Case Studies and Testimonials

Carrefour increases performance with
HiT OLEDB Server/400

Background
 
Carrefour is the number one retailer group in Europe. With stores and franchises on three continents, Carrefour has over 9000 supermarkets and employs 340,000 people.

Platforms
 
8 AS/400s, 200 NT4 PCs in the Czech Republic office.

Project
 
Carrefour Czech Republic needed to build a data warehouse for their regional office.

Problem and HiT Software Solution
 
Carrefour needed to improve performance between their AS/400 and their Microsoft SQL Server software. The MS SQL Server acts as a regional data warehouse, which is updated daily from remote AS/400 servers.
 
Carrefour was using Client Access ODBC driver and Client Access Express from IBM. They needed to update data on the AS/400 based on MS SQL Server tables and to execute AS/400 stored procedures from MS SQL Server. The IBM middleware allowed limited performance when completing these two critical tasks. Carrefour followed recommendations from developers in technology discussion groups to consider HiT OLEDB Server/400.
 
HiT OLEDB Server/400 enables automatic execution of stored procedures and regular updates of data into the AS/400. Today, Carrefour uses HiT OLEDB Server/400 to meet functional requirements with high performance.

Product Functionality
 
HiT OLEDB Server/400 is standards-based SQL middleware for IBM DB2 access. It enables client and server applications to exchange DB2 data using established computing standards. HiT OLEDB Server/400 works with ADO tools to accept standard ANSI 92 SQL function calls. It translates the function calls into native DB2 SQL and communicates with the DB2 server to access, retrieve and update DB2 data.

Strengths

  • Performance
  • Compatible with Microsoft's latest ADO v2.5 development tools
  • Reliable, robust, scalable
  • Able to execute stored procedures on the AS/400
  • Able to perform regular updates on the AS/400
  • Easy to administer

Selection Criteria
 
The selection criteria for HiT OLEDB Server/400 were speed, ease of use, reliability and customer service. Carrefour is very impressed with the performance of the driver compared to other alternatives.

Vendor Support
 
“We are very pleased with HiT OLEDB Server/400. We are able to run automatic stored procedures and increase performance, both of which are very important for our project. Other products were not able to meet our requirements. We highly recommend HiT middleware products to other potential customers.”
 
 -- Jan Cejka, Marketing Manager