COVER STORY: J.B. HUNT TRANSPORT LOADS UP WITH IBM ENETWORK SOFTWARE

In 1962, Johnnie Bryan Hunt founded the J. B. Hunt Company, beginning one of the most successful and innovative transportation conglomerates in North America: J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. Since that time, the Lowell, Arkansas-based company has evolved from a regional truckload carrier into a diversified transport and logistics company with more than 12,000 employees and yearly revenues of over $1.5 billion (U.S.).

The largest publicly held truckload carrier in the United States, J.B. Hunt Transport currently has more than 7,000 tractor trucks and 20,000 containers to serve customers through-out North America. The recipient of numerous customer awards for quality and superior service, the company prides itself on setting the industry standard for value, service reliability, and quality. Achieving and maintaining this high standard of service requires J.B. Hunt Transport’s IS group to find the most efficient ways to manage its far-flung network of system users.

The IS group supports several company divisions that offer a variety of specialized transportation services including: Automotive, Dedicated Contract Services, Intermodal, International, Intrastate, Logistics Service, Long Haul, Regional, and Substitute Service. According to Chris Pittman, a client engineer for the IS group, “Because we are a transportation company, we have sites scattered all over North America. With over 100 remote networks and 400 users dialing in to our corporate headquarters, we obviously have a lot of communication requirements from remote users who need to connect their PCs to our host systems. That’s probably the biggest hurdle we have to overcome.”

IBM Personal Communications Paves the Way for a Windows NT Implementation
Until recently, J.B. Hunt Transport had been using IBM’s OS/2® as its primary operating system and Communications Manager/2 (CM/2) for host integration. When the company decided to convert its primary desktop platform to Windows NT, it needed to find a new host integration solution. Based on its previous experience with IBM, the company selected Personal Communications (PCOMM), a key part of IBM’s eNetwork Software family. PCOMM provides superior flexibility by combining 3270 and 5250 emulation with the most extensive desktop support in the industry—all in a single, easy-to-install package.

PCOMM, which J.B. Hunt Transport found very easy to install on its Windows NT machines, gives the company the same capabilities it enjoyed with CM/2 but also extends those capabilities to the Windows NT environment. PCOMM also addresses the difficulty of running multiprotocol networks to support business applications that need access to corporate or application data. J.B. Hunt Transport currently runs two different protocols for host access. Dial-in access is done through AnyNet® SNA over TCP/IP, a feature of PCOMM that enables emulator and client/server SNA applications to communicate across a TCP/IP network. Networked users are directly connected to the host through IEEE® 802.2.

With PCOMM, users see the same consistent interface, whether at home, on the road, or in the office. In addition, PCOMM provides data compression, data encryption, and dynamic link recovery to enhance the performance, security, and availability of business applications and data.

Executive Summary

Problem Large transportation company needs a flexible host integration solution to connect networked and remote users running Windows NT Solution IBM eNetwork Software host integration solution featuring Personal Communications (PCOMM) for Windows NT Benefit Remote users now have reliable remote access to the host, and system administrators save time and resources with automated configuration

Automated Configuration Saves Time and Money
Pittman says that the company decided on the PCOMM solution based primarily on the service and support it has received from IBM in the past. Already, J.B. Hunt Transport has upgraded from PCOMM 4.1 to 4.2, with the greatest benefit being remote management. Pittman states, “We now have an automated process to edit the desktop configuration files in the field, which is a lot easier than having to step users through all the changes. There has been a huge benefit in time savings for our IS staff. We also avoid the cost and time it takes to ship a PC back to headquarters just to customize it.”

“One of the best features of PCOMM 4.2 is the silent installation, which makes it much easier to perform the installation and remote configurations,” he adds. “We now have PCOMM 4.2 running on approximately 800 to 900 machines.”

During the installation, J.B. Hunt Transport discovered a few additional requirements that it hadn’t realized before, but IBM quickly addressed the company’s needs. “That is a huge advantage of going with IBM,” Pittman explains. “Whenever we have had a problem, IBM has responded with a timely solution. The project has gone extremely well, and we haven’t had any major installation issues. For such a large rollout, it has been very painless.”

Flexibility Provides a Solution for the Long Haul
In the near future, the company plans to expand the use of its existing applications through PCOMM. J.B. Hunt Transport is currently developing new Java applications that will give the company a distinct competitive advantage. PCOMM makes it easier to integrate these innovative applications into the company’s existing network. Pittman concludes, “I would definitely recommend PCOMM to other companies. The versatility and manageability have made it a great solution for us. But probably the number one factor in the project’s success has been IBM’s outstanding service and support, which we haven’t always received from other vendors. As a total package, I don’t think you can beat this solution.”

For More Information

Visit:
http://www.ibm.com/software/network/pcomm
http://www.jbhunt.com/