Overview
Country: New Zealand
Industry: Electricity, Power and Gas
Customer Profile
Powerco is New Zealand's second largest
electricity and gas distribution company,
servicing approximately 410,000 consumers
across the upper central and lower central
North Island.
Business Situation
Powerco had previously maintained both
Oracle and SQL Server platforms and
sought to simplify its IT solution and reduce
total cost of ownership by consolidating
database management systems.
Solution
With the assistance of Microsoft Gold
Partner, SQL Services Ltd, Powerco assessed
its existing database management systems
and identified SQL Server as a more cost-effective
and manageable solution.
Benefits
Reduces TCO by $390,000 per annum
Saves $190,000 per annum in licensing
costs
Reduces support and management
costs by $200,000 per annum
Cheaper and easier to support and
maintain
Partner:
SQL Services Ltd
Having assessed the situation
internally, Powerco sought the
assistance of SQL Services Ltd, a
Microsoft Gold Partner database
management consultancy, to assess,
plan, design and build the SQL
Server 2005 environment. As SQL
Services Ltd specializes in proactive
database monitoring, management
and support for both Oracle and SQL
Server platforms, the company had
the expertise to ensure the migration
to SQL Server would run smoothly .
SQL Services Senior Technical
Consultant Kevin Nicholas
performed a site review of the
existing solution and developed five
different scenarios for the server
configuration with an analysis of the
technical pros and cons of each.
SQL Services also worked on
developing, testing and staging
environments for SQL Server, to
ensure that Powerco had a large and
robust database environment to test
and stage applications before
putting them into production. This
allowed Powerco to manage and
maintain the server platform inhouse.
“The ability to manage the database
management systems internally was
important to Powerco, as it allowed
the business to retain more
knowledge in-house and reduce
reliance on external consultants,”
says Peter Cary, Business
Development Manager, SQL Services
Ltd.
Powerco decided to migrate to SQL
Server as part of the upgrade
process for applications over a oneyear
timeline. Although a project
requiring continuous system
availability delayed the migration of
Powerco’s GIS systems, full system
migration is on target for completion
in October 2009.
Benefits
Even before full consolidation has
been completed, Powerco has
realised significant benefits from the
migration from Oracle to SQL Server,
and when the GIS system is migrated
further performance gains are
expected. The business now has a
more streamlined and efficient
system with improved integration
and security and reduced TCO.
“We’ve saved a significant amount of
money, almost $390,000 a year, in
migrating from Oracle to SQL Server.
We’ve been able to save on rack
space, reduce hardware,
maintenance and licensing costs and
have created numerous efficiencies
through simplifying the server
environment,” says Griffiths.
A simplified and more efficient
system
The migration to SQL Server has
simplified many aspects of Powerco’s
IT environment, creating numerous
efficiencies.
One example of a major system
improvement is the Customer Works
Management System (CWMS) for
gas that was implemented mid-May.
This was the first new system to be
implemented in the updated SQL
Server environment. The system
integrates internal and external
stakeholders into a single online
workflow, and manages the activities
associated with new gas connections.
By standardising activities, the
CWMS helped eliminate non-value
adding work steps, and significantly
reduced the opportunity cost of
error and re-work. Compared to the
legacy framework, the CWMS
manages three times the number of
work steps and integrates twice as
many user groups. As a result, Gas
team is more effectively able to
manage new connection volumes,
which are currently running at 200
per cent compared to the same time
last year.
Enhanced integration and security
Through migrating to a single server
platform, Powerco has achieved a
more integrated and streamlined
system.
“Getting information from one
database to another is greatly
simplified without the need for
Oracle translations. We are now
moving towards a much more
integrated infrastructure overall.
Three years ago, our systems were
more disjointed and separate. We
now have the single server platform
and Microsoft® BizTalk® Server
orchestrations take data between the
GIS and the JDE Databases. This
allows people to use existing data
rather than creating new Access
Databases to get the information
they need,” says Griffiths.
Improved manageability, greater
control
Powerco’s database consolidation
has eliminated the need for two
Oracle database administrators,
which enabled Powerco to
reorganise its IT department and reassign
these administrators to other
areas. In the longer term, eliminating
the need for specialist Oracle RAC
technical expertise will make it easier
for Powerco to resource its IT
requirements in-house.
“SQL Server is based on Windows so
we can hire staff with more
generalist skills to manage the
environment. We no longer need to
hire technical contractors or
consultants with specialist skills
based on HPUX,” says Griffiths.
Powerco’s IS staff have found
maintaining SQL Server databases
easier than working in Oracle RAC.
“Things like taking snapshots of the
database, exporting into another
databases, and database refreshes
seemed difficult in Oracle, but are
almost as easy as cutting and
pasting in SQL Server,” says Griffiths.
Reduced operational and
hardware costs
Database consolidation has also
enabled Powerco to eliminate many
costs. There’s no longer the need to
maintain hardware for the Oracle
environment, such as UNIX servers
or HPUX boxes and the business has
benefited from reduced licensing
costs and rack space.
“SQL Services identified areas of
server sprawl in their assessment of
our systems. We had a number of
SQL Servers, which have been
consolidated down to two, reducing
our licensing, management,
operational and back-up costs,” says
Griffiths.
With a more streamlined, integrated
and efficient server platform in place,
Powerco is now looking to extend
the benefits of the migration to
Microsoft® 2008. The business is
already running Windows SQL
Server® 2005 by upgrading to
Microsoft® SQL Server® Server®
2008 and SQL Server 2008 in a test
environment and will soon be able to
utilise the integrated Business
Intelligence features of SQL Server
2008, such as user-friendly analytics,
reporting, planning and budgeting
tools as standard and integrates with
Microsoft® Office tools.
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