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Customer Solution Case Study
Textile Firm Migrates Database to Cut Costs
and Increase Performance by 20 Percent
Overview
Country or Region: Turkey
Industry: Textile mill products
manufacturing
Customer Profile
Advansa SASA, whose origins go back to
1966, is the largest polyester fiber and
filament producer across Europe and the
Middle East. It plays a leading role in the
sector as a producer of polyester-based
polymers, raw materials for those
polymers, and specialty polymers.
Headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey,
Advansa SASA has 1,500 employees.
Business Situation
Advansa SASA used a SAP application on
a UNIX platform with a compatible
database server, but ownership costs and
maintenance risks were growing
concerns.
Solution
In June 2009, Advansa SASA decided to
migrate to Microsoft SQL Server 2008,
Windows Server 2008 R2, and Intel-based
hardware.
Benefits
 Increases performance by 20 percent
 Saves 30 percent in TCO over five years
 Reduces database size by 40 percent
 Cuts hardware and maintenance costs
“After migrating to Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL
Server 2008 on Intel-based hardware,… we have
achieved almost 20 percent improvement in
performance. If we also measure the buffer effects, I
believe the performance has increased by 30 percent.”
Ömer Demir, Information Systems and Communication Group Manager, Advansa SASA
Advansa SASA, a leading textile manufacturer base in Turkey,
has a large facility, campus, and texturized yarn factory in Adana,
as well as a fiber factory in Germany. In 2002, the company
began using a SAP ERP infrastructure operating on a UNIX
platform with database server that was commonly used with
SAP. The company had major concerns about the total cost of
ownership for the system and management risks in outsourcing
to maintain the UNIX platform and existing database. To address
these issues, Advansa SASA ultimately migrated to Microsoft
SQL Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Intel-based
hardware. By using the new solution, Advansa SASA has
increased system performance by 20 percent, cut hardware and
maintenance costs, and reduced database size through data
compression. The company calculates that it is saving 30
percent, or about U.S.$150,000, in total cost of ownership over
five years.
Situation
Textile manufacturer Advansa SASA has a
multicompany structure. Advansa SASA BV
is a Netherlands-based organization, under
whose umbrella Advansa SASA GmBH is
responsible for the management of a
factory in Germany. Advansa SASA
Marketing is responsible for marketing in
Europe, and Advansa SASA is the central
organization in Turkey.
Ömer Demir, Information Systems and
Communication Group Manager at
Advansa SASA, says that the majority of the
company’s exports are to Europe. “We
often carry out our export activities through
Advansa SASA Marketing. In addition to
Europe, we have sales to countries in the
Middle East and North Africa. Their ratio is
not very high but it is growing
continuously. The chemistry division in
particular is mostly based on export.”
He adds that in recent times investments
have been moved toward the chemistry
segment, and in the last three years the
ratio of chemical industry activities to
overall activities has increased from 15
percent to 40 percent. During this process,
Advansa SASA has become the regional
leader in Europe and in Turkey as well,
especially in fiber. “In artificial and synthetic
yarn, we have very important brands, such
as Termolite and Coolmax,” says Demir.
Demir, provides the following information
on the IT infrastructure: “There are two
separate IT infrastructures under Advansa
SASA BV, one in Germany and the other in
Turkey. Our colleagues working in
Germany’s IT department report to me and
provide support to all of our offices in
Germany, France, and Spain. The IT group
in Turkey is located on our campus in
Adana. All of our systems are also located
in Adana and provide support to all the
other regions. Advansa SASA is known for
its leadership both in production and
information technologies. In the past, we
were among the top 10 companies in
Turkey. We made several investments in
our IT systems, and when we completed
our ERP project in January 2002, we
became the leader in the industry.”
During that period, the most important
reason for the company to choose SAP was
that its partner DuPont, was using SAP. In
2002, Advansa SASA implemented all SAP
modules with 500 users. Early that year, the
company switched to the SAP ERP
infrastructure. Demir says, “We started to
use a database of another international
software technology manufacturer, which is
used commonly with SAP, on a UNIX
operating platform. We continued with this
up until three years ago. The expenses we
incurred for hardware and license fees, as
well as our hardware and maintenance
costs, were much higher than those for
Intel-based servers. We decided to use an
Intel-based Microsoft application platform.”
Demir indicates that the IT group often
brought forward the issue of migrating to
Microsoft SQL Server data management
software, but they were waiting for the
development of the product. “When we
decided to isolate the chemistry division of
our organization in order to sell it, the
problem of a cost-intensive SAP installation
arose, because we were going to be two
separate companies from then on. During
that period, we conducted a study
regarding the migration of Microsoft SQL
Server 2000 and the installation of two
different SQL systems based on real data.
