Archive

Joint Venture between SVC and realTech Walldorf/Bielefeld, August 25th, 1999

realTech Supports Linux Walldorf/Baden, June 1999

realTech Italia S.r.l. gains Telecom Italia as a new customer - Contract signed as a basis of long-term cooperation Frankfurt am Main/Walldorf/Milan/Rome, June 14, 1999

realTech hires an experienced SAP R/3 Project Manager Walldorf/Baden, June 1999

realTech Builds on its Growth in Southern Germany Walldorf/Baden, June 1999

Entrepreneur of the Year

realTech AG - New Sales Company Walldorf/Baden, April 1999

R/3, Intranet and e-Commerce from One Mold Walldorf/Baden, April 1999

High Availability of SAP R/3 with Clusters

Joint venture between realTech AG and SVC AG starts business under the name IT-GO!

R/3 outsourcing specialist for mid-sized companies with headquarters in Walldorf / Company expected to break even in first year

Walldorf/Bielefeld, August 25th, 1999 --- The joint venture, IT-GO!, between SAP R/3 specialist realTech AG of Walldorf and SVC AG of Bielefeld opened for business yesterday as agreed upon in June of 1999. The listing with the commerce department in Heidelberg with be completed in August 1999. The company, which offers complete SAP R/3 services for outsourcing solutions to mid-sized companies, will have its headquarters in Walldorf next to SAP AG.

The directors of the new company will be André Fischer, previously responsible for remote services at realTech, and Markus Kellermeyer, previously responsible for IT at SVC. IT-GO! already has eight customers under contract and is currently in contact with additional interested parties. SVC AG and realTech AG both have a 50 percent stake in the new company and anticipate that IT-GO! will break even in its first year of business.

By founding IT-GO!, the two founding companies expect to meet the increasing demand of small and mid-sized companies for outsourcing services in the SAP R/3 environment. As an outsourcing expert for mid-sized companies, the new company will concentrate on providing high-quality and innovative outsourcing services to R/3 customers at competitive prices using modern, high-performance technology.

Considering the comprehensive expertise that SVC and realTEch both have in the SAP R/3 field, IT-GO! will have a high amount of synergy that will be made fully available to the customers of the new company.

Based on the prognosis that the demand for outsourcing solutions in the R/3 environment will increase by an average of fourty percent per year in Europe, the founding companies anticipate high profit margins with a large number of customers.

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realTech supports Linux

realTech now offers technical consultation for the implementation of SAP R/3 under Linux - Support of Red Hat Linux Distribution 6.0

Walldorf/Baden, June 1999. realTech AG, technical consulting company for SAP R/3, now supports the conception, implementation and operation of SAP R/3 for Linux operating systems. In addition to the tried and tested services for customers using R/3 with Windows NT or Unix, this new service is now available for pilot projects, even before R/3 for Linux is officially made available by SAP AG (schedule for the third quarter of 1999). realTech has already had a large number of requests from customers regarding R/3 for Linux. The platform is the Red Hat Linux Distribution 6.0 as provided by Red Hat Software, Inc. of Durham, North Carolina. Additionally, realTech is supporting SAP AG personnel with the set up of SAP's Linux-Lab in Walldorf. realTech provides its existing technical R/3 know-how and at the same time qualifies its consultants for future installations of R/3 Systems under Linux.

Linux irresistibly moving forward With this new service, realTech AG is expanding its technical SAP R/3 consulting for Windows NT and Unix platforms. realTech is in good company since many leading hardware and software producers are already supporting Linux. The platform's independent operating system is used by more than 15 million users worldwide and is expanding rapidly, according to IDC (International Data Corporation). An IDC study (1998) determined that Linux was able to increase its market share in 1998 to 17 percent compared to a previous market share of 7 percent. This corresponds to a growth rate of 212 percent . In comparison, Windows NT had a market share of 36 percent in that year and a growth rate of 27 percent. Linux was thus able to secure a position as one the most widely used server operating system - second only to Windows NT.

Reasons that speak for Red Hat Especially popular in the Linux market is the software of Red Hat Software, who say they provide solutions to Linux users, the world's fastest growing group of users. Red Hat Linux has platforms available for Intel, Compaq, and Alpha, as well as the SPARC platforms from Sun. SAP selected this solution since it is easy to configure - this is especially true for network components - and because it is very reliable. According to Red Hat Software Inc., the new Distribution 6.0 exemplifies itself with simple and expanded installation capabilities and improved operation. One of the new features is the software RAID, which provides for increased performance and data security with redundant writing to multiple hard drives. The new Linux Kernel 2.2x is completely multiprocessor capable and thus has significantly better performance than the previous versions.

