In interviews with customers, iSeries software toolmaker Business Computer Design (BCD) recently gathered comments on how ProGen WebSmart, its Web development and deployment tool, is being used. The "Snapshots in Productivity" study consists of 10 questions designed to unearth customers' answers to why they chose WebSmart over competitive solutions, what leverage it has given them, and how they perceive the vendor and product. BCD's ongoing objective is to produce top-shelf i5/iSeries tools, a goal that has resulted in 25 industry awards. This study gives them a better understanding of what the user community needs to derive from Web development tools to build the best sites possible for their companies.
BCD has made the results of these interviews available to the public. Current site statistics show that these Web pages are the ones most frequently read on BCD's site. This article features comments excerpted from interviews with Nippon Express USA, Bristol Hospital, EGS Electrical Group, and Spears Manufacturing.
The companies chosen for this study differ in many ways: They range from a publicly held freight carrier with worldwide presence to a 134-bed regional hospital in the eastern United States. In the IT departments of these organizations, WebSmart is running on AS/400 and iSeries machines ranging from a Model 270 to a Model 825, with a variety of applications aboard. The IT professionals interviewed have titles ranging from Senior Supervisor of Programming to Vice President of Information Technology.
Questions asked of WebSmart users during follow-up telephone interviews included what products they evaluated before selecting WebSmart, what types of applications they had developed with the product, what WebSmart training was required, how they'd describe the quality of BCD's technical support, and finally, what grade they'd assign to the WebSmart product and the efforts of BCD.
Nippon Express USA
Nippon Express USA is a member of the Nippon Express Group, a world leader in global freight forwarding. Nippon Express USA offers supply chain management (SCM) services through 67 offices that serve 47 cities in 31 states. Its custom transportation and distribution solutions include the movement of freight over land, sea, and air. Nippon Express USA fully meets ISO 9002 standards for quality operations and exploits myriad technologies, including the Internet, to improve the way in which shipping orders and other forms of data are transmitted. Its core distribution applications reside in an IBM iSeries Model 825.
At Nippon Express, WebSmart was used to develop a system that allows customers to request the pickup and delivery of items for shipping. BCD was hired to build a parts delivery system for Mazda that lets customers place orders with various suppliers for parts in the United States and Europe. Once these parts are made, they are shipped to facilities in the manufacturing supply chain. Paul Cree, Senior Supervisor of Programming at Nippon Express, explains, "Our representatives used to have to call Mazda's suppliers to see if the parts were ready."
Initially, Cree examined other products: "We looked at WebSphere, but we didn't have the Java skills in-house to do the type of programming that was required. WebSphere also seemed very difficult to use--it would have required a bigger processor than the one we had. It was much easier for us to pick up the WebSmart platform." He adds that other products didn't meet his expectations either: "We also looked at Seagull's products to create programs from RPG code-- these were screen-scraper-type programs. They were fairly expensive and wouldn't have given us the same functionality."
The Web development initiative at Nippon Express is relatively new. When asked how much traffic the WebSmart developed site currently sees, Cree explained that they are still introducing it to their customers, with the number of users growing quickly. "The site we developed for Mazda is successful and is now getting rolled out to Nippon Express Europe."
Have the efforts of Nippon Express' development team been well-received? "Yes," says Cree. When asked about the comments he has gotten, he responded, "We get lots of feedback from our customers and salespeople, and they like it very much. Besides that, we know it is working well for us, based on how often these sites are being accessed."
Cree feels that the value in using WebSmart can be quantified in dollars. "The value to us," he says, "is that it saves us money on customer support. The value to customers is that they have instant access to information."
Bristol Hospital
Bristol Hospital in Bristol, Connecticut, is a full-service healthcare facility that offers 24-hour emergency services, advanced diagnostics, and an award-winning intensive care unit. The main hospital has 134 beds, and smaller facilities scattered throughout the community offer convenient access to a wide range of services. A 128-bed skilled-nursing facility is also part of the network. Bristol Hospital uses an IBM iSeries Model 820 with McKesson Series 2000 as its core hospital management system.
Bristol Hospital has an extensive number of WebSmart-developed applications. Many of these are portal apps, including a phone directory of all hospital employees and an instant census that updates hospital management on how many patients the hospital is treating.
A drug formulary inquiry system was written for the pharmacy, and another application front-ends a Series 2000 application and lets doctors review a list of their patients currently admitted. It also provides information on past visits, lab results by date, lab results by type and date, allergies, and more.
Jorge A. Machado, Bristol Hospital's manager of applications and programming services, explains, "The VP of finance has [a program] that lets him review daily revenue with a summary header for a 90-day average. Another program provides him with accounts-not-billed summary tables broken down by different key indicators."
Machado, who cut his teeth on RPG, said WebSmart was easy to use. When asked about his initial experience with the product, he responded, "I loaded WebSmart and built the census and formulary before I went to class. I am the kind of person that likes to get things going before I read the manual. If I can do that, then I really like a product. Imagine what I can do after reading a manual!" He added that some formal training is important: "...it gets you on the right track very fast. You're shown a number of options available to you within ProGen Macro Language, which is WebSmart's powerful programming language. I attended a training class after writing these applications, and lots of other things started to make sense."