But we were not sure whether we were
going to be able to achieve the
performance we expected. Thus, by making
an expensive hardware investment, dividing
the existing database into two, and copying
the same system on the other side as well,
and making some changes, we built the
second system. Later, in 2006, we sold that
company, which we had already separated
from our organization.”
The biggest deadlock at Advansa SASA
regarding the existing database server was
primarily the cost. The system’s total cost of
ownership was very high, but for an
organization like Advansa SASA the issue of
management risk was of even more
significant. Demir says, “Since the
beginning, we have had difficulty finding
staff specialized in UNIX and the existing
database. Since 2002, we have benefited
from outsourcing to some companies, but
the related costs were very high. Moreover,
this was a risk for us because there was an
external dependency regarding the issues
that had to be taken care of night and day.
For Advansa SASA, which had inherited
DuPont’s culture, these were considered
big risks. The issue of outsourcing was
always brought forward during each annual
evaluation meeting, creating problems in
these areas regarding the total cost of
ownership (which is almost 30 percent),
annual maintenance costs, as well as the
ease of management and reducing external
dependency. We believed that the best way
to eliminate such problems would be
migration to the Microsoft platform.”
Solution
In 2006, Advansa SASA decided to migrate
to Microsoft SQL Server 2005. Demir says
that it is very critical for the company to use
SQL Server, especially on the database side.
Within the last three years, all the software
applications developed under Advansa
SASA were designed based on the SQL
database. Software applications in
particular— which are very important for
the company and include the systems for
operation information, maintenance
management, and laboratory
management—work on the Microsoft SQL
Server. Mainly, the Windows Server
operating system and SQL Server are used
on the server side in Advansa SASA. At
international businesses related to project
management, they rely on Microsoft Office
Groove 2007 software for managing
projects and sharing.
Demir emphasizes that they hadn’t
underestimated the easiness that was
going to be brought by Windows platform,
and considered that they could manage
some issues more easily, such as copying
and disaster recovery on this platform. “We
assessed several advantages that came with
Microsoft technologies. There was a certain
cost of migration. In the past, these costs
were very high. Then, with the skills of our
consultant FIT, recognized for its specialty
in SAP, we have reduced these costs to
almost zero. In 2006, when we carried out
global research into this subject, I
remember that a British company made us
a proposal of 100,000 euros for migration.
FIT accomplished much more than what the
British company could have, and with lower
costs at that.”
Onur Altıntaş, Microsoft Customer
Representative, states that in recently
working very closely with FIT he has seen
the difference generated by the company.
“FIT offers high-quality consulting services
in a special niche area that requires very
considerable expertise. SAP consulting has
many branches. FIT provides consulting on
the technology and the installation side
and in this highly sensitive area it has
gained the confidence of our customers.”
In the last phase of the company’s
database migration, Demir states that it has
migrated from SQL Server 2005 to SQL
Server 2008 Enterprise and from Windows
Server 2005 to Windows Server 2008 R2
Enterprise. This deployment was completed
in November 2009. Now they are in the
“We calculated the total
cost of ownership for a
five-year period and saw
that we achieved a 30
percent gain through
migration to SQL Server
2008 and Windows
Server 2008 R2. When
we include the costs of
maintenance, this ratio
increases.”
Ömer Demir, Information Systems and
Communication Group Manager,
Advansa SASA
process of making SAP compatible in order
to benefit from the features provided by
Windows Server 2008 R2.
“We conducted preliminary work for the
migration for almost six months and have
been using it for two weeks,” said Demir in
an interview on November 20, 2009. “After
we received the approval for the project
from our upper management, we carried
out some procedures that depend on the
database or the operating system. These
were, in particular, floor and MIS
procedures on the production side, which
we had to make independent from the
platform. We were unable to make all of
them independent, but we carried out an
inventory study to enable them to function
without any problems.
“Under normal conditions, we were aiming
at completing the migration by January 1,
2010, but due to the application of the SAP
New General Ledger, which we are
operating now, we decided to migrate in
November. In September, we got in touch
with FIT consulting, one of the Microsoft
solution partners, and in the second week
of that month we created a test system. As
Sabancı ERP’s test group, we tested all of
our activities and operations. In reality,
what we had done there was migration,”
says Demir. Hüseyin Bilgen, an FIT
Technology Consultant, says that all the
data was copied for the test and as such
they migrated twice: one was the test and
the other was live.
“We hardly experienced any problems
during the test,” says Demir, adding that
they found this situation suspicious and
made a very detailed scanning. For this
reason, they had to postpone the migration
of the project for a week. However, they
didn’t experience any problems during the
live migration.
