Delivering IT solutions                 
                        to the 3^rd Party Logistics market

Reprint from ON#SUN - September 1999

Advanta Software, CSC and Sun: A beautiful friendship

Sun partners Advanta Software and CSC Australia have formed a powerful business relationship, offering synergistic benefits for all three partners and a one-stop solution for their customers.

"About two years ago we formed a partnership involving CSC Australia's Integrated Solutions and Services (ISS) group, Advanta Software and Sun. We were already a Sun partner, and in 1997 we formed the partnership with Advanta Software. Under the deal Advanta provides Warehouse Management and Logistics applications while we provide the infrastructure, the hardware and all services related to the installation," said CSC National Sales Manager Paul Copperfield. "Advanta also introduced us to their Queensland agent, Pacific Software. In Queensland, Pacific Software is a distributor for the Advanta Software and use us to supply the hardware."

The partnership offers customers substantial benefits, said Paul. "It means we can provide a complete solution, not just the hardware or software but the total package. And because we are two organisations with good standing in the market we can pass on to customers the advantage of our greater buying power. Because of our large contracts with suppliers we can offer our customers quality products at a lower cost."

The business benefits have blessed the participating companies as well as the customer. "We expanded our customer base through Advanta and Pacific, while they got access to our skills and lower costs. Since the partnership was struck it has resulted in twelve joint installations with revenues exceeding three million dollars. And every one of those has used Sun products."

Advanta Software Sales Manager Steve Nelson agreed. "The partnership has been very successful for us, CSC and our clients. One reason for the success has been their professionalism, in terms of implementing systems. We find the implementations are managed very smoothly," said Steve.

"Also, because we're consistently working with the same people, they know what is needed, in terms of system configuration, operating system set up and the like. This eliminates many problems and leads to a smooth installation. And lastly, when there are any issues to be addressed, they're always more than willing to allocate the appropriate resources and expedite things. It's a fantastic relationship."

Steve added that the Sun servers, the third part of the mix, offer superb performance. "We find that our customers are delighted with the speed of the Sun systems. They find them robust, and some of the utilities that come with the Sun hardware make them very easy to manage. What's especially attractive is that they're excellent value for money."

One installation carried out by this partnership was at Barbecues Galore. "Barbecues Galore was an incumbent Advanta customer, running Advanta software under an old infrastructure. They were looking to upgrade and there were also Y2K issues to deal with," said Paul.

"We proposed a Sun-centered system, with desktops. The new system was based around a Sun Ultra 60 and NT Server, and included a LAN at five of their branches. As with all our installations the application server was connected first. Advanta installed and tested the application software, and then we connected the PCs to the networks. Advanta then came in to conduct the initial training.

The system began running live at the end of July 1999. The outcome is that Barbecues Galore has a modem environment that is Y2K compliant and more efficiently manageable, with the promise of greatly increased performance and speed." The second stage will see the use of Radio Frequency (RF) hand held devices for receiving and picking in the warehouse together with implementation of the Forecasting and DRP modules.

The project that launched the partnership was a new system installation at Sydney-based Australian veterinary product suppliers Cenvet. "Cenvet needed to become Y2K compliant, and they also needed to upgrade their software. And though they had a network in place, or rather a number of networks with no central management; it was inadequate to the business," said Paul.

Cenvet Marketing Manager Lionel Bloom said, "We were looking for a system for the distribution side of the business, but we also wanted it to handle debit and credit, and general ledger in a multi-warehouse environment. We searched for a new system for some eighteen months. Though we were already a Advanta client, we evaluated a number of systems before deciding that Advanta could again best produce what we needed, and gave them the nod. On their recommendation we appointed CSC to help with the network side, and then we chose Sun servers."

He said the previous system had been ten years old. "We wanted the benefit of recent advances in IT-based distribution and warehousing systems, and there were also Y2K issues. There were also changes in the transaction volume. Our business is growing at the rate of 30 per cent a year, so we needed to expand the system - and ensure that there is room for further expansion. We chose a Sun system because of the compatibility of the software with Sun products, and Sun's proven record. At the moment we're only using about 25 per cent of the server's capacity. For example it's supporting 160 users but we bought it because it can support up to 250 users. This way we have room to grow."

He said the installation was the smoothest Cenvet had experienced. "This is our third installation. We get better every time. We did a lot of preparation. CSC took delivery of the hardware and set it up for us. It went very smoothly. The previous installations stopped our business for a couple of days, but this one was straight up and running. We had some minor glitches, but the Sun server wasn't a problem; it didn't miss a beat. The Advanta software stood the test pretty well too."

Lionel said the preparation made by Cenvet's installation team led by Systems Manager Annette Flynn, as well as by the Advanta and CSC consultants, made a substantial contribution to the smooth running of this installation.

A key benefit of the new system is that it allows Cenvet to operate with a higher stock turn. "We distribute veterinary pharmaceutical products, with some 9000 different product lines. So efficient inventory management is crucial to our bottom line. We had an average stock turn of 7 before we put the new system in. That is, we'd achieve complete turnover of the stock in our warehouse seven times a year. We're now up to a stock turn of 8.8, and we're expecting to achieve 10. This has a very substantial and positive effect on our cash flow."

Cenvet acquired a Sun Ultra 60 with LANs at the Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra branches, and a WAN using CISCO. CSC installed the Sun server, then Advanta loaded the applications and did the testing, together with the Cenvet team. Then CSC set up a mini-network for training purposes, and Advanta stepped in to provide training in the new systems. CSC then installed the local server, and installed all four LANs and the WAN over a weekend in June 1998. The new system went live on the Monday morning, and now runs with increased functionality, a modem fully integrated network, and greatly increased performance and accessibility.

Paul said CSC recommends Sun products because, "we believe the Sun products represent performance value for dollar than others products; for the same dollars Sun offers better performance. We have a strong relationship with Sun. We use their products in most of our solutions, from the Ultra 60 up to the Enterprise 6000. In fact, out of our 180 maintenance contracts about 75% would involve maintenance of Sun products."

CSC has offices in every capital except Darwin and Canberra. The skill set includes UNIX, IT value-added services in the mid-range arena, system integration, net integration, net consultancy. CSC has also launched a new set of Internet-based security services, including firewalls, virus management, secure dial-in, and web access.

Advanta Software has offices in Sydney and Melbourne and is represented in Brisbane and Asia by Pacific Software. Advanta specialises in providing leading edge Warehousing and Logistic solutions. Advanta is particularly focussed on the Contract Warehousing market and is the leading Australian supplier to that sector.

Top of Page

© Advanta Software Pty Ltd www.advantasoftware.com.au