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  • Pet Food Distributor Benefits from New IBM i Setup

    February 19, 2013 Alex Woodie

    Pet Food Experts, a New England distributor of pet food supplies, has realized business process improvements as the result of an implementation of Infor‘s Distribution A+ on the IBM i platform, according to a newly published case study from IBM.

    Rhode Island-based PFX distributes pet food and supplies to the Northeast region of the US out of its Pennsylvania warehouse. The company employs about 250, including about 25 salespeople.

    Before implementing Distribution A+, Pet Food Experts (PFX) ran its business on a homegrown OS/400 application, which most recently ran on an i5 Model 520. The applications had served their purpose for 15 years, but recently they had come to resemble a “patchwork of modifications” that was inhibiting the company’s growth, Gary Jarvis, PFX’s director of information technologies, says in IBM’s case study.

    PFX had two main goals in updating its IT, including giving customers more accurate visibility into their orders and enabling its employees to more easily spot ways to drive greater efficiency into company operations. Both goals were ostensibly accomplished with the recent implementation of Distribution A+, an RPG-based distribution suite that was originally called Application Plus when it was developed by daly.commerce before being acquired by Infor.

    PFX’s implementation of Distribution A+, which was implemented by Maximum Computer Systems, has transformed the company. For starters, customers can now view their orders through a portal on its website at www.pfxne.com.

    Internal users at PFX have also benefited, according to Jarvis. “The latest version supports most of the functionality we need out of the box, minimizing the amount of customization work we need to do, and proving that Infor really listens to what its users want,” Jarvis says in the case study. “For example, the new Web-based GUI [graphical user interface] is incredibly user-friendly, putting point-and-click capability to the fore–which makes it ideal for our sales team to use while they are on the telephone.”

    To read the entire case study, which was published last month, go to www-01.ibm.com/software/success/cssdb.nsf/CS/STRD-93UEP6.



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    Krengeltech

    When it comes to consuming web APIs on your IBM i, your options often boil down to one of two things:

    First, you end up having to rely on a variety of open source and non-RPG solutions. This adds developer complexity, taking away time that could have been better spent invested in other projects. Of course, open source software is free, but generally comes at the cost of no professional support, which adds an element of risk in your production environment. RXS is completely professionally supported, and is complemented by a staff of trained IBM i developers who can address your nuanced development challenges, head on.

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    With RPG-XML Suite, you can accomplish a variety of complex tasks, such as:

    • Calling REST and SOAP web services from your IBM i
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    To try RXS for yourself, we recommend a free proof of concept, which not only gives you access to all of RPG-XML Suite’s subprocedures and utilities but also includes a tailor-made software demonstration that can be used as a starting point for your future API implementations.

    For a free proof of concept, contact us at sales@krengeltech.com, or visit our website for more information.

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Volume 13, Number 6 -- February 19, 2013
THIS ISSUE SPONSORED BY:

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Table of Contents

  • PowerHA Installs Exceed 2,000 Globally, IBM Says
  • PowerTech Shines a Light on ‘Black Hole’ Commands
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  • Cilasoft Monitors Additional Exit Points with IBM i Security Tool
  • ARCAD Updates IT Service Management Tool
  • Correction: Oracle Does Support Old JDE World on New IBM i
  • CNX Officially a Sencha Partner for Services
  • Help/Systems Opens European Headquarters
  • Boomi Grows Cloud Integration Under Dell
  • Pet Food Distributor Benefits from New IBM i Setup

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