Shift to server-based integration improves productivity and reduces costs
BOSTON â March 02, 2010 â Nucleus Research analysts examined the deployment of Sterling Integrator from Sterling Commerce at the Boise Cascade manufacturing and distributing company, and found an 83% return on investment (ROI) with a payback of 1.23 years.
Boise Cascade manufactures and distributes engineered wood products, plywood, lumber and particleboard and distributes a broad line of building materials. With a mandate to update its mainframe, the company migrated off of the older IBM system.
The EDI team had been using Gentran from Sterling Commerce successfully for many years for internal integration between systems and external integration with trading partners. It decided to update these processes using a server-based approach. The mainframe system combined the use of integrated internal systems, including homegrown applications and mainframe utilities, with a firewall-compatible external network with trading partners. The complexity of the integrated utilities, limitations to transaction volume and operational costs contributed to the companyâs decision to upgrade.
After reviewing six server-based integration offerings, Boise Cascade selected Sterling Integrator for its scalability, functionality and easeâof-use. Boise Cascadeâs transition to Sterling Integrator gave the company a comprehensive system that could be operated and maintained by a more easily trained and smaller staff. Key benefits from the solution include improved productivity and reduced costs.
“Boise’s Sterling Commerce deployment was successful because it eliminated system complexity. This enabled productivity improvements for developers and systems administrators. It also reduced internal costs because the EDI team migrated a number of applications off of the mainframe,” said David O’Connell, senior analyst, Nucleus Research.
All Nucleus Research ROI case studies are independent assessments, evaluating the costs and benefits from the IT deployment.
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