Boston Warehouse Defeats Downtime with the DS90 and IBM iSeries and Automates Order Entry and Inventory Management with EDI

At Boston Warehouse Trading Corp., a wholesale distributor of home furnishing gifts in Norwood, MA, the company’s main computer system consists of Software Concepts’ DS90 integrated application suite which runs on an IBM iSeries server. If this system ever were to go down, the business “would literally come to a standstill,” says Peter LaPrad, IT Director at Boston Warehouse.

Fortunately, LaPrad reports that his computer system hasn’t had a minute of unplanned downtime, other then that caused by electrical outages, since it was installed ten years ago. That’s ten years of nearly 100% uptime, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In addition to the Software Concepts solution, Boston Warehouse uses a network of PC’s for e-mail, Web access and the typical desktop activities. “It is not uncommon to hear e-mail is down, the Internet is down, or a server is down, but I simply do not hear that we cannot post cash or print orders and invoices,” says LaPrad. “That is quite revealing about the stability of the Software Concepts solution.”

Equally revealing is how far Boston Warehouse has come in terms of automation over the past ten years, when the DS90 was purchased. Back then the company had a System 36 with a single terminal shared by all employees.

“When it came time for the accounting department to close out the books at the end of the month, order entry would have to stop until accounting was done,” LaPrad recalls. “People kept their own filing systems and filing cabinets, filling entire rooms. There was no visibility of information across the company.”

Today, the DS90 system supports a variety of transactions and sales activities. Besides automating the order processing, shipping, billing and accounting activities, the DS90 also allows staff to take inventory at the warehouse electronically, via PDA. That’s a major change from Boston Warehouse’s former approach to inventory which was “pencil, calculator, paper and keyboard to count and enter approximately 10,000 locations” in the warehouse, according to LaPrad. Today, he says, “we use a PDA to scan items and locations, and then the information is uploaded to our iSeries.”

Thanks to the DS90, the company is also now able to accept orders formatted in EDI, which are translated by the system and fed into the order entry program. EDI is a critical technology for Boston Warehouse, one which has gone from perceived complexity to a distinct advantage.

“It saves time, money and is more accurate. We are now encouraging our customers to participate in EDI rather than discouraging them because it’s too sophisticated,” notes LaPrad.

EDI support also enables Boston Warehouse to win new business and make existing customers happier. “Our business partners want to exchange information electronically,” he says. “If you do not have the technology, strict monetary penalties are imposed.”

Overall, the move to improve the automation of business processes at Boston Warehouse—and the decision to implement the DS90—has been a key factor in the growth of the company’s business as well as its ability to keep overhead costs at a minimum.

“I can’t imagine what our staff size would be today without the DS90,” says LaPrad, adding that the system has helped them operate more efficiently in a number of ways, including offline order entry, better warehouse practices, and the extension of EDI. Overall, he says, “The efficiency and productivity we enjoy is immeasurable.”

See a closer analysis of Boston Warehouse’s use of the i5 and DS90 application suite, written by John Ghrist, Senior Products Editor for iSeries NEWS and iSeriesNetwork.com at http://www.iseriesnetwork.com. More information about Boston Warehouse can be found at www.bwtc.com.