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Ingram Micro's IS group supports and maintains
the operations of mainframe systems, client/server systems
and desktop applications for 8,500 users worldwide—and
the pressure to make its business systems easier to use and
better-adapted to employees' daily efforts never ceases.
Converting Raw Data to Information
One way or another, Ingram Micro's 145,000
products help convert raw data into the information that
makes a difference, moving it to the fingertips of the right
people at the right time. Sot it's not surprising that Ingram
Micro also uses the products it markets and distributes.
"The Information Systems group of Ingram Micro
uses the latest technologies to provide the very best environment
to support all the business activities of the company," says
Tom Tighe, Ingram Micro's director of applications development.
Ingram Micro's IS group supports and maintains the operations
of mainframe systems, client/server systems and destop applications
for 8,500 users worldwide—and the pressure to make
its business systems easier to use and better-adapted to
employees' daily efforts never ceases.
Keeping Up with Growth
That pressure has been made even more intense
by Ingram Micro's impressive growth rate—the company
has been experiencing a 40-percent-plus increase in business
annually. To keep such growth from triggering an explosion
in staff count, Ingram Micro has developed a longer-term
strategic plan to, Tighe said, "replace paper systems with
enterprisewide electronic systems."
Of course, such a basic operational shift
affects everything. "We were looking to update, improve,
augment existing systems via client/server, PC and mainframe
applications," Tighe said. We also wanted to use workflow
design for new systems design." But such large changes must
be undertaken incrementally, starting with the operations
most in need of upgrading and revamping-in this case, accounts
payable. "We needed to improve the efficiency of processing
vendor invoices for goods and services," explains Tighe. "The
current method of handling paper documents was cumbersome,
slow, difficult to manage, and it required a large area for
records retention."
So in 1992 Ingram Micro's IS group decided
to upgrade the company's accounts payable operations from
dumb terminals to fully functional desktop applications running
on Microsoft® Windows®.
Maintaining the Mainframe Link with RUMBA
With the A/P Imaging System, users work at
21-inch monitors with screens divided into quadrants. One
part of the screen shows an image of the invoice to be paid.
Another, driven by NetManage's RUMBA for the Mainframe, provides
the essential link back to Ingram Micro's mainframe-based
accounts payable application software. The screen also displays
Microsoft Access database information. Today, virtually every
invoice the firm pays goes through the A/P Imaging System.
The Benefits of RUMBA
Tighe and his staff reviewed "other 3270 packages," he
notes. But several RUMBA features stood out, including its
file transfer and interface capabilities, its macros and
its seamless interface to the Windows environment. And Tighe
points to RUMBA's ease of use, its network version capability
and its "strength" as particular benefits.
Tighe was also pleased with NetManage's ability
to work with other product vendors. "Ninety percent of our
A/P Imaging System was built from off-the-shelf products
distributed by Ingram Micro. This vendor cooperation," he
comments, "demonstrates to our value-added reseller community
that we not only distribute these products, but we also build
our business applications with them."
Exceeding Expectations
Today, the A/P Imaging System is paying off.
Tighe observes that now vendor's phone calls "are answered
in a timely, consistent and complete manner. The process
is manageable. Documents are completely traceable and reproducible,
and research of issues is efficient and complete," Tighe
said. "Successful implementation of this project has had
a positive impact on our business, and we believe we exceeded
both our user and management expectations with its capabilities."
Every year, Ingram Micro sells more than $12
billion in the marketing and distribution of some 145,000
microcomputer products from more than 1,400 of the world's
top hardware manufacturers and software publishers.
Providing file transfer and interface capabilities,
macros and Windows compatibility
"RUMBA allows our users to seamlessly interface
with the mainframe. So now Ingram Micro's accounts payable
operations dovetail with the company's information systems
and business goals to handle growing business requirements
using the latest technologies, giving us a strategic advantage
over our competitors."
—Tom Tighe, Director of
Applications Development at Ingram Micro
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