PC Week, Feb 6, 1995 v12 n5 p1(2) Toy supplier plays to win at client server game. (Ertl Toys Inc builds a network)by Lisa DiCarloAbstract: International children's toy manufacturer Ertl Toys Inc is about 60% done with a $5 million client server project to link its factories across the globe more closely with corporate headquarters. The system replaces the slow mainframe system that currently services Ertl's 2,000 employees. The company's IS group starting work on the project in 1992, when it developed ad hoc sales and marketing query applications with Information Builders' fourth-generation tools and installed them on its IBM 4381 mainframe. After using Software AG's Adabas database and Natural application-development tools to create a data warehouse, however, the mainframe slowed significantly under query demand. In Mar 1995, this bottleneck will be eliminated thanks to Ertl's implementation of a Compaq Deskpro PC- and ProLiant server-based client server network that will use report and query applications built with Microsoft Visual Basic and Software AG's Esperant to interface with the mainframe. Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1995 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company In the world of children's toys, a product is a hit only as long as it holds the young consumer's attention. To cope with this fickle business, Ertl Toys Inc. is about to throw the switch on a $5 million international client/server project, replacing a sluggish mainframe system. The goal, according to Doug Dalrymple, IS director and system architect for the 2,000-person company, is to let marketers easily predict what products to make, when, and how many. "Companies that can combine strategic planning with the information and with technical skills will succeed," said Richard Buchanan, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc., in Cambridge, Mass. The project, about 60 percent finished, began in 1992 when Ertl's IS team began installing ad hoc query sales and marketing applications on the mainframe developed in fourth-generation language tools from Information Builders Inc. After upgrading the mainframe, Dalrymple created a data warehouse using Software AG's Adabas database and its Natural application-development tools. "The [query] backlog for accessing data from the [4381 IBM] mainframe was tremendous," said Dalrymple. "The company needs all kinds of information at [its] fingertips." Late last year, Ertl opened its mainframe to PC users by installing EDA/SQL middleware from IBI and Software AG's ESQ for Open Database Connectivity. Meanwhile, Ertl was replacing dumb terminals with Compaq Computer Corp. Deskpro PCs and networked ProLiant servers to let users employ graphical applications to query the mainframe. Next month, the company plans to link its remote sites to the mainframe via an AT&T InterSpan frame-relay WAN. Ertl's operations consist of two buildings in Dyersville; two buildings in Tijuana, Mexico; one in Toronto; one in Exeter, England; and a manufacturing facility in Hong Kong. The PCs at these sites run report and query applications built using Software AG's Esperant and Natural and Microsoft Corp.'s Visual Basic. "For [quick] access to basic information, Visual Basic is the best because it's pre-compiled," said Tom Jones, a member of Ertl's IS team. "To receive complex data, Esperant is better because it's parameter-driven; you can get any data from anywhere in the company," Jones explained. Ertl also developed an executive information system with Visual Basic to access information stored on that host. Graphical information "We developed the [decision-support system] for our executives so they can get quick graphical pictures of the state of the business. They can also run through `what-if' scenarios for the planning process," said Dalrymple. Also as part of project, the company is beginning to deploy Lotus Development Corp.'s Notes as a document repository and discussion database for marketing and traveling sales people. A big challenge will be migrating robust transaction-processing applications off the mainframe. Ertl plans to keep most of its critical transaction-processing applications on the mainframe for several months while it works on rewriting those programs for a client/server environment. "We've reconstructed our applications so they're not host-specific, and users can access many applications from the mainframe," said Jones. However, the project is too expensive to risk shutting down the mainframe too hastily. "We'll just keep updating," said Jones. "You're never quite done." | |
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