1. business and industrial
2. business operations
3. management
4. business process

REGION: Europe
INDUSTRY: Building Materials
SOLUTION: Business Process Automation
Business processes
optimized to run reliably
day and night.
• Business processes automated across 140 applications
• Entire business processes tracked and managed from a single window
• Reliance on business users and IT minimized
Lafarge is the world leader in building materials, with
top rankings in all of its businesses: cement, aggregates and concrete, and gypsum.
Lafarge operates in 78 countries and is headquartered in France, where the transversal functions of
the company are based, including the EMEA Data
Center Operations division.
Optimize to Modernize
The EMEA Data Center Operations division was
formed in 2011 when four data centers, originally
located in Spain and Poland, were consolidated down
to two data centers in France.
According to Michel Buo, Group EMEA Data Center
Vendor Manager at Lafarge Service Group, “The
consolidation was an opportunity to both optimize
data center processes and modernize technologies
and services, with the primary objectives being cost
reduction and quality of service.”
At the Heart of Lafarge’s Business
Consolidation meant that many technologies were
replaced, with only two remaining untouched:
database software and Automic’s ONE Automation.
ONE Automation has been in place since 2005, when
Lafarge first deployed JD Edwards ERP software
from Oracle to run its financial processes.
Buo continues: “As Lafarge was internalizing its
automation activity and processes, it was key for
us to continue with Automic. Automic automates
the critical processes at the heart of our business.
User feedback was (and still is) very good, and the
software specifically helps us achieve cost optimization.”
Buo picks up: “There are very few automation
solutions on the market that automate processes.
Most are just additional pieces of a larger IT solution.
So when we find a solution that works, we don’t
change it.”
Orchestrating Business Processes
Across Applications
The management of data centers requires a high level
of regularity. Complex processes must run reliably
day-to-day and in the same order, across many applications and systems.
Buo states, “Lafarge has 140 applications. Our key
applications are Oracle ERP solutions for sales
management, product storage and purchasing, and
JD Edwards to manage financial processes. We also
use IBM Cognos for business intelligence and IBM
Maximo to manage factory maintenance.”
“The integrated tools and features that come with
these many different applications and platforms
don’t suffice when it comes to ensuring that
“There are very few automation solutions that
automate processes well. Most are just additional pieces of a larger IT solution. So when we find a solution
that works, like Automic, we don’t change it.”
Michel Buo
Group EMEA Data Center Vendor Manager
business processing runs smoothly across all of the
application chains.”
According to Buo, “Most applications, including JD
Edwards, come with basic scheduling capabilities
which do not have the ability to schedule jobs in other
applications. This makes it difficult, if not impossible,
to automate business processing across the entire
application chain. We use Automic’s automation
solution to orchestrate processes across all of our
major applications. This has allowed us to optimize
processing, reduce lag so processes run faster, and
minimize processing errors.”
and alert an operator.
After correcting the problem, processing flows pick
up from the point of failure rather than re-running
the processes from the beginning. This can save a
considerable amount of time and can be the difference between completing processing within the
batch processing window or running over schedule.
For Buo, “this ensures tranquility for those times
when the processes are launched, often during the
weekends and at night, when users are not at work. It
also reduces the number of IT staff the job requires.”
Visibility and Control
With processing across all applications performed by
ONE Automation, Lafarge is now able to track and
manage processes in the ONE Automation Activities window. This allows Lafarge to put processes
on hold, delete processes, change parameters, and
cancel running processes at the click of a mouse.
Buo continues: “Sometimes we need to shut down
and recover applications, either periodically or
on a regular basis, for backup and maintenance.
With ONE Automation, all protocols are saved
automatically. This is essential for procedures that
are highly complex, and ensures that the restarts are
always done the same way, in the same order, and
with total transparency for the users.”
Fast and Reliable Overnight
Processing
The advanced automation features of Automic have
enabled Lafarge to shorten the nightly batch window
by precisely modelling the process flow with strict
dependencies.
Process flows support sequential and parallel
processing, and support report failure blocking. If a
report ends in error, ONE Automation can block all
subsequent jobs in the process flow from executing
“With Automic we
have been able to
optimize processing
and reduce lag.
Processes run faster
and processing
errors are
minimized.”
Michel Buo
Group EMEA Data Center Vendor Manager
Automic is the world’s most comprehensive platform
for automating businesses. Founded in 1985, Automic
pioneered the largest, independent, globally deployed
automation platform which powers enterprise, application
and infrastructure processes. Now, as the consumerization
of IT accelerates, Automic is reimagining how organizations
integrate next generation service models such as Cloud,
DevOps and Big Data. By challenging conventional thinking,
Automic enables its customers to be faster, smarter, and in
control. Automic – the standard in business automation.
www.automic.com