IBM Sterling B2B Integrator-GIS Upgrade at Polar
A IBM Sterling B2B Integrator Success Story
THE COMPANY:
Finland-based Polar Electro OY invented
the first wireless heart rate monitor in 1977, going on to pioneer
a revolution in training and lead the heart rate monitoring and
fitness assessment technology industry. Today, Polar employs
1,200 people worldwide, has 26 subsidiaries globally and
manages a distribution network supplying over 35,000 retail
outlets in more than 80 countries. United States operations are
based out of Lake Success, New York.
THE CHALLENGE :
With EDI being a key component in
Polar Electro Inc.’s retail growth strategy, upgrading
an unsupported version of Sterling Commerce’s Gentran
Integration Suite (GIS) while also upgrading database servers
and cleaning-up error handling routines became a clear
imperative for the multinational manufacturer.
Yet, supporting Polar’s current production
environment of U.S. and European trading partners
while also onboarding new customers left the
in-house EDI team with no bandwidth to carry
out the business critical migration.
THE SOLUTION:
Polar’s EDI Manager Dimas Ortiz
reviewed three proposals before selecting Oxford
Consulting Group, Inc. (OCG) to carry out the GIS project.
“I was shopping around, not just on price but also for knowledge,
experience, and references,” explained Ortiz.
“An upgrade is a risk to the business,
so I needed a vendor I could trust.
And I didn’t want someone on my
level of expertise—I wanted someone
who knew more than I do.
That’s what I got with Oxford Consulting Group.”
THE PROCESS:
From initial evaluation to production
rollout, the four-week project was structured
to include time for the migration, and also to
take advantage of OCG’s expertise to fine-tune
existing business processes while also ensuring
full knowledge transfer to Polar’s in-house team.
OCG evaluated the existing GIS environment
and planned the migration to GIS 4.3, creating
a test environment on a Windows 2003 server
and SQL 2005 database server and performing unit, system and
integration testing. The final steps were migration to the production environment, and
providing post-migration production support.
OCG’s expert knowledge of GIS proved invaluable,
explained Ortiz, particularly when a patch released
by Sterling had to be backed-out. “It was Oxford
Consulting Group who realized there were problems,”
said Ortiz. “That takes a lot of knowledge and focus,
and showed how proactive they were.” OCG also
provided critical additional skills in areas such as
AS2 and SAP integration.
THE RESULTS:
“EDI at Polar is business critical,
stressed Dimas Ortiz. “We depend on those orders
coming in on a weekly basis.” The upgrade project
was completed with no interruption to the EDI orders,
which are now flowing faster than ever before, thanks to the work by Oxford Consulting
Group. Ortiz himself also has more time since OCG rationalized some of his daily
business processes.
The quality of work by OCG was excellent, confirmed Ortiz. “I have no complaints, the
level of professionalism was very high and I would recommend Oxford Consulting Group
to anyone and will definitely use them again.” Bottom line? “It was an excellent
experience. We got the project completed on time and under budget.”
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