Bagging up Logic on a Trip to the Web

Advizex helps distributor add Internet sales to legacy application

No matter how mature their applications have become, HP 3000 customers are finding ways to preserve business logic during migrations to the Web. At a US package firm, 15-year-old programs are now receiving orders from customers over the Internet. The integration of old code with new technology has put Consolidated Plastics online with new clients.

The Ohio-based firm has been using HP 3000s since the middle 1980s, according to Ken Smith, VP of Operations for HP 3000 reseller Advizex. The relationship between the parties is a long one. Advizex sold the company its distribution/MRP Supply and Demand application for Consolidated’s HP 3000 years ago, a program which Advizex still keeps up for Consolidated.

Advizex still supports a number of clients using Supply and Demand, but Smith noted that Consolidated made one of the industry’s earliest commitments to quick shipment years ago. “They have constantly continued to grow their business, and they committed very early to order-to-ship in 72 hours back in the mid-80s.”

Consolidated Plastics is a distributor of an enormous range of business plastics products, including bags, packaging and shipping supplies, Rubbermaid products, garbage containers and floor mats. Consolidated has both business-to-business and business-to-consumer operations, one of the reasons the company saw benefit in taking orders over the Web.

“They have outsourced all of their system management since the beginning,” Smith said of his client. “The 3000 is so solid that it just doesn’t require the administration of any other platform.”

Consolidated used the integration and development services of its reseller to put an e-commerce system online, “so they could take some load off their customer service department for order entry,” said Advizex business consultant Christopher Karl. “We push orders on a regular basis as they come into the 3000, using a procedure we developed ourselves.”

Advizex developed the storefront, assisted in database population, put the front-end Web site online and secured the transaction processing which flows into the 3000. Advizex Web, an ISP subsidiary of the reseller, hosts the Web server for Consolidated Plastics, while the HP 3000 business servers remain at the distributor’s Twinsburg, Ohio headquarters. The ISP-based servers import Web orders to the Ohio HP 3000s every 10 minutes. HP 3000s print shipping labels for items after the shipments are weighed on scales which carry UPS rates.

In Ohio, the staff that handles IT duties can administer the company’s catalog on the Web site, view orders, run reports, update product marketing information, mark items as specials, and “do a lot of things to upsell,” Advizex’s Karl said.

Consolidated originally targeted its Web efforts at a B2B segment of its market. But companies looking for products like trash cans or floor runners found the supplier and encouraged it to make the Web access broader, a business to consumer site.

“By nature of the Web site, we’re going to pick up some customers who are not business-oriented,” said president Brent Harland. “We expect that’s going to grow with the Web site. Our catalog used to be our only sales force, and now it’s our catalog plus our Web site.”

Consolidated doesn’t manufacture its products for sale, but purchases from several hundred suppliers. The privately-held firm ships an average of 2,000 orders per day, including a growing online business.

“We feel that e-commerce is one of the waves of the future, and we wanted to make sure we were out there with a good Web site that our customers could utilize,” Harland said.

All business systems in place at Consolidated are in-house designed for competitive advantage, and Harland said the company wanted to protect its investment. Which is why it has stayed true to the HP 3000 course.

“All of that was internally designed over the years and is resident on our HP 3000s,” Harland said. “We wanted to stay with that same platform because we have so much invested in there. We were able to work the Web orders through that, and it’s worked out very well for us. For us to rewrite what’s in there would be an extremely large and difficult task. We’ve updated it over the years, and it’s designed to take us into the future.”

Integrating the existing business systems with new Web technology was Advizex’s mission. “Cost-wise we were very happy with it,” Harland said about the results, “and compared to what other people had given us as figures, they were far below. We were able to tie in as we went along, and it’s worked out pretty well. For the price, we were very satisfied.”

Consolidated doesn’t have an IT systems department, like a good share of the HP 3000 customer base. “We outsource a lot of work to Advizex,” Harland said. “They convinced us they could maintain [the e-commerce system] for a good price also. If we see something we want to add like a Web site, we go out and outsource somebody to install it. Now that it’s up and running, it’s pretty simple for us.”