Scottish and Southern Energy Converts its MIS System to Microsoft with Significant Gains in Performance
“We had all the right people with the correct skills to manage the migration away from DB2. SQL Server goes hand in hand with Microsoft .ASP.NET.” John Evans Lead Technical Architect SSE
Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), one of the United Kingdom’s largest utility companies, wanted a new financial reporting system to generate internal reports and to meet the demands of the Country. SSE was using IBM software with DB2 databases, but it has built its new Management Information System with Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 running on Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003. SQL Server easily coped with such a major implementation. The migration of data processing COBOL code from the mainframe onto the Microsoft .NET Framework used Fujitsu’s NetCOBOL® for .NET. The resulting solution has delivered a 1.9 TB database, on average providing better performance than the legacy system. Some reports that previously took 40 minutes now only take 4 minutes. The solution has demonstrated significantly improved reliability and fault tolerance for SSE.
Situation
Business Intelligence is a key issue for utility companies as consumers become increasingly selective about their choice of energy supplier. Yet many utilities lack the tools they need to understand more about their customers. They are beginning to recognise that they must become smarter and better at not only attracting new customers, but also in retaining them.
Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), one of the United Kingdom’s largest energy companies, faced these challenges. Formed through a merger of Southern Electric and Scottish Hydro-Electric in 1998, SSE serves over 4 million electricity and 1 million gas customers through its Southern Electric, SWALEC and Scottish Hydro-Electric brands. It also manages the United Kingdom’s largest electricity distribution network and accounts for 10 per cent of the country’s generation assets with close to half of the UK’s renewable generation capacity.
SSE is firmly established as one of the most efficient and successful companies in the British energy markets with a total commitment to quality service. Since deregulation of the energy industry, SSE has grown by acquisition and serves many more customers. In 2002, SSE decided it needed a better financial reporting system to improve the speed and delivery of internal and external reports. It wanted to use familiar desktop tools, such as the Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheet software, to produce internal management reports and information for shareholders, analysts and potential investors.
First, SSE needed to make a major decision on the core database solution. Stephen Jeffers, Chief Technology Officer, SSE, takes up the story: “We were looking for alternatives to our existing IBM DB2 system so as to improve our ability to analyse customer information and to deliver more timely external reports for investors in the Country.”
SSE had embarked on a strategic as well as a tactical change. Whilst the company considered Oracle as an alternative it opted for Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000 as a core system to lower development and maintenance costs. Jeffers continues: “The key driver for us is improving knowledge management. However, we are also facing cost pressures and have to be scrupulous in examining numbers. That’s why we were seeking a high value, low-cost solution to an industry wide-problem.”
Solution
SSE decided to use technology from Microsoft for its Management Information System (MIS) to enable and manage administrative access to data that is critical to the functioning of the enterprise. It also decided to enter a partnership with Microsoft Services to deliver the project.
It built the MIS with SQL Server running on the Microsoft Windows ServerTM 2003 operating system. A complete, Web-enabled database and data analysis package, SQL Server 2000 opens the door to the rapid development of a new generation of database applications. It provides core support for XML and the ability to query across the Internet and beyond the firewall.
The migration of data processing COBOL code from the mainframe onto the Microsoft .NET Framework was completed with NetCOBOL for .NET, a COBOL compiler created specifically for the .NET Framework. It successfully migrated all DB2 objects to SQL Server.
Jennifer Gunnion, Business Manager, Microsoft UK, says: “The SSE implementation, which is now live, was a major DB2 to SQL Server migration, providing SSE with a business-critical financial reporting system. It successfully used the NetCOBOL for .NET migration tool from Fujitsu. Our partnership with [Microsoft Services] was a major factor in the success of the implementation.”
SSE’s SQL Server deployment was among the biggest of 2003. The Winter Corporation Top Ten Program ranked SSE seventh in the world in 2003 for the number of database rows and fifth for peak workload.
SSE used the Microsoft .NET Framework, an integral component of the Microsoft Windows® operating system, because it offers built-in functionality, meaning less coding that ultimately enabled the project team to deliver the solution more quickly and cost effectively. The .NET Framework also offers far greater integration capabilities to enable the MIS to extend the service to other applications and organisations in the future.
John Evans, Lead Technical Architect, SSE, says: “We had the feeling from the beginning that it could be done. We had all the right people with the correct skills to manage the migration. SQL Server goes hand in hand with Microsoft ASP.NET.”
Using the Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET 2003 development system, the Microsoft Visual C#® development tool, and the .NET Framework, Evans and his development team met the challenge with time to spare.
Benefits
World Ranking Performance Achieved
The resulting solution has delivered a 1.9 TB database, on average providing better performance than the legacy mainframe and database. According to the Winter Corporation, peak workload is 2,152 transactions a second – the fifth best for SQL Server in 2003, and the highest for a utility.
For the number of rows, the SQL Server database at SSE was seventh in the world last year with 5.827 billion. This figure was also the highest achieved by a utility company anywhere in the world using SQL Server.
Jeffers says: “The improved performance compared with the mainframe is a major benefit. Some reports that previously took 40 minutes now only take 4 minutes. The solution has demonstrated significantly improved reliability and fault tolerance for SSE.”
Migration Using Fujitsu’s NetCOBOL for .NET
The migration of data processing COBOL code from the mainframe onto the Microsoft .NET Framework used Fujitsu’s NetCOBOL for .NET. Gunnion says: “This proved an excellent solution and because it was a port rather than a re-write, the risks of getting the calculations wrong were vastly reduced.”
SSE’s technical team was understandably sceptical about how quickly the migration could be achieved to what was not a Greenfield site. The growing size of the company’s database held on the mainframe generated challenges in itself. Jeffers says: “We developed a real partnership with the Microsoft account team and had the best Microsoft people on the case.”
Low Total Cost of Ownership
From SSE’s point of view, the migration to SQL Server helped protect a large part of its existing investment in IT, including its Cognos Business Intelligence tool. Jeffers says: “The low total cost of ownership (TCO) was a major consideration and that wasn’t just about the technology, but also what has come with it from Microsoft, including support skills and low maintenance costs. SQL Server is easy to pick up and training requirements are lower than the alternatives. We don’t develop in J2EE. We develop in ASP.NET and Visual Studio .NET.”
SSE also wanted to make full use of the efficiency, the far more powerful libraries and the object-oriented languages offered by Microsoft .NET connection software. The .NET Framework with its richness and standardisation was ideal as an environment. Jeffers says: “We felt that our developers would get more done in less time, and there would be a greater likelihood of reuse down the road. The costs would have been prohibitive had we stayed with the legacy system.”
Scalability, Robustness and Reliability
The new MIS is now detached from the mainframe and offers fast reliable data for external and internal use. The power of the .NET Framework with its native support for Web services offers a robust development environment, while SQL Server is scalable for future growth.
Gunnion says: “SSE is in a position to vastly improve its management information by looking at other Microsoft technologies including Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services and Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services.”
