IBM Case Studies Baldor Electric's Successful Integration and Cost Reduction with IBM Solutions

Edit This Case Study Record

	Baldor Electric's Successful Integration and Cost Reduction with IBM Solutions IBM

Baldor Electric's Successful Integration and Cost Reduction with IBM Solutions

IBM

Technology Category	Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Database Management & Storage Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Backup & Recovery
Applicable Industries	Cement Transportation
Applicable Functions	Sales & Marketing Warehouse & Inventory Management
Use Cases	Construction Management Infrastructure Inspection
Services	Hardware Design & Engineering Services System Integration
Challenge	Baldor Electric Company, a global manufacturer of industrial electric motors, mechanical power transmission products, drives, and generators, faced a significant challenge when it acquired a major competitor. The acquisition brought with it approximately 200 heterogeneous stand-alone servers, running various operating systems and applications. This increase in server numbers and system complexity threatened to considerably increase IT costs. Baldor, which continually aims to reduce IT costs as a proportion of sales revenue, needed to integrate the two organizations as rapidly and cost-effectively as possible. The company also wanted to continue driving down operational costs in its virtualized SAP Business Suite software environment. Read More
About Customer	Baldor Electric Company is based in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and is a leading manufacturer of industrial electric motors, mechanical power transmission products, drives, and generators. As part of the ABB Group’s Discrete Automation and Motion division, Baldor sells its products worldwide to distributors and original equipment manufacturers in more than 70 countries. The company operates from 50 sales offices and warehouses in North America, and 26 offices serving international markets. It also runs 26 manufacturing sites in the U.S., Canada, England, Mexico, and China. Read More
Solution	Baldor decided to migrate its heterogeneous server environment to an IBM System z10™ Enterprise Class server. The company transferred its business systems and processes from the 200 acquired systems to just one z10 Enterprise Class server. This consolidation reduced the size of their data center by 50 percent, freeing up an area of about 3,000 sq. ft., and dramatically reduced the power and cooling requirements of their infrastructure. Following the successful implementation of the IBM System z10, Baldor installed a second System z server, an IBM zEnterprise 196 (z196). The company also upgraded the older of its two mainframes to a new IBM zEnterprise EC12 server. Baldor non-disruptively migrated its SAP Business Suite applications from the IBM System z10 Enterprise Class server to the IBM zEnterprise EC12 server. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Database Management & Storage

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Backup & Recovery

Applicable Industries

Cement

Transportation

Applicable Functions

Sales & Marketing

Warehouse & Inventory Management

Use Cases

Construction Management

Infrastructure Inspection

Services

Hardware Design & Engineering Services

System Integration

Challenge

Baldor Electric Company, a global manufacturer of industrial electric motors, mechanical power transmission products, drives, and generators, faced a significant challenge when it acquired a major competitor. The acquisition brought with it approximately 200 heterogeneous stand-alone servers, running various operating systems and applications. This increase in server numbers and system complexity threatened to considerably increase IT costs. Baldor, which continually aims to reduce IT costs as a proportion of sales revenue, needed to integrate the two organizations as rapidly and cost-effectively as possible. The company also wanted to continue driving down operational costs in its virtualized SAP Business Suite software environment.

About Customer

Baldor Electric Company is based in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and is a leading manufacturer of industrial electric motors, mechanical power transmission products, drives, and generators. As part of the ABB Group’s Discrete Automation and Motion division, Baldor sells its products worldwide to distributors and original equipment manufacturers in more than 70 countries. The company operates from 50 sales offices and warehouses in North America, and 26 offices serving international markets. It also runs 26 manufacturing sites in the U.S., Canada, England, Mexico, and China.

Solution

Baldor decided to migrate its heterogeneous server environment to an IBM System z10™ Enterprise Class server. The company transferred its business systems and processes from the 200 acquired systems to just one z10 Enterprise Class server. This consolidation reduced the size of their data center by 50 percent, freeing up an area of about 3,000 sq. ft., and dramatically reduced the power and cooling requirements of their infrastructure. Following the successful implementation of the IBM System z10, Baldor installed a second System z server, an IBM zEnterprise 196 (z196). The company also upgraded the older of its two mainframes to a new IBM zEnterprise EC12 server. Baldor non-disruptively migrated its SAP Business Suite applications from the IBM System z10 Enterprise Class server to the IBM zEnterprise EC12 server.

Impact #1	The migration and consolidation of servers resulted in a significant reduction in operational costs for Baldor. The company was able to integrate the new acquisition rapidly and cost-effectively, without disrupting its existing operations. The consolidation reduced the size of their data center by 50 percent, which also dramatically reduced the power and cooling requirements of their infrastructure. This resulted in a 60 percent reduction in electricity costs. The new infrastructure also improved the performance of the SAP Business Suite application environment, enabling the company’s 4,300 SAP Business Suite software users to access real-time business data in SAP BusinessObjects instead of waiting for batch reporting processes. The IBM Intelligent Cluster 1350 for SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator allowed users to generate reports at the touch of a button, providing rapid business insight for better decision-making.

Impact #1

The migration and consolidation of servers resulted in a significant reduction in operational costs for Baldor. The company was able to integrate the new acquisition rapidly and cost-effectively, without disrupting its existing operations. The consolidation reduced the size of their data center by 50 percent, which also dramatically reduced the power and cooling requirements of their infrastructure. This resulted in a 60 percent reduction in electricity costs. The new infrastructure also improved the performance of the SAP Business Suite application environment, enabling the company’s 4,300 SAP Business Suite software users to access real-time business data in SAP BusinessObjects instead of waiting for batch reporting processes. The IBM Intelligent Cluster 1350 for SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator allowed users to generate reports at the touch of a button, providing rapid business insight for better decision-making.

Benefit #1	Delivered 35 percent more capacity with no increase in energy footprint.
Benefit #2	Reduced energy costs by more than 60 percent.
Benefit #3	Cut IT administration costs as a proportion of sales revenue by 50 percent.

Benefit #1

Delivered 35 percent more capacity with no increase in energy footprint.

Benefit #2

Reduced energy costs by more than 60 percent.

Benefit #3

Cut IT administration costs as a proportion of sales revenue by 50 percent.

Download PDF Version

Overview

Baldor Electric's Successful Integration and Cost Reduction with IBM Solutions

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit