This white paper is an IBM case study. Murli Cement deployed a range of SAP ERP applications centrally, including financial accounting,materials management, sales and distribution, plant maintenance and production planning to provide a single, integrated business management platform. With SAP applications provided centrally, all business units categorize their costs and revenues in the same standardized manner, enabling the company to extract, analyze and compare data rapidly and produce meaningful results. Visit http://on.fb.me/LT4gdu to 'Like' the official Facebook page of IBM India Smarter Computing.

1. we know
they know
Murli Industries: Murli Cement builds better,
faster processes with SAP and IBM
Murli Industries Limited (“the
Overview Company”) is a public limited
company, formerly known as
 The Challenge IBM System x3650 server running Murli Agro Products Limited and
Murli Cement, a fast-growth cement Microsoft Windows Server and established in December 1991. The
manufacturing business unit of Microsoft SQL Server database. Company, inter alia, engaged in the
Murli Industries, relied on various business of production and marketing
IT solutions to support the specific  The Benefits of various agriculture-based products
needs of each operational area. With SAP applications provided like Soya derivatives – oiled cake,
Limitations of database size and its centrally, all business units refined edible oil and paper products.
expandability, and the unavailability categorize their costs and revenues Recently the Company has made
of an industry-standard sales and in the same standardized manner, forays into the cement sector and
distribution module, an important enabling the company to extract, has commissioned a cement plant
capability for a cement company, analyze and compare data rapidly at Chandrapur, Maharashtra. The
were hindering company growth. and produce meaningful results. registered office of the Company is
situated at Nagpur, Maharashtra, and
 The Solution  Key Solution Components has an employee base of more than
Murli Cement deployed a range of Industry: Industrial Products, 2000. The Cement Business is one of
SAP ERP applications centrally, Manufacturing the fastest growing-business units of
including financial accounting, Applications: SAP® ERP including Murli Industries.
materials management, sales and financial accounting, inventory,
distribution, plant maintenance manufacturing, import/export, As is often the case with growing
and production planning to provide payroll, quality, warehouse business activities, the underlying IT
a single, integrated business management, sales and distribution systems had grown to reflect each
management platform. The decision Hardware: IBM ® System x3650 operational area’s specific needs.
was based on the widespread server powered by quad-core Intel® The operating divisions tended to
adoption of SAP solutions within Xeon® Processor 5500 series, IBM invest in their own solutions, resulting
the cement industry, the excellence System Storage® DS3400 in high operational costs and
of the functionality offered by the Software: Microsoft® Windows® underutilized assets. The result was
sales and distribution component, Server 2003, Microsoft SQL silos of applications and data, along
and the ability to handle very large Server™ 2005 with disparate and disconnected
data workloads. To support the Services: IBM Global Business processes. Executives were facing
SAP applications and database, Services
Murli Cement implemented an

2. “The IBM System challenges in discovering the right offered the greatest experience both in
information at the right time for successful SAP implementations and
Storage DS3400 offers
decision making. with the best resources in India.
a secure, centralized
store for Murli Cement, Finding expert help “We selected IBM Global Business
and the embedded Murli Industries’ executives Services to guide us through the
RAID protection and understood the need to integrate software selection and implementation
the company’s cement business process. There was strong
dual controller design
processes, and had created a competition from some large Indian
offers a high degree of shortlist of possible ERP solutions. It IT service companies, but we felt that
resilience to ensure that was important to Murli Industries to IBM offered the strongest experience
our valuable business bring in experts to help choose the of successful SAP implementations in
data is secured.” right solution and subsequently to India.”
implement it cost-efficiently.
Sudhir Thosar, Head of IT, Murli Industries Starting initially with another
Ltd.
Sudhir Thosar, Head of IT, explains, implementation partner, after three
“Our cement business was expanding, months Murli Industries found that
particularly the operations and the the quality and expertise were not up
local teams were busy supporting to standard. After switching to IBM,
daily activities. We were particularly project progress accelerated and IBM
interested in switching to industry- delivered considerably better value for
standard software that would offer money.
us the best possible fit with our
business. This led us naturally to SAP Building on best practices
ERP applications, which are used by The IBM Global Business Services
almost all cement and construction team implemented a wide range of
businesses in India. The next step was SAP ERP applications, including
to choose an IT service partner that financial accounting, materials
management, sales and distribution,
plant maintenance and production
planning.
To ensure speed and reliability of
design and implementation, IBM
Global Business Services used
integrated tools and techniques,
including proven reference
architectures, based on templates
that are known to work and provide
a very high degree of functionality
with the least possible customization.
This approach involved people and
resources from IBM Global Business
Services, including specialists from
Financial Management, Business
Risk Management, Human Capital
Management, HR Strategy and

