Published on 22-Aug-2008
"I must commend the EBI technical support group in Pennsylvania. Never in my professional life have I met and experienced a more dedicated, interested and supportive effort on the part of a software vendor as I have experienced with EXTOL." - Gino Giombetti, vice president of operations and IT, Randa Luggage
Customer:
Randa Luggage
Industry:
Consumer Products
Deployment country:
United States
IBM Business Partner:
EXTOL, Vormittag Associations, Inc.
Overview
Randa Luggage (Randa) creates and distributes designer luggage brands across North America. As the third largest distributor in its marketplace, Randa has more than 5,000 customer accounts, and shipped approximately six million products in 2006.
Business need:
Randa needed to improve visibility into all elements of its supply chain with a transparent, enterprise-wide view in real time. Leveraging its existing electronic data interchange (EDI) solution, the company wanted to automate the validation of spreadsheet-based data and to seamlessly integrate that data into its automated processes and ERP system, without retraining factory staff.
Solution:
Randa teamed with IBM Business Partner EXTOL and IBM Business Partner Vormittag Associates, Inc. (VAI) to modernize its enterprise IT environment and improve its supplychain management. First, the team deployed VAI’s System 2000 ERP solution on an IBM System i5 520 Enterprise Edition platform. Next, EXTOL leveraged its EXTOL Business Integrator software with the existing EDI solution to integrate the new ERP system. Finally, EXTOL established and mapped new internal processes.
Benefits:
• Facilitates access to more-accurate and timely supply chain information
• Enables Randa to improve inventory management and customer service
• Speeds, automates and streamlines operations without retraining staff
Case Study
 “I must commend the EBI technical support group in | | |
Randa’s manufacturing operations in China had been organizing production, shipping and inventory information in several Microsoft® Excel spreadsheets. To distribute the data, the plants e-mailed the spreadsheets to the corporate headquarters, where office administrators would re-key the information into the
corporate enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Re-keying this voluminous information could sometimes take days and offered less than optimal insight into
available inventory. Randa needed to improve visibility into all elements of its supply chain with a transparent, enterprise-wide view in real time. Leveraging its existing electronic data interchange (EDI) solution, the company wanted to automate the validation of spreadsheet-based data and to seamlessly integrate that data into its automated processes and ERP system, without retraining factory staff.
“I must commend the EBI technical support group in Pennsylvania. Never in my professional life have I met and experienced a more dedicated, interested and supportive effort on the part of a software vendor as I have experienced with EXTOL.” -Gino Giombetti
Solution
Randa teamed with IBM Business Partner EXTOL and IBM Business Partner Vormittag Associates, Inc. (VAI) to modernize its enterprise IT environment and improve its supplychain management. First, the team deployed VAI’s System 2000 ERP solution on an IBM System i5 520 Enterprise Edition platform. Next, EXTOL leveraged its EXTOL Business Integrator software with the existing EDI solution to integrate the new ERP system with the spreadsheets used by Randa’s manufacturers in China. Finally, EXTOL established and mapped new internal processes and ran a pilot at one Chinese manufacturing site.
Benefits
• Facilitates access to more-accurate and timely supply chain information
• Enables Randa to improve inventory management and customer service
• Speeds, automates and streamlines operations without retraining staff
Products and services used
IBM products and services that were used in this case study.
Hardware:
System i: System i5 520 Enterprise Edition
Legal Information
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