Logicalis

Printing giant, Goss International, looks to Logicalis to help keep their data rolling.

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The Client
Headquartered in Bolingbrook, IL, Goss International specializes in advanced press and post-press technology for newspaper and commercial web printing applications. Goss operations are defined by ultra-modern capabilities and a 120-year heritage of precision, pride and performance. It operates manufacturing sites in America, Asia and Europe and has a support network that spans the globe.

The Challenges
Early in 2005, new ownership took over the reins at Goss. "We were in a position where we had to transition our data center," says Michael Masters, Manager-Systems Developer at Goss. "We needed to migrate our company's systems into an established Goss-owned environment."

The challenge was to move from an existing data center to the Goss facility. "We needed to upgrade the SAP system to 4.7 during the migration, plus we needed to purchase all new hardware," Masters says. "Scheduling and set up were absolutely critical to getting the system up and running."

Masters emphasized that SAP is their lifeblood, and how important it was to keep the system running. "Extended downtime is unacceptable. Any downtime affects our business negatively, but extended downtime is simply an unacceptable business risk." The new owners understood, and clearly, where they needed help. "We had to have a highly capable partner to help us with what we expected to be a difficult migration."

The Solution
Having learned that previous ownership had purchased EMC and HP hardware from Logicalis with good results, the new owners considered Logicalis. But their due diligence didn't stop there. "In the end we went through a standard RFP process and considered several potential partners," says Masters. "We settled on the one that offered the best cost-to-risk ratio of all the partners we looked at. Logicalis emerged the clear winner.

Logicalis worked quickly to deliver the following solutions:

• SAP upgrade with HP UNIX hardware
• Storage
• SAN connectivity and management between two geographically disparate sites for offsite replication and failover
• Managed Services to provide SAP Infrastructure/Application Installation, Migration and 24X7 ongoing support of Goss' new SAP environment

The greatest benefit of the new Logicalis solution? Masters responds, "We didn't have the expertise to do the management ourselves or the time to build the expertise in house. Logicalis gave us all the management and SAP expertise, and all the ramp-up time we needed. Without their assistance, we never would have been able to do it."

The migration, which management projected to take three days, was completed in a less than a day and a half. "The whole thing went very smoothly," says Masters. "We had a tight timeframe and the planning and execution went well. There were no unexpected challenges once the plan was put together. All of it was executed on time and on budget."

"We're already talking about additional services. It's been a great team to do business with, and we look forward to continuing to work with Logicalis in the future," he adds.