Case study

Leading Chinese retailer goes live with SAP system fully tested by HPHP LoadRunner software validates the performance before ERP went live and during execution period

IndustryRetail

ObjectiveTo use a performance testing tool during the implementation process and also to execute comprehensive system performance validation for some of the necessary stages before putting the GOME ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system on-line. To ensure that the new ERP system is able to meet the business needs of GOME, reducing costs and risks so as to increase its competitiveness

ApproachHP LoadRunner has long enjoyed a good reputation and share of the software testing market, and it can adapt to different systems, environments and infrastructure. Since GOME IT platform is a multi-environment system, and has heterogeneous hardware, HP LoadRunner’s adaptability, performance, ease of use, and level of customization are all in line with the needs of GOME. At the same time, GOME has many years of cooperation with HP in terms of maintenance, hardware, and other aspects, so GOME has a good understanding of HP’s ability and service levels. This was one of the important reasons that GOME selected HP

IT matters • Delivered a scientific, reliable and accurate basis

for system resource planning

• Measured the quality and performance of GOME ERP system to improve performance and reduce on-line system risks

Business matters• Reduced business losses by cutting the risk of

SAP failure

• Improved operation efficiency with a system that can meet rapidly changing business demands

• Ensured that SAP can cope with the maximum usage GOME requires

“For a long time, HP has been providing comprehensive programs, and from the perspectives of software, hardware, and services, they have been able to help us to fully consider our IT requirements, bringing about the true integration of information and technology. We are extremely satisfied with HP LoadRunner. We required highly customized software and HP provided this as well as giving us excellent technical training and implementation support.” – Lv Yifan, Chief Information Officer, GOME

To improve customer satisfaction rates and profitabilityGOME was established in 1987 and is now China's largest home appliance and consumer electronics retail chain. It has more than 1,700 directly managed stores across China, with an annual sales turnover of more than one hundred billion Chinese Yuan. In 2010, GOME started a new five year project to raise customer satisfaction rates and enhance profitability.

Case study | Retail

Challenge

Professional testing of new applicationsGOME has 300,000 employees, and is one of the top 500 Chinese enterprises and its growth relies heavily on effective IT. Its IT department must ensure rapid delivery of new applications for business. In common with all enterprises, quality assurance is important and there is a strong focus on the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system which forms the backbone of the business. When an ERP system is delivered to users by a vendor enterprise, the CIO's are no longer satisfied with the software developer's own internal testing. They also require targeted system testing to be carried out in accordance with the actual scenarios in their own company. As a result, they have begun to set up their own professional testing teams to run these tests.

SAP upgrade for 1,700 storesGOME previously used an ERP system situated in over 50 data centers located across the country. Using a decentralized system created many challenges, including different ERP versions, infrastructure maintenance, computer room construction, personnel maintenance, and maintain response times. As a result, GOME decided to replace its old ERP system with SAP system. This would integrate Point Of Sale charges, delivery and other peripheral systems for its more than 1,700 stores nationwide.

As the ERP system transfer process was effectively a transfer of the company’s entire backbone, GOME also needed to do a great deal of application software function verification and system hardware performance validation.

It needed to find a testing tool to execute system performance validation during the implementation and for some necessary stages prior putting the ERP system on-line. The new ERP system would be vital to the company’s fortunes. It must reduce risk, help GOME improve its management level, and further strengthen competitiveness.

After careful comparison, and by virtue of its good reputation in the industry, powerful features, multi-scenario adaptability and specialist service team, GOME IT department selected the HP LoadRunner performance testing solution. HP technical service experts recommended that GOME use HP LoadRunner performance testing programs. Performance testing was run on GOME's ERP system. It fully verified its SAP ERP system application software and system hardware, providing full assurance that the system was able to cope.

Effective performance testingHP LoadRunner software is the industry standard for performance validation, detecting bottlenecks before a system deployment or upgrade. The system is able to cope with the massive business volumes, and has the ability to withstand more than 5,000 concurrent client queries. This is the most important issue GOME needed to verify in its new ERP system. By simulating a large number of concurrent users, HP LoadRunner was able to produce business pressures on the ERP system, monitor and obtain system performance parameters, and allow performance testing.

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Case study | Retail

Solution

HP LoadRunner performance testing HP LoadRunner performance testing solutions not only helped GOME build new system performance testing tools, but also enhanced the security of the ERP system, reducing the cost and risk of the system. This resulted in an overall improvement of GOME's level of management and operational capabilities, and further strengthened competitiveness. The performance of the GOME ERP system was measured using dummy scenarios allowing issues to be resolved in advance. This means that when the system goes live there will be no loss, but will improve the performance, reduce risks, and guarantee GOME's investment.

Simple performance tests require a lot of preparation; a large amount of data needs to be prepared before testing, and the environment also needs to be restored, which requires an investment of a great deal of manpower and resources. HP LoadRunner performance testing tool is customized for a variety of scenarios, allowing easy verification of system performance and architecture. To give an example, the SAP ERP system is able to handle 30-500,000 single orders per hour. Through technical research and development, GOME has transmission capacity of 1.2 million orders per hour, equivalent to 330 orders per second. In the past, GOME's national maximum sales had once reached 2.5 million orders per day, equivalent to 5 billion Yuan in sales.

After the use of a new SAP ERP system, GOME daily sales revenues will reach 15 billion Yuan. These jobs all require GOME to expend a great deal of resources to carry out research and development and adjustment. Determining how to verify the performance of the system architecture requires the use of HP LoadRunner to conduct performance tests. Both maximum usage device performance of ERP system and infrastructure play import roles in effective testing.

Adaptable testingAt the same time, since the GOME IT structure is a multi-environment system, and has heterogeneous hardware with Linux, UNIX®TM, HP-UX and many other systems, it requires highly adaptable performance test software. In this project, HP integrated actual scenarios, helping GOME to design and create a large number of scripts. HP also provided training to GOME test professionals, and helped the testing staff create a more professional test management process. Furthermore, system testing specialists have improved work skills and methodology.

Due to its performance and customization, HP LoadRunner has become part of GOME's system test tools. With a pre-production system in place, GOME will now perform a complete performance test before each update. Within GOME, HP LoadRunner is no longer one-off application software, but has become a part of the day-to-day work of the IT department.

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Case study | Retail Performance Tests on the SAP ERP systemIt is worth mentioning that the SAP ERP system used by GOME is the largest ERP system used for SAP retail in China. During the selection process for the ERP system, since domestically, and even globally, they were unable to find experience in reference technology or product architecture, GOME were unable to guarantee that the selected product would work correctly. Using HP LoadRunner for executing performance tests on the SAP ERP system played an important supporting role.

“ We’re extremely satisfied with HP LoadRunner. HP provided us with great support. We required highly customized software which meant continuous site coding. In this regard, HP gave us technical training, and implementation support. The company is truly customer-oriented.” – Lv Yifan, Chief Information Officer, GOME

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Customer solution at a glance

Software• HP LoadRunner

GOME CIO, Lv Yifan said: "Nowadays, the market is constantly changing, and the business environment creates new requirements for IT systems. Our cooperation with HP has been wide-reaching and thorough. For a long time, HP has been providing comprehensive programs, and helped us to fully consider our IT requirements from the perspectives of software, hardware, and services bringing about the true integration of information and technology.

“We’re extremely satisfied with HP LoadRunner. HP provided us with great support. We required highly customized software which meant continuous site coding. In this regard, HP gave us technical training, and implementation support. The company is truly customer-oriented. In the future, GOME will also enter the online sales market, so our demand for cloud computing is very strong. I believe that HP will give us more support and we will build up deeper cooperation in the future."

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4AA4-3700ENW, December 2012