4-page Case Study - Posted 7/12/2007

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Canadian General-Tower

Manufacturer Improves Information Exchange, Visibility, and Reliability with Real-Time EDI

Automotive and industrial manufacturer Canadian General-Tower (CGT) lives or dies by its relationships with its customers, vendors and other trading partners. Until recently, CGT depended on a set of legacy systems that was unreliable and inflexible. Realizing these systems were adversely affecting relationships with customers and partners, CGT chose to build on its previous experience with Microsoft® BizTalk® Server and Microsoft Dynamics™ AX. The new EDI solution is based on these technologies and the GXS Trading Grid®, which funnels all transactions through a single connection in real time. The new infrastructure has improved efficiency by 80 percent on key tasks such as setting up a new trading partner, and has improved the timeliness and accuracy of customer information by 90 percent or more. It provides the real-time visibility CGT needs to remain competitive.

Situation

As a midsized manufacturer of coated fabrics and films for automotive and industrial applications, Canadian General-Tower (CGT) must ensure that the needs of its customers are met quickly and efficiently. One key to doing this is to exchange important product documents with each of its partners in a timely way, including planning schedules, forecast information, and ship notice manifests.

CGT had been using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) as a method of information transfer for its automotive business for more than a decade, but the company’s infrastructure was outdated, unwieldy and unreliable. Using basic integration techniques to pass flat files between systems, CGT’s infrastructure hinged on three legacy systems ranging from 15 to more than 20 years old:

• A Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC) VAX running a COBOL-based system, called AutoRelease designed to manage automotive customer demand. 
• A DEC EDI system running on a UNIX server with an Oracle database for mapping and translating incoming and outgoing documents.
• GXS mailbox services for sending and receiving EDI transmissions.

Because we had success with BizTalk [Server] in keeping our integration points simplified, we knew it would be a far more cost-effective solution than purchasing another B2B product with similar functionality. Kevin Hems Information Services Leader, CGT

With this infrastructure, the company was forced to build separate EDI “maps” for each customer to translate their EDI data into a format its legacy AutoRelease system could process. In addition, CGT’s IT team had to create custom outgoing maps using the EDI formats required by each customer.

“We could send and receive documents with our existing EDI system, but the process was not  efficient, timely or reliable, and each connection had to be maintained and set up individually,” recalls Tim Armstrong, CGT’s Vice President of Corporate Systems. “Our ultimate goal was to deploy a system that would provide reliable and timely information to our organization, without requiring a lot of support or maintenance.”

The fact that the existing system used batch processing also presented problems. Information could be up to 12 hours old. “The information was only accurate for the 30 minutes or so after the batch process ran, but we still continued to make shipments and get new orders. That was a problem, because the demand profile we saw was obsolete. We really needed real-time visibility,” Armstrong says.

CGT’s legacy EDI application had costly and far-reaching implications in other areas, too, including finance and customer service. For example, CGT had one employee whose full-time job was to maintain and troubleshoot the legacy systems. And with the old systems, it took an inordinate amount of time just to determine what CGT’s customers were requesting for shipment. This caused many delays and customer service headaches. What’s more, the company regularly incurred costs when materials weren’t received on time, often requiring expedited shipment and other remedies.

To solve these myriad problems, CGT and its solution partner GXS, Inc. knew things had to change. “CGT clearly needed a reliable, agile, real-time EDI system based on proven technologies,” says Steven Ohlhoff, a senior account executive at GXS. “It was important that the company maintain a single connection that facilitated all of its trading relationships, and no longer forced it to manage each point-to-point relationship.”

Solution

The first step in creating an up-to-date EDI system was settling on the core platform technology. CGT considered a variety of options and actually purchased a turnkey EDI system it planned to use. Even though most systems claimed to be easy to use and offer rapid development, “we learned that ‘rapid’ and ‘easy to use’ were subjective terms,” says Kevin Hems, Information Services Leader at CGT.

