Intel Corporation announced that German precision tool and grinding machine manufacturer Saacke GmbH & Co. has migrated its business-critical Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to Intel Itanium 2 architecture. The move delivers a 20-fold increase in processing power from the previously installed RISC-based solution. It also provides the capability to serve twice as many customers and allows a 33 percent reduction in backup time. With products distributed in more than 70 countries and subsidiaries in several locations in China and the United States, Saacke's growth has increased demands on the company's IT infrastructure. Using ABAS Business Software, the company had a flexible and scaleable software solution, but on the hardware side, the situation was different. "The RISC-based system we had in place had reached its performance limit, and we just could not accommodate the growing number of users," said Mr. Janietz, head of IT at Saacke. "We needed a more powerful solution. By running the ERP system on Itanium 2 architecture, a medium-sized company such as Saacke has achieved the kind of performance previously reserved only for the largest companies." Scalability and cost-reduction were also key drivers in the decision to transfer to the Itanium 2 architecture. "We wanted to get away from our proprietary RISC system," Janietz said. "The combination of the Itanium 2 architecture and Linux* allowed us to do this. The result is that we have plenty of headroom in reserve, thanks to the system's scalability. We're also reducing our IT costs through the advantages of a standards-based solution." Saacke's transition from RISC and Unix to a MAXDATA 9000 4-R based on Itanium 2 architecture running Linux was seamless, requiring one day for server configuration and one day for data transfer before the system went live. "Intel represents, as does ABAS business software, high performance, state-of-the-art technology, which is critical to building a competitive advantage," Janietz said. "We believe this is the right long-term choice to support company growth." "Intel works closely with OEMs, software developers, system integrators and end users to ensure that companies of all sizes can realize the benefits of deploying Itanium 2-based solutions in their business," said Tom Garrison, director of enterprise marketing, for Intel's Europe Middle East and Africa operations. "As Saacke has proven, these benefits include increased productivity, lower operating costs and improved customer satisfaction."