects we have. But, nevertheless, we're always carrying out one or two refreshes per year and I have one that needs to be planned for the month of May or June of this year. And this time, on the scope of the three systems: S/4, BW and APO. But this time, systems have been reinstalled in the cloud. Okay, so, what are the big SAP projects? What we are doing is, that we're finishing a very big project since it involves going from an ECC to S/4 and, at the same time, relocating the infrastructure of a Private cloud to Public cloud. We'll finish in April, two pretty eventful years, but it works. So, this part here is very big, but will allow us to breathe a little in the years to come. The current focus on our systems, it's more about distribution, and more decentralised, with notions of deployment with our subsidiaries. R�my-Cointreau maximises its direct customer relationship. And also, for example, we're replacing the APO on-premise with an IBP SAP solution; and all communicating together. Alright, thank you very much for all this information and, to finish on a positive note. Most of the people who listen to us today are looking for advice from the SAP user community. When they are looking for solutions, like this one, do you have any advice to give them? I guess a lot of people who have started or have initiated research on tools, perhaps, not just refresh tools but also a lot of technical tools around SAP. The SAP instance refresh tools 100%, independent of the technical bases, This is what brings flexibility and not depending on Unix or another operating system. This is the case with DSM. There are not many of these types of tools on the market. At least that's what I found out when we started looking for one. And then, what really guided our search is the operational aspect of the tool, user satisfaction, and the ease and iterative nature in its use. In a number of interviews I held with users of other products, I got a distinct feeling that a number had experienced real implementation difficulties and in using the tools on a day-to-day basis. Unlike feedback I've had on DSM in my interviews I could sense that it was turning out well. It was implemented easily, quickly, and then it was used on a day-to-day basis. Practically, with my eyes closed. These are tools that are supposed to bring efficiency, time saving and which should not cause problems when you use them. Usually, the timing is quite tight. We mustn't waste time, so more operational, easier to use, more iterative and how often you use it. It has been proven, no questions need to be asked and that's what drove me a few years ago until now. That's what led me to choose DSM Precisely, based on these criteria. So, to recap, speed and ease of use. Alright! That's great, we're thrilled that the solution meets your needs. It's always a pleasure to receive this kind of feedback. Also, for our technical teams. Thank you very much, Eric, for sharing with us today! It's a pleasure! If you have questions, don't hesitate to contact our team. We will be happy to answer! Thank you! Thank you! Goodbye!