Long-time partner GXS then proposed a solution using Microsoft® BizTalk® Server 2006 for message management and data transformation, integrating into Microsoft Dynamics™ AX as the ERP system. That made a lot of sense to CGT, since it was already using both technologies to manage its other business functions. Just a few years earlier, CGT had migrated its legacy applications for invoicing, financials, shipping, manufacturing, and credit running on a DEC VAX to Microsoft Dynamics AX and the Windows Server® 2003 operating system running on Hewlett Packard servers. As part of that project, CGT used BizTalk Server over a period of 18 months to temporarily integrate with its legacy system. During the phased migration to Microsoft Dynamics AX, CGT also employed BizTalk Server successfully to integrate other in-house systems not being replaced by Microsoft Dynamics AX on a permanent basis.

“Leveraging technologies we already knew made a lot of sense,” says Hems. “Because we had success with BizTalk [Server] in keeping our integration points simplified, we knew it would be a far more cost-effective solution than purchasing another B2B product with similar functionality. We were already familiar with BizTalk Server, and it had proven successful in our environment.” Hems says he knew from experience that related foundation technologies such as Microsoft SQL Server™ and development tools like Microsoft Visual Studio® were the key to marrying BizTalk Server and Microsoft Dynamics AX so well.

When you deploy a solution that utilizes the strengths of two industry leaders such as GXS and Microsoft, you have an immediate confidence that your investment will be able to meet current and future business needs. Kevin Hems Information Services Leader, CGT

CGT began migrating to the new solution in stages in the spring of 2007, with the goal of being finished by the end of the summer. The new system will use the GXS Trading Grid as the delivery mechanism, and the EDI protocol AS2 as the data exchange specification between CGT and GXS. The solution will push data to CGT as soon as it is received from any CGT customers or partners, and it will translate data from the Trading Grid back into CGT. BizTalk Server 2006 manages and integrates all messages and performs data transformation, giving CGT the ability to send and receive information in any format and to keep the Microsoft Dynamics AX system up to date at all times.

CGT relies on Microsoft Dynamics AX to house its automotive shipping system in a standardized format. This secure, encrypted system also provides end-to-end visibility for reporting purposes and exception handling.

“The data is translated as it comes from Microsoft Dynamics AX on the fly, and there are validations along the way that the data is compliant with the trading partners’ specifications,” says Ohlhoff. “We also validate that the communication session was established, that the data was sent and that acknowledgements received. Plus there are proactive alerts in case anything breaks down in the process. So CGT is not being reactive anymore. What we have now is a proactive process.”

The new system will provide CGT with one central point for connecting with its entire trading community, eliminating the need for multiple point-to-point connections. CGT maintains a single connection to the GXS Trading Grid, which takes over beyond the firewall to help securely deliver data to and from the company to its trading partners. So, today, GXS not only manages the communications but also ensures that the entire B2B process is implemented, managed, and supported in real time for CGT.

Armstrong says the new solution has added support benefits, too. “The support and troubleshooting we get from dealing with one solution partner is very beneficial,” he says. “GXS takes care of everything from the point it leaves Microsoft Dynamics AX to the point where it gets to our customers.”

Benefits

Creating a full-featured EDI solution using proven technologies, with each one providing incremental value, offers many benefits to both CGT and its partner community. Starting with Microsoft Dynamics AX, CGT was able to get its finances and reporting under control. Then, using BizTalk Server 2006, message management and data transformation were more closely linked to ERP data. When the GXS Trading Grid was enabled, CGT had the complete solution it needed to ensure its entire B2B process was running well in real-time.

Efficient and Reliable Information Transfer

Combining BizTalk Server 2006 with the stability and availability of Windows Server 2003 provides CGT with the efficiency and reliability it never had with its old software. “We wanted a solution so reliable that when a customer sends us information, it reaches its end points quickly and completely,” Hems says. The new solution, he adds, will significantly reduce the time needed to accomplish many tasks. Not only will it speed the transfer of information through the system, but it will decrease the time it takes to set up new partners by about 80 percent

Meanwhile, the flexibility of CGT’s solution and the technologies it has chosen will enable the system to grow and change as the company’s needs evolve.

“Compared to other solutions they looked at for e-commerce and standard EDI translation tools, BizTalk [Server] is more flexible,” Ohlhoff says. “Besides the fact that CGT is able to consolidate its resources and platforms, it gives them a lot more flexibility in terms of the evolution of their B2B environment as they add new processes and change to new documents and formats. BizTalk [Server] can do that on the fly, while standard EDI tools are much more restrictive and not very customizable.”