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realTech Italia S.r.l. gains Telecom Italia as a new customer - Contract signed as a basis of long-term cooperation

Frankfurt am Main/Walldorf/Milan/Rome, June 14, 1999 --- realTech Italia S.r.l. Milan/Rome, a fully owned subsidiary of realTech AG, Walldorf, specializing in technical SAP R/3 support , IT consulting and software development has gained Telecom Italia, Turin, as a new customer. On the basis of the contract just signed, realTech Italia will provide technical support both to Telecom Italia and to the Cuban telephone company ETECSA, in which Telecom Italia holds a share. This contract made by realTech Italia and Telecom Italia is designed to form the basis of a long-term cooperation on the implementation of further projects to come.

In detail, realTech Italia will provide technical support in the adjustment and reorganization of the SAP R/3 software used in a Unix/Oracle environment. Most of this work will be carried out in Cuba, while only some of the tasks involved will be performed at a location near Rome.

Simultaneously, Telecom Italia has obtained a license to use "theGuard!", the application management tool developed by realTech. The components included are the Console , agents, the ABAP/4 Suite and the Notifier. This package will enable realTech Italia to ensure the remote monitoring from its Rome location of the R/3 systems installed in Cuba.

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realTech hires an experienced SAP R/3 Project Manager

Dr. Karl Schrupp takes over as manager of the new realTech subsidiary in Munich

Walldorf/Baden, June 1999. Dr. Karl Schrupp will head business operations of the subsidiary that the IT company with headquarters in Walldorf is opening on July 1st, 1999 in Haag near Munich. He will be responsible for the sales of technical consultation of SAP R/3 projects as well as the tools developed by realTech for the automation of computer centers and transport procedures. Additionally, he will be responsible for building up customer contact in the neighboring countries Austria and Switzerland.

Management of Technical Projects Dr. Schrupp obtained experience in projects and building up business areas over the years while working for SAP AG. He last position there was in the business area Customer Solutions were he acted as project manager for R/3 Basis. Among other things, he coordinated projects for the development of R/3 add-ons and participated in the development of several country-specific versions.

Dr. Schrupp received his degree in 1982 at the University in Dortmund where he studied mathematics, statistics, and macroeconomics. He graduated in mathematics. He started at SAP by marketing the SAP R/3 Basis module. In 1993, he took on a leadership role in international development projects. Among other projects, he directed the development of the Korean country-specific version of SAP R/3 at SAP Korea and took on a key role in the setting up of the local subsidiary there as well as its infrastructure.

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realTech Builds on its growth in Southern Germany

realTech opens a business center in Haag near Munich - A local center for customers in Southern Germany

Walldorf/Baden, June 1999. On July 1st, 1999, realTech is opening a new business center in Haag near Munich. By doing so, the provider of technical SAP R/3 consultation, IT consultation, and software solutions is increasing the availability of its consultants in Southern Germany by expanding its customer support there.

In Munich, realTech will provide consulting services for the conception, implementation, and operation of SAP R/3 Systems. This includes services such as the completion of migrations, the planning and implementation of high availability solutions, remote administration, and the connection of R/3 to the Internet.

Other strategies include the sale of application management tools that are used to monitor and administer SAP R/3 Systems. Munich is the company‘s third location in Germany- in addition to the company‘s headquarters in Walldorf and a business center in Ratingen. Eight international subsidiaries have been founded so far: in the USA (1995), Italy (1996), Australia (1997), New Zealand (1997), Great Britain (1998), Singapore (1998), and Spain (1999).

Due to economic situation, the decision to setup the subsidiary was an easy one Dr. Karl Schrupp will take over as manager of the business center, even though he just recently came into contact with realTech. As to his new assignment, Mr. Schrupp said, “We are available in Munich for any questions that our customers in Southern Germany might have. We will be their first contact.“ His vision: “The good situation in Southern Germany should ensure increased sales in the second half of the year as well.“ With strong worldwide sales in the first quarter of 1999, realTech had a net profit of more than one million marks for the quarter, and has thus already reached nearly 62% of its net profit from 1998.

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Entrepreneur of the Year

realTech once again under the 10 German finalists in the start-up category of the "Entrepreneur of the Year" award!