3. Transformation, Supply Chain even if one of the controllers fails, “With SAP applications
Management, and from Enterprise offering additional protection that is
provided centrally,
Asset Management. ideally suited to organizations that rely
on a single storage device.
there is no longer a
Acting on advice from IBM Global need for each operating
Business Services, the Murli Industries “As Murli Cement grows, so will unit to invest in their
– Cement Business team chose to the amount of data, and the value own solutions and the
implement the SAP applications on an of data tends to increase over time
supporting hardware,
IBM System x3650 server, powered as it contains a track record of
by quad-core Intel Xeon 5500 series performance. With the previous
which immediately
processors. The server runs Microsoft solution, data held in separate servers saves money. It is cost-
Windows Server 2003, with a Microsoft and individual storage systems within effective to invest in the
SQL Server 2005 database to support the business units was very difficult IBM System x3650 and
the SAP applications. to obtain and analyze, and Murli
IBM System Storage
Cement Business faced increased
“IBM Global Business Services was cost and complexity along with the
DS3400 and then
able to provide access to the right accompanying business risks,” exploit these assets to
people with the in-depth resources comments Sudhir Thosar. the full.”
that we needed for selecting, sizing
Sudhir Thosar, Head of IT, Murli Industries
and deploying the correct SAP “The IBM System Storage DS3400
Ltd.
application architecture on the IBM offers a secure, centralized store for
System x3650 server. The IBM System Murli Cement, and the embedded
x3650 itself offers excellent response RAID protection and dual controller
for SAP applications, and is easily design offers a high degree of
capable of handling our predicted resilience to ensure that our valuable
workload,” says Sudhir Thosar. business data is secured.”
Scalable storage Gaining control of operations
As the company expands its With the SAP applications on the IBM
operations across geographies and System x3650 server, and data stored
expands its market base the total data on the IBM System Storage DS3400, TECHNICAL LANDSCAPE
generated by the SAP applications will Murli Cement has now gained control Servers: Four IBM System x3650
rise. It was clear to the Murli Cement of its enterprise operations. The SAP servers powered by quad-core Intel
team that the ability to add storage applications provide core business Xeon Processor 5500 series with
capacity easily and quickly would services such as finance, materials 8 GB memory, IBM System Storage
become important. management, sales and distribution, DS3400
plant maintenance and production Software: SAP ERP including financial
Working with IBM Global Business planning. The result is that executives accounting, inventory, manufacturing,
Services, Murli Cement chose to are now able to receive enterprise- import/export, payroll, quality,
implement an IBM System Storage wide business information rapidly, warehouse management, sales and
DS3400 Dual Controller. The IBM based on accurate data that is distribution, Microsoft Windows
System Storage DS3400 is capable automatically retrieved from the SQL Server 2003, Microsoft SQL Server
of expanding to 24TB total capacity, database. 2005
and to 96TB with expansion cabinets, Users: 100 SAP users accessing
allowing for even the most dramatic Sudhir Thosar continues, “With SAP approximately 100 GB of data in
growth. The Dual Controller design applications provided centrally, there Microsoft SQL Server 2005
ensures that operations can continue is no longer a need for each operating

4. unit to invest in their own solutions “The IBM System x3650
and the supporting hardware,
and IBM System
which immediately saves money.
Storage DS3400
It is cost-effective to invest in the
IBM System x3650 and IBM System technologies provide
Storage DS3400 and then exploit an excellent foundation
these assets to the full. for Murli Cement to
IBM Deutschland GmbH
run its new SAP ERP D-70548 Stuttgart
“The shared SAP applications ensure ibm.com/solutions/sap
applications, with the
that all Cement unit departments IBM, the IBM logo, and ibm.com are trademarks
categorize their costs and revenues opportunity to start of International Business Machines Corporation,
registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. A
in the same standardized manner, small and grow fast current list of other IBM trademarks is available
on the Web at “Copyright and trademark
and we can then extract, analyze and in a way that matches information” at http://www.ibm.com/legal/
compare this data rapidly and produce
Murli Industries’ own copytrade.shtml
meaningful results for executives. Intel, the Intel logo, Intel Xeon and the Intel Xeon
ambitions” logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of
Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United
“Looking ahead, we can see that States and other countries. UNIX is a registered
Sudhir Thosar, Head of IT, Murli Industries
trademark of The Open Group in the United
there will be more consolidation Ltd.
States and other countries. Linux is a trademark
to SAP applications, and analysis of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other
countries, or both. Microsoft, Windows, Windows
of the centralized data will help
NT, and the Windows logo are trademarks of
executives understand and manage Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other
countries, or both.
the business more effectively. The
Other company, product or service names may
IBM System x3650 and IBM System
be trademarks, or service marks of others.
Storage DS3400 technologies
This case study illustrates how one IBM
provide an excellent foundation for customer uses IBM and/or IBM Business Partner
technologies/services. Many factors have
Murli Cement to run its new SAP ERP
contributed to the results and benefits
applications, with the opportunity described. IBM does not guarantee comparable
results. All information contained herein was
to start small and grow fast in a way
provided by the featured customer and/or IBM
that matches Murli Industries’ own Business Partner. IBM does not attest to its
accuracy. All customer examples cited represent
ambitions,” concludes Sudhir Thosar.
how some customers have used IBM products
and the results they may have achieved. Actual
environmental costs and performance
characteristics will vary depending on individual
customer configurations and conditions.
This publication is for general guidance only.
Photographs may show design models.
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2010. All rights reserved.
© Copyright 2010 SAP AG
SAP AG
Dietmar-Hopp-Allee 16
D-69190 Walldorf
SAP, the SAP logo, SAP and all other SAP
products and services mentioned herein are
trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in
Germany and several other countries.
SPC03301-INEN-00 (December 2010)