Deutsche Postbank: Managing a Large-Scale Upgrade with SAP Software and Support

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1 2013 SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. Deutsche Postbank: Managing a Large-Scale Upgrade with SAP Software and Support

2 Deutsche Postbank AG Industry Banking Products and Services Financial services, retail private banking, and transactional banking Web Site SAP SAP for Banking solution portfolio, SAP Solution Manager application management solution, SAP MaxAttention services Partner SAP Active Global Support organization Deutsche Postbank AG, one of Germany s largest retail banks, runs the world s largest installation of the SAP for Banking solution portfolio. When the bank wanted to upgrade, extra attention was needed. The release change had to pass off without causing any interruption whatsoever and meet high security standards. And all on a single weekend. With the help of SAP MaxAttention services and the SAP Solution Manager application management solution, however, things couldn t have run more smoothly. 2 / SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

3 A leader in innovation When it comes to SAP software, Deutsche Postbank isn t just any old customer. The bank, based in Bonn, Germany, and now part of the Deutsche Bank Group, was the first in the industry to work together with SAP to provide highly valuable input for a large number of the standard processes that SAP today supports for banks. This software landscape now represents the backbone for Deutsche Postbank s business operations. No other bank rivals Deutsche Postbank when it comes to using both transactional and analytical banking processes in a production software landscape to manage core banking business. This setup isn t merely a back-office installation; it also offers services for Deutsche Postbank s end customers with support via diverse online channels, cash machines, and bank statement printers. 3 / SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

4 A huge leap With more than 50 million business partners in the database and a transactional system of six to eight terabytes, Deutsche Postbank is definitely outside the envelope in terms of scaling its software. In fact, what it has achieved is groundbreaking. As a result of the introduction of SAP software, the bank has managed to reduce back-office processes from 130 down to 30 and increase productivity by 50%. Nevertheless, even the most advanced of implementations reaches its limits at some stage. And, seeing how SAP had gradually introduced extensive architectural changes to the software, which promised far-reaching technical and functional innovations, Deutsche Postbank had also come to the point where it wanted to implement the latest release of the SAP for Banking solution portfolio. So, when the bank approached SAP for an upgrade to the software, it wasn t something to be taken lightly. 50 million Business partners in the database As Thomas Liesenfeld, program manager for project management at Postbank Systems AG, Deutsche Postbank s IT service provider, explains, With the release we were running, the change would effectively mean a huge leap over three prior releases and 29 support packages. Besides the functional developments and improvements to the software, a decisive factor in the upgrade was the paradigm shift that had taken place in the meantime in the core technology toward a platform-oriented solution. 4 / SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

5 Direct support for quicker resolution The planned release change had to be applied to both of the bank s core banking software landscapes with direct and indirect connections and interfaces to all operative solutions. Banking is a particularly sensitive type of business. As Liesenfeld says, In terms of critical processes for customers, we can hardly be topped. We are after all talking about the core production system of our bank. Seamless operations and security are a must. There was no room for mistakes. Liesenfeld adds, If something breaks down and our software doesn t work, this would have huge implications on the correct processing of payments and threaten the existence of the bank should the problems continue. So, although the bank decided to perform the upgrade with its own resources and manpower, due to the bank s expertise and knowledge of SAP software, the program management reporting to Liesenfeld still wanted to ensure that the project and operations teams would get the support they needed from SAP, when they needed it. They were able to rely on the team from the SAP Active Global Support organization as part of the SAP MaxAttention services provided. As Liesenfeld explains, Together we drew up a plan of how we could get the right experts for the right topics when they arose. As one of the largest customers running SAP software, it was of the utmost importance to us to be able to have on-the-spot support. SAP MaxAttention gave us the option of accessing the experts at SAP on the more challenging topics. Thomas Liesenfeld, Program Manager, Postbank Systems AG 5 / SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

6 A great challenge At Postbank Systems, besides dealing with projects for managing Deutsche Postbank s processing systems, the Postbank Systems team handles all matters to do with the operations and lifecycles of those software systems, which in essence represent the bread and butter of the company. It went without saying that the release change was impossible to do during the week while normal operations were running. The team could only perform their work on the weekends and even then they were restricted in the window they had for the upgrade. As Liesenfeld explains, Banking today is totally in real time, with online access to accounts, bank statement machines, and cash withdrawal terminals all operating on the weekends too. It s impossible to just take everything off the grid while we run a complete software upgrade. SAP Solution Manager was an extremely popular decision with the experts. It afforded us an excellent status overview of our test processes while also granting us full insight over the direct communication with SAP. Thomas Liesenfeld, Program Manager, Postbank Systems AG 6 / SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

7 Large-scale test management For a project of this scale, the testing tool Deutsche Postbank had been using for the technical qualification of its software was not suitable. A greater level of integration and scalability was required. Liesenfeld explains, We needed a tool for test management that was technically closer to the software we were upgrading and without any discontinuity in the medium. We couldn t afford to be working with interfaces or with software that didn t have the same look and feel as the new SAP software functionality we were implementing. The decision was made to use SAP Solution Manager as the main testing tool for the more than 20,000 test cases Deutsche Postbank needed to run in a time frame of between two and three months. The main benefit of SAP Solution Manager was that we managed to execute both our test case administration and error management in an integrated manner without any process discontinuity, which saved us a lot of time. Thomas Liesenfeld, Program Manager, Postbank Systems AG 7 / SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

8 Dramatic reduction of technical downtime With such a large number of data records and a tight time frame, it was difficult to tell in advance whether it would be possible to upgrade the software seamlessly. With the help of several optimization processes, together with SAP MaxAttention, Postbank Systems managed to cut the technical downtime from an initial 40 hours to less than 6 hours. In the end, the seven hours we had planned were just right. The team from SAP Active Global Support was at our side the whole time, ready with direct access to developers and solution experts through SAP MaxAttention. Thomas Liesenfeld, Program Manager, Postbank Systems AG 8 / SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

9 Deutsche Postbank Future-proof software landscape Following the successful upgrade, a review by Deutsche Postbank revealed just how much it stands to gain. With the advances in the solution portfolio s technical, service-oriented architecture, Deutsche Postbank has secured its investment in the software landscape for the long term and also improved backend software performance. And because Deutsche Postbank is a committed customer to the solution portfolio and has continually contributed to the development process, the bank is now better aligned with the standard processes supported by the software. Liesenfeld observes, Our current software landscape is based on the latest available release and in a good shape to be prepared for future business. CMP11126 (13/02) 2013 SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. 9 / SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

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