For the third year running, the Entrepreneur des Jahres e.V. presented an award for especially innovative enterprises. This organization is supported by Schitag Ernst & Young Unternehmensberatung GmbH, SAP AG, and manager magazin. The award’s ceremony took place as part of the Third German Forum for Mid-Sized Companies (Deutschen Mittelstandforum). Around 400 participants were in attendance to hear from the experts who discussed successful strategies in mid-sized companies, finance and tax strategies, and organizational behavior and information technology. realTech AG was the only award winner in the Start-Up group with the title “Finalist 1999” that is listed on the stock market as well. Additionally, realTech was also listed as being among the TOP 5 German companies.

realTech was convincing to the jury, since the company has achieved a leading role in the market for technical R/3 consultation in just a few years. Less than five years ago, the company was founded by Markus Adam, Daniele Di Croce, Rainer Schmidt, and Peter Stier, four former SAP employees. Since this time, the company has create 250 jobs in eight countries. realTech stocks have been listed on the Neuer Markt of the Frankfurter stock exchange since April 26th, 1999.

The award for the entrepreneur of the year was presented for the first time in 1997 to the founders of successful mid-sized companies, which had moved to the front with innovation, courage, the willingness to take risks, and hard work. All entrepreneurs can be nominated if they are responsible for a company with at least 40 employees (as of 1997). They must be part of the management that is responsible for the better than average growth over the last few years and own a substantial part of the company. The participation by industrial groups in the company must be below 50 percent, and the participation with financial holdings by participating corporations and state-owned companies must be under 85 percent ort assignments.

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realTech AG - new sales company

realTech sales GmbH of Walldorf takes over the sale of software tools for SAP R/3 Systems

Walldorf/Baden, April 1999. realTech AG expanded its marketing of products and services by founding realTech sales GmbH in Walldorf. The new company — a wholly owned subsidiary of realTech AG — emphasizes the marketing of software tools such as theGuard! and the TransportManager in German speaking countries. The new company will also support the foreign subsidiaries in the USA, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore to market solutions and services there.

Software created from consulting services Markus Kruse, manager of realTech sales GmbH stated, "With our own, innovative software products, we want to increase the percentage of sales from the current rate of five percent to 50 percent by the year 2010." This self-confidence is a result of the success that realTech has had, becoming the market leader in technical SAP R/3 consulting in less than five years. The project experience gained is used to develop software tools. More and more R/3 users are using the application management tool theGuard! to ensure the smooth operation of their SAP R/3 Systems. The easy to use application makes theGuard! a useful tool for mid-sized as well as large companies. With the TransportManager, change management is automated. It enhances the SAP standard transportation of objects and the distribution of change requests that take place after the R/3 implementation phase between the development, consolidation, and production systems.

Growing markets The combination of consultation and self-developed products has significantly affected the fast growth of realTech AG. The company’s stocks will be traded on the Neuer Markt (new market) beginning April 26, 1999. The prospects of the company are promising, since the need for long term technical consultation for R/3 system administration is growing at a fast pace. A yearly growth of 25 to 30 percent is anticipated for this market in the coming years. SAP, the world market leader for ERP software (Enterprise Resource Planning) plans to increase the number of R/3 installations worldwide to 32,000 (currently: 24,000).

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R/3, Intranet and e-Commerce from One Mold

realTech AG now offers individual Intranet and Internet solutions — Technical consulting for e-Commerce using SAP R/3

Walldorf/Baden, April 1999. realTech AG has expanded its technical consulting for R/3 to include IT services for setting up Intranet and Internet solutions as well as its integration in SAP R/3 Systems. SAP customers can thus obtain IT and R/3 solutions from one provider. For e-Commerce, realTech offers three variations as add-ons: the Microsoft Commerce Server, the SAP R/3 Online-Store, and the Intershop solution. The company’s experience as a Microsoft solution provider specialist come into play for Internet and Intranet as well as its experience as an SAP partner for integration and implementation of R/3 Systems. Additionally realTech is active as an Intershop solution provider.

Workflow from tomorrow on the Internet An Intranet based workflow is slowly replacing the previous paperwork that exist in mid-sized and large companies, since only a quick flow of information keeps a company working competitively. realTech helps customers select the proper software for all Intranet applications and uses the integrated Microsoft product palette. Put into use are the Internet Information Server, the Commercial Internet System, as well as SQL and Exchange servers among others. Using SAP R/3, realTech has set up its own Intranet, which supports the information exchange and workflow between the subsidiaries and the head office. With this practical experience, realTech consultants now have the capabilities that an Intranet has to offer, and they now how to put it in place. To connect R/3 Systems to the Intranet, they use SAP’s Internet Transaction Server (ITS).

Market place made by realTech realTech also sets up materials management systems based on SAP R/3 Basis for e-Commerce — for example, with the SAP components Online-Store and Product catalog, which can be customized to fit the individual needs of the company. Online-Store, which is connected to the R/3 System, allows, among other things, a clearly understood shopping basket function, the creating of rebates, as well as the completion of orders and payment processes. The Product Catalog is maintained in the R/3 System. realTech solves the technical aspect of these duties using a multi-level R/3 Internet architecture. ITS serves as a base infrastructure for connecting R/3 Systems to the Internet and also functions as the gateway between an R/3 application server and a web server.