Benefits
By migrating to SQL Server 2008 and
Windows Server 2008 R2, Advansa SASA
has increased system performance by 20
percent, cut hardware and maintenance
costs, and reduced database size by more
than 40 percent. The company calculates
that it is saving 30 percent, or about
U.S.$150,000, in total cost of ownership
over five years.
Increases Performance 20 Percent
“We are moving on with zero problems,”
says Demir with pleasure. “After migrating
to Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server
2008 on Intel-based hardware—even
though we have selected hardware that in
terms of cost of ownership cost half as
much as previously—we have achieved
almost 20 percent improvement in
performance. If we also measure the buffer
effects, I believe the performance has
increased by 30 percent.”
Saves 30 Percent in TCO over Five Years
“We calculated the total cost of ownership
for a period of five years and saw that we
achieved a 30 percent gain through
migration to SQL Server 2008 and Windows
Server 2008 R2,” says Demir. “When we
include the costs of maintenance, this ratio
increases. We are aiming to carry out this
measurement over time. If we take the
maintenance cost out of the picture and
look solely at the cost of ownership with a
five-year depreciation, we achieve a 30
percent savings rate. The maintenance
costs of UNIX-based systems were much
more than the Intel-based ones. Moreover,
because we are owned by Sabancı Holding,
we have the power of entering into
contracts with better prices compared with
the market. Nonetheless, the 30 percent
savings obtained within five years is
considerable, its financial equivalent is
approximately U.S.$150,000 in expenses,
“We prefer the Microsoft
platform on the SAP
side. First, Microsoft
provides rapid
developments in the
field of technology and it
is very easy to hire
qualified IT personnel to
adapt to these
developments. Second,
the compatibility
features provided in the
SAP platforms in recent
years have improved
significantly.”
Hüseyin Bilgen,
Technology Consultant, FIT
cost of maintenance and ownership, if we
consider only the past two or three years.”
Reduces Database Size by More Than 40
Percent
Advansa SASA uses the compression
feature of SQL Server 2008, which reduces
the existing database size from 700
gigabytes (GB) to 390 GB. “The smaller size
is very important in terms of performance:
we aimed to protect our gains with the
compression feature provided by the
former UNIX-based infrastructure,” says
Demir. “The more the size decreases, the
more the performance increases, because
reading from the hard drive slows the
system down. We are very happy that we
used the SQL Server 2008 data
compression feature, which protected and
even improved the previous gains. If
another platform or SQL Server 2005 had
been used here, the database would have
definitely been increased by an additional
30–40 percent.”
Benefits from Software Interoperability
Altıntaş remarks that due to the fact that
Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server
2008 operate together, there have been
many benefits. “The combination of
Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server
2008, what we call the Microsoft
Application Platform, provides many
benefits since they are the infrastructures
operating under large-scale solutions such
as SAP. Obtaining space from the server
due to data compression feature is one of
these. There may be scenarios with size
reductions of up to 30–40 percent.
“Furthermore, in terms of efficiency it is
very important to have the option of
allocating resources as much as you want
to the user profile you want, integrated in
the database. You can, for example, limit
the resources for a user that enters bills in
the accounting department, while reserving
a significant processor load to an upperlevel manager. Now we are able to tune the
system so some users can get immediate
system response.”
Offers Advantages for the SAP Side
Bilgen, the FIT Technology Consultant,
suggests that due to the nature of the area
they are specialized in, they provide
platform-independent services. In recent
years, however, as a result of the
developments in Microsoft, they have
moved mainly toward the Microsoft
platform in the infrastructure projects they
have been developing. “There are some
important reasons why we prefer the
Microsoft platform on the SAP side. First,
Microsoft provides rapid developments in
the field of technology and it is very easy to
hire qualified IT personnel to adapt to
these developments. Second, the
compatibility features provided in the SAP
platforms in recent years have improved
significantly.
“The fact that the Microsoft platform has
such an appeal and recognition provides an
advantage for us. At FIT, we have a clear
mission statement: We create the solution,
bring it to life, and create success stories to
hand to our customers. Our customers may
later on sign a support agreement with us if
they wish, or they may continue on their
own. At the point where it needs to
continue under its own scope, the
platforms used should be easy to manage.
Conveying this to the customers requires
another skill. There can be some limitations
on the customer side:, human resources
may not be sufficient, especially in group
firms and firms under the umbrella of a
holding company. As a result, ease of
adaptation and fast management becomes
important for a platform. Microsoft
provides such a platform.”
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For more information about Advansa
SASA products and services, call +90 322
4410053 or visit the website at:
www.advansa.com
Software and Services

This case study is for informational purposes only.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Document published February 2011
Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
− Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise
− Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2
Enterprise

Microsoft Office
− Microsoft Office Groove 2007