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Retail

Slashing Downtime, Powering Growth

Buchanan's application team drove an 80% reduction in downtime with a performance analysis and optimization. 
A warehouse worker scans stacked boxes on shelving with a handheld device, representing inventory management, logistics operations, and technology-enabled supply chain processes.

Seeking Scalable Solutions with Minimal Downtime

When a global retail industry leader needed to reduce the downtime associated with a major ERP upgrade, Buchanan Technologies as the leader in Application Optimization, provided a leading-edge solution to optimize the entire upgrade cycle and thereby reducing downtime by 80%. 

As one of the largest retailers in the world, their Oracle ERP system was extremely complex and large in scale spanning over 150 TB. With over billions of transactions, reducing downtime to a minimum was the key driver of successful operations for the company. For a retail enterprise, even a few hours of downtime significantly impact revenue and delivery, which is why they trusted Buchanan with the task of ERP upgrade optimization.

At a Glance

About the Client

Global Retail Leader

Industry

Retail and E-commerce

Challenge

Excessive ERP downtime (100+ hours) during upgrades, affecting global operations.

Solution

Analyzed performance, optimized scripts & data processing, and streamlined upgrades.

Results
  • 80% Reduction in downtime
  • Upgrade window reduced to <1 day
  • Improvement in operational efficiency
  • Enhanced security protocols
"Thanks to the Buchanan solution and expertise, we were able to reduce the downtime by over 80% and also ensure a smooth upgrade."
IT LeaderGlobal Retail
The Challenge

Downtime in A Busy World: A Costly Challenge

Staying up to date with the latest ERP features and upgrades is a crucial component for every retail business. Despite being abundantly resourceful and equipped with a sturdy cybersecurity infrastructure and the latest business features, the company needed to solve the challenge of the upgrade downtime.

The Solution

Buchanan Tackled the Downtime Challenge

Our team of performance tuning experts at Buchanan worked closely with our customer to address the challenge of the upgrade downtime. We began our process with a comprehensive performance analysis of their complete ERP upgrading cycle. This enabled us to identify the bottlenecks in the ERP upgrade process.

We utilized our holistic and full-cycle upgrade optimization methodology, including script optimization, data transformations, parallelization, asynchronous tasks, code optimizations, and infrastructure tuning. Our team implemented data optimizations including the use of bulk and multi-threading processing in order to eliminated bottlenecks in the upgrade tasks. We also reviewed and optimized the infrastructure as well as overall architecture of the environment.

Business Impact

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The Impact

Reduced 100+ Hours of Downtime to Less Than One Day

Buchanan’s Application Optimization team achieved what multiple vendors combined couldn’t achieve. We methodically lowered the company’s ERP downtime hours by 80%. For an enterprise-scale customer, this reduction in downtime translates to an upgrade period of a single day versus multiple days.

The reduction in their ERP upgrade downtime didn’t just facilitate their global operations, but it also enhanced the prospects of any future upgrades, making future patch updates viable. With the help of the Buchanan team, the company could schedule its ERP upgrades without the major constraint of excessive downtime.

Next Steps

Future Growth and Lasting Impact

The services we offered created a ripple effect for the retail giant as the reduction in downtime led to an improvement in its overall operations and transactions as well. Following the downtime reduction by Buchanan, the company enjoys an enhanced freedom to adapt to the latest market changes more aptly without delays. In the long term, the 80% reduction in ERP downtime ensures that our client stays ahead in the highly competitive market with its smooth operations and the latest ERP optimizations.

Why Buchanan?

  • Full stack provider with expertise in end-to-end infrastructure management, modern workplace services, and application performance management
  • Proven ITIL-based processes
  • Best-in-class remote monitoring and ticketing tools
  • Continuous process improvement methodology
  • Customer satisfaction monitoring 
  • Industry-recognized best practices
  • Flexible pricing and delivery models 
  • 100% satisfaction guarantee