The future of the System i relies on new customers coming to platform for the first time. There are quite a few UK firms that have taken the plunge. Why they chose the System i route and what their experiences are of IBM's trusty midrange server might, of course, be obvious to most, if not all, of this magazine’s readership. All of us can draw comfort from realising there are still sane people out there in the increasingly troubled world we live in.

IBM’s UKISA System i programme manager, Nigel Adams, says: ‘Applications are a key part of bringing new customers to the System i platform. One way in which we are supporting our ISVs and their applications is with the Charter for Innovation. This programme offers a wide range of IBM support programmes to application vendors and the stronger the application portfolio on the platform, the greater the ability to win new customers to System i.

‘Another programme is the Vertical Industry Programme (VIP) which was piloted last year and extended to a number of countries including the UK in 2007. This programme is aimed at solutions for specific industries and works on building a community of solution providers, resellers, and integrators focused on solving very specific customer needs through co-marketing activities, sales support, and stronger connections among partners. This focused and coordinated approach can bring real benefits in delivering packed solutions and as a consequence bring new customers to the platform. An example of the success of this approach would be the casino industry where more than 70% of US gaming and hospitality companies are System i customers.’

‘The iSeries platform has delivered tremendous benefits to its SMB customers for decades,’ says Marc Lautenbach, general manager, IBM Global Small and Medium Business. ‘As such, the IBM Charter for iSeries Innovation solidifies IBM's commitment to innovation and growth for iSeries customers now and in the decades to come.’

One company that is part of the VIP programme is Lawson Software with its hardware reseller Triangle and outsourcing partner Syan. Business Partner Triangle has recently secured three new i5 customers – GAP, Briggs and Camira Fabrics, the first two through Lawson partnering agreements.

Lawson’s marketing director of north western Europe, Keith Ricketts, says: ‘Our software is a Java platform-independent product with which we offer customers the platform of their choice – and 96% of them choose IBM infrastructure, mostly iSeries. We ask our customers what they are trying to achieve and what the IT infrastructure needs to be like to support their strategy.

‘The key thrust is us asking – and them agreeing with – [the idea of] why shouldn’t you run your business on a tried and tested business platform that also provides robust and resilient ROI? IBM must find that a compelling argument.’

Triangle account manager Mark Thomason says: ‘We sold two 520s to GAP with three years hardware and software maintenance, plus IBM x336 servers to host the Lawson M3 product. We are IBM infrastructure implementation partner for Lawson. Lawson sized the i5 platform for ERP application at its technical division – Intentia R&D – in Sweden.’

GAP is the UK’s largest independent plant and tool hirer. Established in 1969, Douglas and Iain Anderson have continued the legacy left by their father, who started the company under the name of Gordon Anderson Plant. GAP hires everything from half-inch drills to nine tonne dumpers through 55 depots nationwide and intends to have 70 UK depots and turnover of 140 million euros by 2009.

‘We have also sold a high availability solution to GAP – the DataMirror iCluster product which has been implemented on the two rack-mounted systems. One is located at the Glasgow main site and the other at a BT centre, which is also in Glasgow,’ says Thomason.

Plant hire rental company Briggs, part of US organisation Hewden Stewart, received its rack-mounted i5 520 prior to Christmas last year. ‘We have three years’ hardware and software maintenance agreements for this system too,’ says Thomason.

Initially founded in 1974 in Huddersfield under the name of Camborne Fabrics, Camira Fabrics’ base today is in the heart of a traditional textiles region. Through a series of acquisitions during which the company became part of US organisation Interface Fabrics, one of the world's largest manufacturers of floor coverings and fabrics, the company last May changed to its present identity of Camira Fabrics following a management buyout, returning the company to independent ownership and a base in Yorkshire. A member of the management remembered dealing with Triangle 15 years ago and the result is the company has acquired an i5 520 Enterprise Edition, where the Interface Fabrics software will be ported across to the i5 from iSeries systems in Holland by the end of this year.

ICT manager Jonathan Wheelhouse says: ‘We are continuing to use a dual iSeries setup in Holland running a bespoke in-house developed system to run the company. For reasons of timescale and minimal disruption to the user base, we have opted to go forward with i5 and the business system we are familiar with.’

Camira has some 260 staff (200 are users of the iSeries), most of whom are in the UK with some in sales offices in Germany and Denmark, and a manufacturing plant in Lithuania. ‘We have 140 PCs running Client Access, with each PC running a minimum of two-to-three sessions each – there can be 400 sessions active concurrently, plus printer sessions,’ says Wheelhouse. ‘We’re currently looking at disaster recovery with a number of suppliers, and debating high availability options.’

Weir Engineering Services (WES) is a customer of Syan. Outsourcing to Syan meant the company was able to go live with the new system much more quickly than it would otherwise have done.

‘We were on a tight timescale from start to finish and needed to ensure there were no delays in getting the infrastructure in place from initial set up to go-live,’ says Alan McLellan, database administrator/system analyst. ‘By outsourcing, we are able to provide an improved service to the business, both in terms of availability and reliability. We can now cater for the extended level of service the business requires at month-end and at other times, since Syan provides 24x7 support.’

