Development and support of data migration solutions for Auchan Magyarország Ltd.

Development and support of data migration solutions for Auchan Magyarország Ltd.

Implementation and continuous support of a scheduled, automated ETL solution

Company profile

Auchan Magyarország Ltd. was founded in Hungary in 1998 as a member of the Auchan group. The first store was opened in Budaörs in 1988, followed by the others: in Soroksár in 2000, and by 2005, Auchan Hungary had expanded with eight more stores, one in Székesfehérvár, one in Kecskemét, and six in Budapest and its surroundings. Auchan opened its doors in Miskolc in 2008 and in Maglód in 2009, with the acquisition of Cora Magyarország, the number of domestic units increased to 19.

Today, Auchan Magyarország Kft. operates 24 stores, 18 discount gas stations and an online store, and employs nearly 7,000 people in Hungary. Over the past 20 years, the department store chain has become a major economic player, with around HUF 200 billion worth of investment in Hungary. The company, known for its wide selection and discounted prices, offers its customers 40-70 thousand different products in its large stores

Auchan Hungary manually moved the large amount of data generated in its IT systems between different systems, so it was looking for an automated, schedulable ETL tool. One important criterion was to deliver an application that was running on a different hardver infrastructure than the core system. On June 15, 2007, EuroMACC Kft. gave an offer for the data migration framework, as well as for the implementation supporting the specific data movements indicated by Auchan Hungary.

To satisfy Auchan Magyarország’s business needs EuroMACC provided them with a JAVA based data transfer software solution called the Migrator with which it was possible for Auchan Magyarország to automatize its data transfer between different systems. Due to its parameterizability, data conversions, aggregation, unique business logic, and transfers containing special tasks can also be performed with it.

For the sake of future joint cooperation, Auchan and EuroMACC agreed to build a so-called “pilot” project, for which Auchan selected the product information report that had been generated manually on a weekly basis.

The main milestones were:

June 2007: Start of Migrator pilot project (“Product information” report)
December 2008: Launch of the “Llog project”.
September 2011: Support and maintenance contract signed

Goals and challenges:

It was a basic expectation that the data flow between the various systems of Auchan Magyarország Ltd. would work continuously and reliably without human intervention, while complying with the relevant legal and data security regulations in all respects.

Scheduled, automated data conversions and transfers between different platforms (1 AS/400-based central system with DB2 database and 10 AS/400-based store systems with DB2 database)
Regular, automated reports, which are prepared by aggregating current data stored in different systems.

How did the solution help?

With the implemented system, automated reports were run quickly and reliably, without requiring human resources, synchronization of the store’s cash register servers with the central system, and other data conversions and synchronizations implemented according to Auchan’s needs.

By introducing the solution, thanks to its complex functionality and performance, Auchan Magyarország Kft. was able to withstand the ever-increasing competition.

We provided continuous support and maintenance services for the delivered solution.

Results:

With EuroMACC Ltd.’s Migrator solution, Auchan Magyarország Kft. minimized the business and IT risk resulting from manual data movement, while the colleagues thus freed up could focus on solving current, other IT tasks.

For more information please visit our website or call one of our sales representatives