Flexibility and use of open standards are also key issues for CGT. “BizTalk Server 2006 supports a multitude of communications methods and a large number of data sources. We haven’t been able to find a problem in BizTalk’s area of responsibility or focus that we could not solve with it,” Hems says.

Information Transparency and Satisfied Customers

With the new system, data becomes accessible and visible within Microsoft Dynamics AX as it is transacted, in real-time. “Within minutes of a customer sending us something, it will be visible within our system and we can react to that data accordingly,” Armstrong says. “That’s very different from our old system. Previously customers sometimes informed us that we had not reacted to something such as an order they had sent us. Once we started looking for it, we would find out that it came to us before the last batch was processed or didn’t get transacted properly.”

Rather than waiting until the problem is on our doorstep, we’ll be notifying our customers weeks ahead of time that we have problems we both need to work around. Tim Armstrong Vice President of Corporate Systems, CGT

Proven Technologies and Vendors

Because CGT had previously used Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 and Microsoft Dynamics AX, management knew it was getting proven technology that built on CGT’s earlier investments. Expanding the role of GXS, which had been a trusted mailbox services provider to CGT for years, also provided a level of comfort and confidence. “When you deploy a solution that utilizes the strengths of two industry leaders such as GXS and Microsoft, you have an immediate confidence that your investment will be able to meet current and future business needs,” Hems says.

Staying with a foundation built on Microsoft technology and the GXS Trading Grid also helps future-proof the system. As new technology and services become available, it will be much easier to take advantage of those solutions, Ohlhoff notes.

Multiple Cost Savings

In addition to saving money by utilizing existing software and training, CGT will enjoy other financial benefits. For example, precious IT staff time previously spent on legacy system support can now be directed toward other business requirements.

“When these systems do not work well, they create problems for our customers, which results in expedited freight costs for us and customer dissatisfaction,” Armstrong says. “And if the systems do not give us the right information, it creates situations where we build inventory we cannot sell. Then there are the countless hours the demand planning group had to spend reconciling and working with the old system. The amount of money we will save will be significant and the system should pay for itself in under one year.”

Moving Forward

Once the new system is fully functional, CGT plans to extend its use to other parts of the company. For example, the current system allows for electronic information exchange only with customers, but CGT would like to expand it to include purchasing materials from vendors as well. Exchanging purchase orders and payments just is not possible with the legacy system.

Currently, CGT only exchanges data electronically within its automotive business, which makes up 60 to 70 percent of company revenues. Its industrial business, which focuses on manufacturing products like pool liners and roofing, does not yet utilize EDI. The new system will change that.

“We haven’t even started to explore the world this opens up in terms of different ways of conducting business to make us more cost-effective,” says Armstrong. “There are many EDI transaction sets we could use to tighten up our business processes. This system will allow us to take full advantage of them.”

Microsoft BizTalk Server
BizTalk is a business process management (BPM) server that enables companies to automate and optimize business processes. This includes powerful, familiar tools to design, develop, deploy, and manage those processes.

Everything you need for easy installation is included—integrated management tools, support for Web services, and a new business activity monitoring (BAM) portal. In addition, BizTalk Server 2006 includes 23 application and technology adapters in the box for connecting to legacy systems (mainframe and mid-range) and line-of-business applications (SAP, Siebel, PeopleSoft, Oracle, and JD Edwards).

For more information about BizTalk Server, go to:
www.microsoft.com/biztalk

For more information about Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), go to:
www.microsoft.com/soa

Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Dynamics™ is a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions that enables you and your people to make business decisions with greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics works like familiar Microsoft software such as Microsoft Office, which means less of a learning curve for your people, so they can get up and running quickly and focus on what’s most important. And because it is from Microsoft, it easily works with the systems that your company already has implemented.

By automating and streamlining financial, customer relationship, and supply chain processes, Microsoft Dynamics brings together people, processes, and technologies, increasing the productivity and effectiveness of your business, and helping you drive business success.
 
For more information about Microsoft Dynamics, go to:
www.microsoft.com/dynamics

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:
www.microsoft.com

For more information about GXS Inc, visit the Web site at:
www.gxs.com