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SAAB Cars USA gets a Second Opinion
Saab Cars USA operates the Swedish auto maker’s American U.S. retail operations that include 225 retailers.
The Challenge
In 1999, to improve customer satisfaction by empowering its retailers with up-to-date product and service information, Saab launched IRIS -- its Intranet Retail Information System. Saab’s goal was to reduce the amount of time required for a retailer to enter and access information. This meant that the screens within each System i application, as well as applications running on an S/390, had to be able to appear almost instantaneously. The goal – no more than a maximum three-second response time for any transaction, regardless of where that information was located. Extremely easy-to-use and centrally managed using an System i, IRIS applications contain warranty, parts and service information. The applications are deployed through a satellite virtual private network. And, Jacada, an e-business infrastructure solution, makes the integration possible. The heart of the applications is Domino. Since Saab was one of the first sites to deploy Domino on the System i, selecting the right size System i to handle all its North American dealers was a challenge. "We did not want to throw hardware at a problem," said Mark O’Shaughnessy, manager, retail information systems. "We needed to understand the performance bottlenecks and size the target box accurately."
The Solution
After analyzing the possible products that could help accurately measure Domino performance on the System i, Saab selected MPG’s Performance Navigator.
Realizing the power of the What IF® functions in Performance Navigator, Saab and its IT outsourcing partner EDS, approached MPG to assist in sizing their target System i web-hosted applications. MPG analyzed Saab’s
performance data using the new unreleased version 3 of Performance Navigator. "With the new version of Performance Navigator, CPU utilization graphs by Domino subsystem and jobs can easily be produced," said Joe Camilli, MPG's author of Performance Navigator.
Back at Saab’s U.S. headquarters located in Atlanta, Mark O'Shaugnessy and Bob Allard of EDS were extremely pleased with the results. "Once we got tapes in MPG's hands, we had our answer in two days flat," O’Shaugnessy said.
"Performance Navigator provided us with the critical information we needed to add more dealers to the system with confidence, and the ability to monitor their service level and response times day-to-day," O’Shaugnessy said.
"We are very impressed with the MPG product, as well as their professional services," concluded EDS’ Allard, "They really know System i performance".
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