Without An IBM Business Partner, David Strawn Began His Search To Upgrade His 9406-520 And Look At Business Continuity Options. He Was Considering A Second System At Another Corporate Location.
Background
Pacific Coast Warehouse, Inc. (PCW) provides warehousing, pick and pack and logistics services from 3 California locations for its customers. It’s Ontario (Southern California) and Newark (Northern California) locations handle general merchandise, including import/retail, food and beverage, consumer packaged goods, alcohol, beer, wine and spirits, food ingredients, health and beauty aids and general merchandise. Its Chino location handles hazardous material such as flammables, corrosives, aerosols, oxidizers, poisons and industrial nonhazardous materials.
David Strawn is PCW’s Vice President, Information Technology and Solutions. He manages the technologies PCW uses to operate its business.
PCW supported 30 users in 3 locations on a 9406-520 Model 7152 with OS400 V5R4, primarily running custom software with TrustedLink I EDI, Gumbo PDF Spool-a-Matic, TL Ashford, Trailblazers FTP Server, ByteWare, Custom WMS and RF.
PCW Wants An Upgrade And A Business Partner
David explains, “Our current IBM Business Partner was big; I found them to be inattentive and non-responsive. I was frustrated that I had to prompt them to renew my annual IBM support. It was kind of a pain. I just got the feeling that they really did not care about us. And our previous Business Partner went out of business.”
Without a Business Partner, David began his search to upgrade his 9406 and to look at Business Continuity options. He was considering a second system at a second PCW location since Business Continuity costs had become more affordable.
David Strawn Searches The Web For A New IBM Business Partner
David Strawn began searching for a new IBM Business Partner on the internet. “I found Source Data Product’s website. I definitely like SDP’s website and the details it provides specific to the IBM POWER i. It is very informative.
“This website was very helpful. If I went to my other Business Partner’s website, it’s nothing like Source Data’s. Source Data gives detailed examples of clients that they have helped, their capabilities and what they have done to solve client problems.
“I got a very good feeling that Source Data had done all this before – that they were IBM POWER i experienced. And that they have the resources to take care of the client.
“Next, I ordered the book, ‘The Ultimate Guide to Buying Your Next IBM POWER i’. That book is a great source of information.
“Then I started getting their newsletters, emails and stuff. More really useful information, down to earth. These people really know their stuff.”
Much Discussion And Review Helps Clarify Needs
David continues, “I really enjoyed talking with Source Data. They are very attentive to my concerns, very responsive with answers to my questions. Much better than my previous Business Partners.
“Besides an updated server, we determined we needed a business continuity solution for a quick recovery. Source Data understood our needs and was knowledgeable of several options. I like that I did not have to be forced into only one solution. I could choose among several options.”
New Server With High Availability Failover To Cloud400™ Saved Us At Least $18,500
“Ultimately, we determined that a new on-premise production server with High Availability replication to Cloud400 was most cost-effective for us. The iTera software was reasonably priced.
“Cloud400 was less expensive than a second on-premise server at one of our other locations. With Cloud, you pay as you go instead buying another new server. Also we don’t need licensing to replicate to the Cloud. You only license iTera for our on-premise POWER i, so licensing fees are less. We figured we saved at least $18,500 with this approach.”
Cloud400 Has OS400 Experts In Case of Failover – No Tech Resources At PCW’s Second Location
“Also, Cloud400 is staffed by OS400 experts that I can count on if we need to failover – my other locations don’t have that technical resource.”
Pacific Coast Warehouse Values SDP Assist With IBM Global Finance
“Source Data made it easy to finance this total solution with IBM Global Finance, including the newer version of our licensed software. In fact, the previous time we upgraded, I did not plan for software charges. So I got stuck with these big bills that I was not expecting. Based on my past experience, I would rather have it all financed with one monthly payment. Because of the multiple software vendors as well as hardware suppliers, SDP helped simplify the financing process for us.”
Research, Planning And Double Checking Avoids Factors That Might Be Overlooked
“We learned from our previous upgrade experience that upgrading to a new server can touch on many factors that can be overlooked. So we did a lot of research, planning and double checking from the time we started working with Source Data in March until we finally ordered our new system in August. We wanted no surprises.”
New POWER i Preloaded With Our System At SDP Tech Center
“We decided to have our new IBM POWER i shipped to the SDP tech center to be preloaded with our system and upgraded from V5R4 to V7R1,” David explains. “I sent a current copy of our system to SDP’s senior tech Mark Breisacher. Mark upgraded our system to V7R1 and provided remote testing so I could make sure everything ran OK before we took delivery of our new system. This worked out very well.”
Senior SDP Technician Mark Breisacher Knowledgeable, Accessible, Responsive
“Mark is very knowledge, accessible and quick to respond. We ran into a couple of issues where my software was not ready for V7R1. Mark gave me remote access to our system so I could upgrade some of those packages. Then Mark was able to complete the upgrade.
“Mark has continued to answer questions and help with issues since that initial upgrade. He is very knowledgeable. He’s accessible when I need help. It’s been a good relationship. He’s a good guy to work with.”
On-Premise Application Testing And WebSphere Upgrade Goes Smoothly
“We took delivery of our new system about 30 days later. It went very smooth. It took about an hour to get our new IBM POWER i unboxed, put in our rack and powered up. It worked out very well. There was some testing with our in-house application that we could only do on- premise. We had to upgrade our WebSphere to work in V7R1. We made some programming changes. This process took about 2 months. Overall, it was pretty painless. We went live in December.”
Oh, Yeah! Users Notice System Is Much, Much Faster
“When we went live, oh yeah, our users noticed the system was much, much faster. We used to have some interactive programs hit the throttle because of the limitation IBM had on our old system. Sometimes we would have one of these long running jobs that would slow the whole system down. That all went away with the new system. We had backup that used take about three to four hours, and it went to under an hour. Everything just ran much, much faster. The response time is greatly improved. It’s just nice to work faster.”
Cloud400 Failover Project Begins
Dave resumes, “After we went live on our new POWER i, we began our Cloud400 failover project. The work with the Cloud400 team went very well. It took a little longer than I expected, but I was not in any hurry. It gave me time to research some key points. It worked out great.”
Cloud400’s Darren Anderson Resolves iTera Issues – Overall Excellent Experience
“The iTera online training gave me an overview of the software. Cloud400’s Darren Anderson set up our hosted failover environment. It was pretty painless. Darren is knowledgeable, professional and accessible. Darren kept me informed about what he was doing during the set up and the testing. There were some issues with iTera he had to deal with. Darren got those issues resolved. It worked out well. Overall, an excellent experience.”
David Strawn Recommends Source Data Products and Cloud400
“I would recommend Source Data Products and Cloud400. I would be happy to tell any colleague about the great experience I have had working with Source Data.”