Founded in 1871, Weir Group is the UK’s leading engineering company specialising in extending the lifespan and enhancing the performance of processes and equipment in the world’s most challenging environments. WES is one of five Weir Group divisions, each operating as independent companies. WES employs 2,000 staff and provides equipment maintenance, process support and asset management services to industries requiring high-quality, safety-critical solutions in the UK and Middle East. WES’s customers include oil companies BP, Chevron Texaco and Shell, water and energy companies and the UK military.

After a recent group restructure, a separate IT function for WES was set up. As WES was moving to a new ERP system, it considered outsourcing. ‘Our previous system was a bespoke development that was shared with and hosted by a manufacturing division within the Weir Group,’ says McLellan. ‘As we are a services division, we have a slightly different perspective and we were finding that the bespoke system didn’t offer us all the functionality we needed. We also wanted to have greater control over business processes. As we needed to take a step up in the collection and management of data, we looked at packaged ERP systems and selected Movex from Lawson. Because we had chosen to go with a new system, we were breaking away from our existing in-house support service and we needed to stand on our own two feet when it came to running Movex. Movex runs on System i, which was a new platform for us and we didn’t have those platform skills in our team.

At Syan, bid manager Barry Wright says: ‘WES has a dedicated i5 520 plus five xSeries servers -- two  225s and three x 335s. Indeed, Syan is now managing System i and System x servers for eight Lawson customers. Most of these companies were new to the platform when they purchased the Lawson M3 application.

‘We are working with Lawson on a number of opportunities where our ability to provide a full data centre and server management service for the system takes away any concerns about the System i platform that a prospective customer may have.’

Computer Software Group and its Software4Sport division have been very active in the System i field. Chorus software is being used at 300 companies, all on iSeries, and some of these are new to the platform  including JW Lees, NW England’s biggest brewer, based in Manchester. TALENT Sport is being run on iSeries at 33 organisations, of whom 11 are new wins, while there are some 35 companies running TALENT CRM and TALENT e-business on the platform.

A new i5 site is Glasgow Rangers Football Club which began using the TALENT Sport ticketing and CRM system 15 months ago with three goals: to reduce operational costs, improve the service to supporters, and drive sales of tickets, hospitality and merchandise. Has the system helped the club to achieve its goals?

‘TALENT Sport has made our ticket office procedures much more efficient. Since we started using the system, we’ve finished processing season ticket renewals two weeks earlier than in previous years, while reducing our temporary staff headcount year on year – by as many as 10 people in the first season,’ says Andy Ward, head of ticketing.

‘We now have more meaningful information on our supporters including accurate sales and transactional data. The quality and relevance of our communication with supporters has dramatically improved as a consequence,’ says Irene Munro, head of marketing and communications. Hospitality manager, Iona Kirkpatrick, adds: ‘Using TALENT Sport has allowed us to streamline our corporate sales processes and as a result productivity has increased, saving a considerable amount of administration time.’

Speedy Products is another new i5 customer and is really pleased with the platform’s reliability. Based in Salford, Speedy Products supplies window furnishings – including curtain poles, curtain tracks, finials and decorative components – to retailers. Enthusiasm for interior design among the public is driving the fastest period of expansion in the company’s 25 year history: sales grew almost 50% in 2005/6.

As business grew, the levels of stock that needed to be held increased considerably. Lacking an effective means to control and manage this growing inventory, the company was facing rising costs and inflexibility in meeting customer demand. The existing information systems were designed to manage financial operations, and didn’t provide sufficient inventory control.

Systems manager Howard Clyne says: ‘We needed a system to control inventory more precisely and to increase the detail and accuracy of demand forecasting. By implementing ASW software from IBS, we’ve shrunk our inventory by almost 25% while boosting internal efficiency and responsiveness to customers.’

Speedy Products weighed up a number of options before selecting ASW – which was the only software product the company reviewed that ran on the System i platform. Clyne says: ‘The other packages we considered ran under Microsoft Windows on commodity hardware. We selected ASW primarily for its functionality, and also felt System i would offer the right level of robustness and availability for what was set to become business-critical software. We value the reliability and high availability of the System i platform. We have experienced no unplanned downtime since installation, and spend very little time on routine maintenance.’

To achieve the 25% reduction, Speedy chose the ASW supply chain management software with its NetStore module for business-to-business website processing and the Parcel Carrier Integration module for improved transport management. This helped reduce warehousing costs and freed up cash flow for new investments, provided greater internal efficiency, gave better visibility of business processes and an enhanced ability to respond to forecast demand.

‘System i was a new architecture for us,’ says Clyne, ‘We knew relatively little about it, aside from rumours of exceptional reliability. IBS gave us confidence the platform would meet our needs well, and provided expert assistance in setting up the new solution. In our experience, the hardware has been totally reliable and easy to manage. The ASW software plays a key role in the success of our business, so the 24/7 support provided by the System i platform is invaluable.’

ROI. Robustness. Availability. All the key factors SMBs need are truly there aplenty.

Frank Booty

This article originally appeared in the April edition of System i NEWS UK magazine.