Hanson

---

How Hanson put an SAP/R3 cement truck on Windows

Hanson is a major supplier of construction materials to the Australian market, focusing on pre-mixed concrete and aggregates. Trading as Hanson (formerly Pioneer) and Hymix, they have national coverage in Australia with a presence in all metropolitan and major regional centres. Hanson operates a fleet of 1500 concrete and aggregate trucks that deliver throughout Australia.

The ‘time-critical’ nature of their business demands that orders are placed quickly, and that deliveries are made according to precise schedules. Hanson’s Customer Service Centre uses SAP R/3 online to enter customer orders. Delivery promises are then made based on a truck scheduling and tracking system, which is linked ‘real-time’ to the SAP ordering system.

As part of a company-wide project to re-engineer business processes and deliver a common platform for national real-time logistics, Hanson signed an agreement with Atos Origin Australia (now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fujitsu Australia Limited) to implement a high-availability infrastructure and support service.

The primary objective of this High Availability Initiative (HAI) was to upgrade the technical infrastructure and support arrangements so that the SAP production system could achieve the highest possible service level, as measured by the availability of the SAP R/3 application at the data centre.

In implementing the HAI solution, Fujitsu had to consider the nature of the business:

• Fast-paced – Three quarters of customer telephone orders are made from mobile phones and finalised within two minutes
• Complex – Product mixes (of which there are thousands of varieties) have a variable and finite shelf life
• Precise – Specific delivery windows are required, sometimes for continuous pours
• Real-time – Truck scheduling is done online in real-time, and progress monitored by RF tracking systems
• High volume – Busiest early in the morning with a load every six seconds

Efficiency and service through intelligent customer systems

Fujitsu designed and implemented a high-availability Windows platform for SAP R/3. This platform successfully interoperates with closely-coupled real-time scheduling and RF logistics, nationally supporting 800 SAP R/3 users and 1000 concrete trucks.

According to Rob Downing, CIO of Hanson Australia, the overall project resulted in improved efficiency of business processes as well as improved customer service through intelligent customer systems. The initiative has also seen the establishment of a SAP Business Warehouse (BW) environment for decision-support tools.

In implementing the HAI solution, Fujitsu provided the following services:

• Hosting and management of both Windows and UNIX servers
• SAP Basis and Oracle database support
• Enterprise monitoring of systems and applications
• Disaster recovery services
• Consulting and project services

The HAI project was completed on time and without any changes to the fixed price budget. The upgraded and strengthened environment for the SAP core business system will generate further benets from the broader business process. Having a reliable, highly-available system allows the business to focus on its goals of maximising protability and controlling costs.

Following the success of this initiative and the high levels of stability achieved, Hanson awarded a five-year contract to Fujitsu.