On the issue of technical support, Machado feels that it is deteriorating across the industry, adding, "...some companies don't even acknowledge you." However, about BCD's help desk, he said, "BCD's support is second to none. These people are very helpful, and they don't get bogged down. They talk to you; they get back to you and keep you posted."
EGS Electrical Group
EGS Electrical Group is a $500 million electrical component manufacturer headquartered in Rosemont, Illinois, that distributes its products globally. EGS, a division of Emerson Electric, delivers solutions for explosion-proof, hazardous, and ordinary environments, and offers distributors and end users expert knowledge and excellent service. An IBM iSeries Model 720 hosts an ERP system and other core business applications.
EGS has a Web-based customer order tracking system, which was created with WebSmart. This system replaced one that was Domino-based. Also developed with WebSmart were customer order entry screens and request for quote screens.
EGS considered solutions other than WebSmart, some costing $200,000 to $1 million. WebSmart was the last option they looked at, and it cost much less money. Doug Long, Vice President of Information at EGS, explained, "The price of the software and the services involved in doing the initial Web site for us with WebSmart was less than $30,000, with the license fees being a one-time charge. Initially, I had budgeted $40,000 and expected to exceed it."
Long got the hang of WebSmart quickly. "In three to four hours after installing the product, I had developed a working application that mirrored one of the Domino production applications." Long adds that it generated 100% of the executable code and saved lots of time and effort.
Spears Manufacturing
Beginning in 1969 as a one-man machine shop, Spears Manufacturing has become a giant in PVC and CPVC, plastic pipe, fitting, and valve manufacturing. Now, Spears occupies
over one million square feet of manufacturing floor space in four states. With distribution centers that span the nation and house one of the industry's largest inventories, Spears delivers superior service to all of its customers. An IBM iSeries Model 270 hosts the company's critical software systems.
Spears Manufacturing uses several WebSmart-developed applications. The first is an Internet-accessible Client Information Management system that lets field technical service people and salespeople manage information about customer requirements. A Contact Management system is available to technical service representatives so they can submit notes on client product requirements, and an e-commerce system is available to customers so they can place orders and check order status. According to Paul Feng, Vice President of IT at Spears Manufacturing, "Even our racecar team has a shopping cart application on the Web site that we developed with WebSmart."
Feng said the IT department at his company had been entrenched in AS/400 technology for many years. They had good reasons to start looking for a Web application development solution: "The benefits offered by the technology of the Internet pushed us toward opening up our system, to go beyond running applications behind closed doors. To start, we looked at WebSphere, but we didn't find it easy to learn. We thought it would be too expensive to hire additional people with the skills that WebSphere required, so we continued looking and found WebSmart. I downloaded it, and I said, 'OK, let's go for it.'" Feng admits, "We jumped on the bandwagon very early. I checked one reference because they didn't have very many customers at the time."
Feng feels that formal WebSmart training was beneficial. "We had a trainer in for two weeks. They were able to help us in areas where we were weak, like HTML page design. Now, all my staff is developing Web applications. All the applications I mentioned are up and running: Contact Management, e-Commerce, Electronic Catalog. If you look at our Web site, it's all WebSmart."
Was WebSmart easy to use? Feng says yes: "We had no Web experience, and now we are writing full-blown Web applications." He added, "It's a complete development tool that allows us to do just about everything we want, even though members of my programming staff are all green-screen RPG programmers. Our first application, which was an extensive shopping cart, was up and running in only month and a half from the day we started learning it."
Other BCD Products
All four of these iSeries/AS/400 pros said they had more than one BCD software product. Feng from Spears Manufacturing said, "I have used Docu-Mint for many years. It's a pretty decent product." Machado from Bristol Hospital replied, "I have Catapult, and I love it too. It's great. And ProGen. We got ProGen years ago."
Scoring
Customer satisfaction can be summed up in a letter. When asked to grade their experience with BCD and WebSmart on a scale of A through F, WebSmart users unanimously doled out As or better. EGS' Doug Long said, "I'd give them an A+." Paul Cree at Nippon Express didn't have to go through the alphabet either. He said, "It fits in perfectly with the way we develop. I'd have to give BCD and WebSmart both an A." Jorge Machado at Bristol Hospital, who gave WebSmart the best grade of all, said, "A++++. No question about it, not even a hint of an inclination of doubt in my mind."
BCD offers complete product details and free evaluations on all of its software products. Please visit the BCD Web site, send your request to
Robert Gast has had an extensive number of articles published on technology and business management-related issues. He is the managing partner of Chicago area-based Evant Group and can be reached at
Business Computer Design, Int'l, Inc. (BCD)
Contact: Eric Figura, Director, Sales and Marketing
950 N. York Rd.
Hinsdale, IL 60521-2950
Tel: 630.986.0800
Fax: 630.986.0926
Web: www.bcdsoftware.com
Email:
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