10x faster access to information thanks to SAP archive migration

"With Doxis we were able to speed up access to documents by a factor of 10," says Manfred Wolf, SAP team lead at Techniker Krankenkasse (TK). His focus is on maintaining a state-of-the-art IT infrastructure while ensuring efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

With around 10.8 million customers, the results speak for themselves. TK is Germany’s largest health insurance provider and, in 2021, Focus-Money named it Germany’s Best Health Insurance Provider for the 15th year in a row. To keep delivering top service, TK continually modernizes its IT landscape—including SAP archiving. This is to ensure the best value for money — and not only for policyholders.

With Doxis, the insurance provider now archives information from SAP more efficiently and retrieves it at lightning-fast speeds.

"We continually update our entire infrastructure as part of our IT strategy, and we've been doing this for years," explains Manfred. "When we reviewed our SAP data archiving, it was clear that our intermediate archive no longer fit the strategy and was also extremely costly. We knew we had to act fast and find a better solution."

TK has relied on a Dell system for data storage for years, managing an archive that spans dozens of terabytes. It holds everything from invoices, contracts, personnel files, travel expenses and all manner of other documents required for administrative processes. On top of that, it includes older records no longer in active use or kept for compliance, offloaded from sub-systems to ease the strain on databases.

But as Manfred explains, the existing storage system was chosen for its price-performance ratio, making SAP archiving more complex for modules like HR, FiCo, MM and Insurance:

"We can’t link them directly for technical reasons, and even if we could, it wouldn’t make sense. It’s a highly scalable conventional storage system, but it lacks content-based indexing. To keep archiving and accessing information efficiently, we need a bridge system that integrates with our storage and uses certified SAP interfaces. And we need speed—archived information should be accessible in no more than three seconds for three megabytes."

TK issued a call for vendors based on these criteria, narrowing the selection down to a shortlist of 15 contenders. In the end, SER Group and Doxis stood out. "The combination proposed by the SER Group was simply the best offer on the table," says Manfred.

Doxis, along with the Doxis SmartBridge for SAP connector solution, provided the missing link TK needed to connect its systems seamlessly. But before launching the new solution, TK faced the challenge of migrating 5 TB of data from its legacy archive and storage system.

For migration support, TK partnered with HAVI Solutions, a seasoned expert with a track record of successfully moving legacy systems to Doxis.

"How do we export our data from the legacy system? How do we correctly import it into Doxis and confirm that everything has run as it should? At TK, we did not have the know-how required to perform a migration on this scale," recalls Manfred.

Thanks to HAVI's expertise in planning and execution, the migration was fast and seamless. Two months for the concept, two months of testing and just six weeks to complete the transfer. "Our employees didn't even notice anything was going on and the migration went without a hitch," says TK's project lead, Dr. Carsten Flotow.

Hey Doxi, what gives you the competitive advantage?

Compliance was a key factor in TK’s decision to migrate its data. Doxis ensures adherence to Book 5 of the Social Code (SGB V) for statutory health insurance providers and meets EU GDPR auditability requirements. It also enforces strict access controls, documents user activity and automates retention management and data deletion.

"Our legacy system couldn’t manage data deletion, forcing us to invest in a complex retrofit solution. With Doxis, we now have a future-ready platform that’s easy to maintain, adheres to compliance requirements and seamlessly fits into our IT strategy," says Dr. Carsten.

Want to share in TK's SAP archiving success?

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