IBM Case Studies Clarks: Putting its best foot forward with the foundation for a truly global organization

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	Clarks: Putting its best foot forward with the foundation for a truly global organization IBM

Clarks: Putting its best foot forward with the foundation for a truly global organization

IBM

Technology Category	Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP) Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Storage Services
Applicable Industries	Retail
Applicable Functions	Business Operation Sales & Marketing
Use Cases	Inventory Management Supply Chain Visibility
Services	System Integration
Challenge	Clarks, a fast-growing shoe retailer, needed to continually provide the business with feedback about which products are a hit with customers, and use those insights to inform future designs. The company extended the SAP solution supporting its UK business to include its US and Asian operations, enabling it to avoid the overhead of managing multiple systems and simplify analysis of its enterprise-wide operations. However, the company faced challenges with its existing storage infrastructure, which was impacting batch processing times and potentially affecting operations. Read More
About Customer	Founded in 1825 by brothers Cyrus and James, C&J Clark International (Clarks) is a global designer, manufacturer and retailer of footwear, selling more than 50 million pairs of shoes every year. Headquartered in Somerset, England, Clarks operates in more than 35 countries. The company's business depends on identifying the shoes consumers want, and delivering them rapidly. To do so, the company must quickly gather and analyze information from its fast-growing customer base. Clarks relies on a range of SAP applications, including SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization, SAP ERP and SAP Business Warehouse, running on virtualized IBM Power® 770 servers and IBM XIV® storage. Read More
Solution	Clarks called on the IBM team to run an analysis of its storage needs using the Oracle Automatic Workload Repository (AWR) tool, which revealed that IBM FlashSystem storage could solve the company’s challenges. As a first step, Clarks deployed one IBM FlashSystem 840 solution configured as an operating system mirror alongside its existing storage infrastructure. By setting up the FlashSystem storage for preferred read, the company maximized performance for read operations, and saw an immediate impact on batch processing times. Next, the company implemented a second FlashSystem solution to support its SAP Business Warehouse system. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Storage Services

Applicable Industries

Retail

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Sales & Marketing

Use Cases

Inventory Management

Supply Chain Visibility

Services

System Integration

Challenge

Clarks, a fast-growing shoe retailer, needed to continually provide the business with feedback about which products are a hit with customers, and use those insights to inform future designs. The company extended the SAP solution supporting its UK business to include its US and Asian operations, enabling it to avoid the overhead of managing multiple systems and simplify analysis of its enterprise-wide operations. However, the company faced challenges with its existing storage infrastructure, which was impacting batch processing times and potentially affecting operations.

About Customer

Founded in 1825 by brothers Cyrus and James, C&J Clark International (Clarks) is a global designer, manufacturer and retailer of footwear, selling more than 50 million pairs of shoes every year. Headquartered in Somerset, England, Clarks operates in more than 35 countries. The company's business depends on identifying the shoes consumers want, and delivering them rapidly. To do so, the company must quickly gather and analyze information from its fast-growing customer base. Clarks relies on a range of SAP applications, including SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization, SAP ERP and SAP Business Warehouse, running on virtualized IBM Power® 770 servers and IBM XIV® storage.

Solution

Clarks called on the IBM team to run an analysis of its storage needs using the Oracle Automatic Workload Repository (AWR) tool, which revealed that IBM FlashSystem storage could solve the company’s challenges. As a first step, Clarks deployed one IBM FlashSystem 840 solution configured as an operating system mirror alongside its existing storage infrastructure. By setting up the FlashSystem storage for preferred read, the company maximized performance for read operations, and saw an immediate impact on batch processing times. Next, the company implemented a second FlashSystem solution to support its SAP Business Warehouse system.

Impact #1	By reducing the risk of batch processes impacting Clarks’ operations and scaling seamlessly to support future growth, IBM FlashSystem lays the foundation for future success.
Impact #2	The solution helps guarantee timely delivery of orders to customers and the delivery of daily reports to drive better decision-making.

Impact #1

By reducing the risk of batch processes impacting Clarks’ operations and scaling seamlessly to support future growth, IBM FlashSystem lays the foundation for future success.

Impact #2

The solution helps guarantee timely delivery of orders to customers and the delivery of daily reports to drive better decision-making.

Benefit #1	Cut essential batch runs by up to 50 percent, or five hours.

Benefit #1

Cut essential batch runs by up to 50 percent, or five hours.

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Overview

Clarks: Putting its best foot forward with the foundation for a truly global organization

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit