Improved data quality promises bottom-line results, outdoor power equipment manufacturer says
Columbus, OH February 18, 2004 Murray Inc. a leading manufacturer of lawn mowers, snow throwers and other outdoor power equipment, needed a solution to manage multiple influential customer requests. It selected Sterling Commerce, a provider of business integration solutions, to implement a solution to comply and handle upcoming initiatives to streamline supply chain operations.
Murray said it evaluated a variety of solutions after the company was asked to send documents to customers securely over the Internet using AS2 and realized early on this was the first of many business integration projects required to meet the requests of its largest customers.
"We needed an AS2 solution, but we knew that we would have to come up with a solution for implementing UCCnet services in the not-too-distant future," said Tim Bolton, EDI manager for Murray. "So we sought out a platform that could provide a growth path matching our needs."
Gentran Integration Suite, the solution Murray selected, is a strategic integration platform that Bolton said supported the manufacturer's need for UCCnet services connectivity and formatting as well as business rules processing, and provided it with functionality to allow the data to be managed and, if necessary, routed to the appropriate personnel for review and approvals.
"We could have purchased a stand-alone AS2 solution that was cheaper, but it would not provide us with the flexibility for additional integration projects," Bolton said.
The modular design of Gentran Integration Suite permits incremental progression from basic supply chain transactions management to more sophisticated business integration as needed, making business process technology migration less disruptive and more ROI-friendly.
Murray is using the UCCnet services connectivity project to improve business processes by cleansing and centralizing the data for better control and management.
"Meeting the UCCnet services connectivity requirements only serves to keep us in the game with our customers," said Bolton. "The true bottom-line benefits from data synchronization will come when we capitalize on our improved data quality."