The A to Z of an e-Commerce partnership Another possibility for starting with e-Commerce is the integration of the Intershop solution with an SAP R/3 System. realTech supports customers during the conception of Intershop 3, installs and configures the software, and offers support during productive use. One emphasis here is the use of Intershop’s cartridge technology. With it, users of SAP R/3 Systems, who use the standard component Sales and Distribution (SD), can market their products and services on the Internet and can complete complex business processes online.

With realTech to the Internet The servers of realTech’s computer center are available for the operation of Online-Shops. Customers do not need their own Internet connection but are still able to profit from the benefits by using the services that realTech offers as an Internet provider. The services of the computer center include setup, administration, backup of Internet connections, servers, firewalls, and SAP R/3 Systems.

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High Availability of SAP R/3 with Clusters

Clusters can ensure high availability of critical company data and applications in a client/server architecture. As with all cluster solutions, an encompassing security concept is necessary for operating SAP R/3 under a Microsoft cluster server

Downtime of the “mission-critical” application SAP R/3 for hours or days can have significant effects on all business processes. Thus, every company attempts to protect itself from such downtimes and to maintain high availability at all times. One possible solution for this problem is clustering, which keeps data and applications available. The database and applications are distributed over various servers. If one server, a so-called cluster node, should fail, another server will take over its duties within seconds (failover). Older systems had a standby server available for such situations, but it was not accessed during standard operation. Modern clusters work on the active/active principle, in which services and duties are assigned to each node, but the servers can take over the duties of any node that should fail to work properly.

The user receives the information, depending on the configuration of the client, that the connection to the server is temporarily not available, but the user remains in the network and is able to continue working after a short wait, once the program has been taken over by a different server. If R/3 goes down, the user is prompted to log on again. If the database is affected by the server being down, the user with not notice the failover (if properly configured) and is able to continue working undisturbed after a few seconds. The primary goal of clustering is to keep data and services available. With the Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS), also known by its old name “Wolfpack”, data and services remain available with 100 percent security after a server failure.

The system grows as needed Clustering offers two additional advantages: with the ability to switch between servers, upgrades can be carried out during regular operation. You can thus install new software at any time or even add new hardware components. Important data and applications thus remain available, and normal operations are continued without interruption. MSCS also ensures “failback” when the down server comes back online, if properly configured. All data and applications are automatically transferred back to the original server and work continues on as normal.

Additionally, the special architecture of a cluster allows the entire system to function as one system. The user does not have to know that a network exists in the network. The user does not have to be concerned with which server is being accessed by an operation. Via a high speed network, the duties are automatically sent to the correct servers, the process being completely invisible from an external point of view. Thus, a virtual unity is created which ensures access to all and the same data. The connection to the disk subsystems is usually carried out via multi-hosted parallel SCSI or previously via FibreChannel.

MSCS is integrated into the standard Enterprise Edition of Windows NT 4.0. Different than in previous proprietary systems in which clustering was carried out outside of the operating system, you can use all certified standard hardware platforms for installing clusters. Since clustering can be set up using standard components, the costs are reduced considerably.

Sharing the load With MSCS, you can distribute the work, thus improving performance since one server controls a complete database. This requires that the “Wolfpack” consists of two servers running on the nothing shared principle, that is, services and resources are only available on one node each. If more than two services are used or if functions from several servers are in use at the same time, this solution is currently not satisfactory. One problem, for example, is the performance of databases that are distributed over various servers: Only one user is allowed to make changes to a database field and to save the changes. Otherwise, the relationships between fields is no longer correct. In this moment, all users in the system do not have access to this field. Microsoft promises to solve this problem in phase 2 of its cluster project. In Windows NT 5.0 Beta, this is not yet the case.

Reconciling hardware and software... To ensure smooth functioning of a backup in the form of a cluster, you have to make certain that the hardware, software, and network architecture fit each other as well as the needs of the company, so it is outfitted with the newest technical options. For such a complete backup solution, you should consult a service provider with extensive experience using MSCS and with SAP R/3 know-how.

Laying out the network When doing so, the consulting firm should not be limited to clustering but be able to take other security measures into consideration such as backup, restore, RAID, uninterrupted power supply, and so on. The configuration of the hardware and the network architecture are also decisive factors. Good technical SAP R/3 consultants discuss the error tolerances of the hardware with the company as well as with the hardware suppliers and are able to explain the various advantages and disadvantages of various network configurations.

Article by Hinrich Mielke who is a certified technical SAP R/3 consultant and works for realTech AG of Walldorf

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