Knowledge is power. It's a tired old cliché that people in the IT industry like to toss around frequently, but it's also true. The more you know about your business, customers, and prospects and the more effectively you use that knowledge, the more successful you will be.

How can organizations attain business knowledge? Information, the raw material of knowledge, can be assembled from the mountain of data stored in databases and managed by the systems of most companies. However, many organizations find it difficult to disseminate that information cost-effectively to the people who need it, in a form that will allow them to make the best use of it. But that's not a problem for Eastern Bag and Paper Group (Eastern Bag), a Milford, Connecticut-based distributor of paper products, food service supplies, and janitorial equipment and supplies. Eastern Bag easily overcame the information dissemination challenge with Email Report Server/400 from RJS Software Systems of Burnsville, Minnesota.

Eastern Bag, which employs about 260 people, is a customer-driven company that strives to be a leader in the paper, packaging, and allied products distribution industry. It currently ships about 100,000 cases every week from three warehouses in the northeastern United States to customers in Maine, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

Eastern Bag relies on its sales force of about 55 people, people who spend much of their time out in the field and, consequently, are not always able to tie into the company's iSeries applications. Nonetheless, they need ready access to product, ordering, inventory, and delivery information in order to do their jobs effectively, a need that is filled by Email Report Server/400.

Email Report Server/400, which operates as a native iSeries application, can automatically deliver data from an iSeries server to anyone, anywhere via email. It automatically monitors iSeries output queues and delivers reports via Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), without the need to manually download reports from the system.

Flexible Report and File Distribution

Flexibility is a hallmark of Email Report Server/400. Any iSeries report queue can become a mailbox for one or more email recipients. And you can direct reports to the appropriate users in a number of ways. You can embed email addresses directly into iSeries reports, direct output to recipients based on specific report criteria, or assign email addresses based on user-defined data in spool files or on spool file attributes such as spool file name, user ID, user data, form, type, or job name.

Before sending them, Email Report Server/400 can automatically convert reports into ASCII text, RTF, HTML, PDF, PCL, TIF, or CSV format, as well as into popular database and spreadsheet formats, such as Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, and Lotus 1-2-3.

The original requirement that led Eastern Bag to RJS was a need to create CSV files from iSeries data and easily send those files to users. Eastern Bag spoke to RJS technical and support staff and found RJS to be an innovative vendor with the staying power needed to support its products well into the future--exactly the sort of supplier that Eastern Bag was looking for. RJS' history since 1990, first as an AS/400 consulting firm and then, beginning in 1993, as a software developer as well, is testament to the company's strength and stability. As a result of the diversification strategy that RJS has followed since 1993, the company now offers more than 60 document and image management, report and data delivery, and productivity and development products running on iSeries and PC platforms.

Fast and Easy Implementation

The installation of Email Report Server/400 at Eastern Bag was fast and easy. The company had the software up and running within a day, with minimal assistance from RJS. "They make it nice and simple for you to install and upgrade," said Jody Barlow, systems analyst at Eastern Bag. "You simply go onto their Web site and download the latest upgrades. You don't have to be technical to upgrade the software. They give you accurate and reliable instructions."

Eastern Bag incorporates code into their job streams to send reports and files through email to users. Users get data in their inboxes in Excel or PDF format. Consequently, salespeople can get information anywhere they can get email, without the need to log into Eastern Bag's iSeries systems. They can even borrow a customer's computer to access email remotely and get reports.

The email reporting facility also allows Eastern Bag to send customers comprehensive reports, without the need to give them access to the company's critical systems.

For Eastern Bag and Paper Group, the Benefits Are "in the Bag"

The benefits that Eastern Bag receives from Email Report Server/400 have been significant, including lower administration, paper, and related costs; superior returns on information assets thanks to easier information dissemination and use; and higher customer satisfaction.

It might seem surprising for a paper company to list paper reduction as a benefit, but Eastern Bag has achieved considerable savings by not printing out what had typically been several copies of each report. The company has also been able to reduce the wear-and-tear on its printers and the costs of consumables such as toner.

Email Report Server/400 also helps the company to lower operator costs. "Our operator is thrilled to death, because he doesn't have to print all of the reports," explained Barlow. As a result, the company has been able to reduce the operator's morning report processing workload from one hour and 20 minutes down to about 20 minutes--and the company expects further improvements in the future.

Distributing data as Excel files instead of hard copy reports also provides significant advantages. Rather than just looking at reports, users can now analyze the data any way they want and thereby maximize its value.

The ability to send reports to customers has also improved customer satisfaction. Eastern Bag has a number of customers with several sites. They want to be able to see how much product each site uses without tracking the information themselves. Eastern Bag uses Email Report Server/400 to convert the necessary reports into spreadsheets and automatically email them to customers.

What is the bottom line? Email Report Server/400 "allows us to get information into the hands of our staff and customers very quickly and in a very presentable format," declared Jack Jurkowski, CIO at Eastern Bag. "It has really revolutionized the way we print and distribute information. It's had a very positive effect on our IT operation, and it's allowed our management to get information quickly and in a format that they can easily digest, manipulate, and distribute to other people."

Joel Klebanoff is a consultant, a writer, and president of Klebanoff Associates, Inc., a Toronto, Canada-based marketing communications firm. Joel has 25 years experience working in IT, first as a programmer/analyst and then as a marketer. He holds a Bachelor of Science in computer science and an MBA, both from the University of Toronto. Contact Joel at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..


RJS Software Systems, Inc.
14041 Burnhaven Drive
Suite 120
Burnsville, MN 55337
United States
Web: www.rjssoft.com
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Tel: 888.RJSSOFT or 952.898.3038
Fax: 952.898.1781

Joel Klebanoff is a consultant, writer, and formerly president of Klebanoff Associates, Inc., a Toronto-based marketing communications firm. He has 30 years' experience in various IT capacities and now specializes in writing articles, white papers, and case studies for IT vendors and publications across North America. Joel is also the author of BYTE-ing Satire, a compilation of a year's worth of his columns. He holds a BS in computer science and an MBA, both from the University of Toronto.

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