Smart solutions from Steltix ensure seamless migration of JD Edwards to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure for Pluripharm Group
Do not underestimate the cost savings of moving to the Cloud. Comparisons rarely do it justice.
The on-premise hardware of Pluripharm was nearing its end of life and thus a move to the cloud was imminent. With the knowledge that their new ERP infrastructure needed to be stable, with good performance and state-of-the-art backup and disaster recovery, Hans Stokman, ICT Manager at Pluripharm, commented that ‘The main thing we researched was which supplier would do the cloud transition of JD Edwards and the maintenance once migrated. For this, we considered only Steltix and one other partner.’
When asked why they chose Steltix, Hans commented that it was their practical and hands-on approach that made all the difference, ‘The Steltix team instilled a lot of confidence,’ he said. Steltix proposed to not only move the JD Edwards on-premise solution to the Oracle Cloud but also offered a smart solution using Steltix their in-house automation and container technologies. These allowed for flexible scaling and cost management; continuous patching and updates – making the system always up-to-date; built-in high availability across multiple datacentres, where containers are instantly launched in other datacentres in the case of an emergency, and finally adding significant resilience due to built-in failover to another datacenter.
A move to the Cloud had always been a priority for Pluripharm and although they couldn’t have made the move any sooner than their timetables allowed, they have never looked back. Commenting on the challenges they faced with their migration Hans stated that the enormous amount of data that had to be moved across was always going to be a challenge, but what was more daunting was the short timeline they were working towards – the go-live was done over a single weekend! ‘Through careful planning and multiple dry-runs the go-live transition was smooth and not nearly as challenging as expected’ said Hans, ‘ a testament to the skill and guidance of the Steltix team.’
On discussing the cost savings of moving to OCI, Hans stated that ‘Cloud has a much more robust disaster recovery than could ever be achieved in-house at the same cost. Time to recover is significantly less too.’ Furthermore, he added, ‘Comparisons do not include what it costs to maintain servers, the FTE savings, the cost of failures and the indirect costs incurred. We no longer have disruptions to our operations because of hardware failures.’ From a user experience point of view, ‘most users found the transition to be completely seamless and didn’t even notice’.
Commenting on their experience of working with Steltix, Hans Stokman stated that it’s been very positive, ‘We were looking for a company that would be an ideal partner in the coming years based on culture, knowledge and price, and so far we have not been disappointed.’ Hans went on to say that Steltix ‘are a real business partner who put great effort in maintaining a good relation, and share both the successes and the disappointments with their customers.’Since their migration to the Cloud in 2021, Pluripharm and Steltix have built a remarkable partnership, strengthened by honesty, good communication and the sharing of knowledge. ‘Our teams work as one, for a common goal – that’s important to Steltix and our customers’ said Jan Jaap Weerstand, CEO of Steltix.
Established in 1984 in the Netherlands, Pluripharm is a leading distributor of pharmaceutical products committed to delivering quality product support to client businesses. The company, through its efficient logistics and supply chain operations, focuses on offering consistent and flexible distribution of medicines aiming to impart specialised pharmaceutical care to hospitals and pharmacies.
‘Move to the Cloud as soon as possible. I sleep much better since having done that. Much less stress.’
Hans Stokman, ICT Manager, Pluripharm Groep