Julius Blum GmbH
Customer & challenge
Julius Blum GmbH is a company active on the international market that specializes in the production and distribution of furniture fittings. The main product groups are door, hinge, pull-out and pocket systems for furniture, with a focus on kitchens. Founded in 1952, the family business offers matching services and processing aids. Production takes place at locations in Austria, the USA, Poland, China, and Brazil. Julius Blum employs 9,300 people worldwide, including 6,800 in Austria (Vorarlberg).
Blum maintains its position as one of the leading manufacturers of furniture fittings by keeping a consistent focus on quality and always striving to modernize. This philosophy applies not only to the furniture industry, but also to information technology. For example, the use of data for corporate management has been playing an increasingly important role for the fittings specialist in recent years. As part of its 2023 business analytics strategy, the company decided to build a new data & analytics platform in the Microsoft Azure Cloud in order to fully realize the insights that could be found in their data.
According to the IT experts at Blum, the status quo was as follows:
“Since we had already worked with Azure in the area of advanced analytics and used Microsoft Power BI as the front end, we decided on a Microsoft scenario overall.”
However, the company still lacked an interface for data transfer from SAP to the Microsoft world.
“Our technical objective for the SAP interface was to ensure the best possible functionality, stability and long-term compatibility with all SAP versions or systems. Strategically, it was important to find a long-term and future-proof solution. We have achieved these goals with Xtract Universal.”
Matthias Stein, Business Analytics Consultant, Julius Blum GmbH
Solution with Xtract Universal
Christian Nenning, Data Engineer, reported: “Although Microsoft offers SAP connectors for the Azure Data Factory, in our experience these are still quite rudimentary. The transfer using these connectors works well enough for tables, but Theobald’s solution was more impressive overall.”
An existing relationship with Theobald Software for previous data pipeline projects led them to explore solutions in their new landscape. Nenning continued: “We implemented the interface to transfer data from SAP systems to our Oracle data warehouse in 2014. And working with Theobald Software also turned out to be very pleasant; we received excellent support. That’s why a solution from Theobald Software was our first choice for the new setting.”
When contacted about the new business analytics strategy, the integration experts at Theobald Software recommended replacing the previous solution, Xtract IS, with a tool better suited for their new requirements: Xtract Universal. Nenning confirmed that after viewing a proof of technology on the Azure platform, Blum was able to easily install the free trial version within a few hours: “Since we were able to take over the customization of Xtract IS, all we had to do was define connectors and request a user, assign rights and that was it.”
After the end of the trial period, it was clear that Xtract Universal for the SAP interface was ideal for building their new data and analytics platform in the Microsoft Azure Cloud (with Azure Data Factory, Azure Synapse, Databricks and Power BI), and that this solution can replace Oracle Data Warehouse (along with Xtract IS as the SAP interface and SAP Business Objects as the front end) in the next few years.
Matthias Stein estimates that in the future, some 2,000 users will be using the new BI architecture to evaluate data from SAP and non-SAP sources.
Challenge: SAP data transfer to Microsoft Azure Cloud
Solution: Xtract Universal
Installation time: A few hours
Added value: High functionality, stability, and long-term compatibility with all SAP versions/systems
Since it is debatable whether deploying Azure SSIS Integration Runtime in Azure Data Factory will be possible in the long term, Xtract Universal in conjunction with Microsoft Azure Data Factory and Azure Synapse Analytics offers a future-proof solution. The interface’s SAP certification also ensures that extractions with Xtract Universal are stable and will work with any SAP version over the long term. In addition, the interface offers a high level of flexibility around transferring data from various SAP systems that are currently or will be in use to the Microsoft environment.
According to Nenning, the benefits are not restricted to just the interface technology itself: “As has already been shown with Xtract IS, the support from Theobald Software is very fast. We usually receive a solution or at least an initial assessment within 24 hours at the latest. In addition, in most cases we work with dedicated contact persons when we need help. This makes the support process very efficient and pleasant.”
