Centiq helps Arco combat workplace accidents with HANA

Centiq has announced how its in-memory database knowhow helps the UK health and safety equipment provider, Arco, ensure the workplace safety of the country's largest construction projects.

The UK's largest supplier of health and safety equipment is a family-run business which began life selling tennis balls to Wimbledon 130 years ago, now has sales of over £268m and employs approximately 1,600 people. Today, Arco customers buy through its extensive catalogue of products, interactive website and 49 strong trade counter network.

Arco faced the challenge of ensuring stock was delivered to the right location at the right time, enabling construction works to proceed accident free. As a seasonal business, because safety equipment changes with the weather, means its business processes, be it analytical or transactional, need to be agile to deliver results quickly.

As an SAP customer, Arco had the tools in place to build an efficient ERP system but lacked the prowess to implement SAP's game-changing in-memory database, SAP HANA. Thanks to Centiq's expertise, its management reporting application, built on business warehouse (BW), now runs stock positioning reports in real-time, using HANA.

The roll-out of HANA with BW took Centiq just six weeks, which included the migration of 464 gigabytes worth of data to be stored in HANA. This move allowed Arco to be more forward-thinking in its approach to stock positioning. By optimising stock, Arco can now keep its supply chain optimised, while still satisfying growing customer needs. Centiq also provided Arco with its proprietary SAP HANA systems management platform, Optiq, to allow the in-house team to monitor the performance and capacity of the database in real-time.

Centiq's role was as a service provider but also strategic counsel. After the initial roll-out of HANA, with BW, Centiq then later supported the deployment of Supply Chain Management (SCM). Centiq helped Arco take calculated risks, ensuring revenue streams are funnelled in the right direction.

Mark Johnson, lead architect, Arco said, "SAP HANA is a game-changer, it allows us to be more efficient in storing and analysing near real-time data. As HANA is regarded as a niche database, we needed a trusted partner to implement it. Centiq stood out from the crowd because they offered a level of service you would expect from a true partner, not just a service provider. Of all the partners Arco has ever engaged with, Centiq was the most professional."

Glyn Heath, CEO, Centiq added, "The capabilities of HANA are staggering and seeing it change the way Arco is managing its equipment supply business is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Centiq exists, to help the UK's best loved and most important industries provide goods and services to the people that need it. If getting the job done means keeping people safe at work, all the better."