mrc Case Study: General Binding Corporation

Basics International market leader, General Binding Corporation, is faced with the dilemma that its powerful software package, Movex, just doesn't have enough operational reporting options. Challenge GBC wants a way to improve Movex's reporting capabilities without actually modifying the software package itself. Solution GBC opted for the mrc's m-Power to not only help them create a powerful operational reporting system that works seamlessly with their Movex software without any modifications to the software itself.

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mrc Case Study: General Binding Corporation Basics Founded in 1947, General Binding Corporation, or GBC, is a worldwide leader in the binding, laminating and visual presentation industries, supplying customers in over 100 countries across the home, office and commercial markets. It is the recognized market leader in all of its core product lines, delivering high value to its many customers and end-users across the globe. The company also continues to enjoy leading positions in binding and laminating equipment and supplies, visual communication products (writing boards, bulletin/planning boards and easels), and document shredders. Recently, however, GBC Europe found itself in a bit of a bind with the packaged software it uses to run its operations. "We use Intentia's Movex version 11 on a model 825 iSeries with V5R1, supporting all our European businesses from our corporate datacenter in the USA," said Alan Briggs, IS Director Europe. Challenge GBC's Movex software package wasn't providing sufficient operational reporting to meet the company's needs, and GBC's developers were being forced to create custom reports in Query and RPG to supplement the software's deficiencies. This stop-gap solution was siphoning resources away from mission-critical IT projects. GBC needed a better operational reporting system that could tie directly to Movex, but also one that wouldn't actually make changes to the underlying core software package. Solution That's where m-Power came into play. All work done with m-Power surrounds and compliments Movex, rather than affecting normal Movex operations. That meant these "custom changes" would survive through future Movex upgrades, where modifications to Movex itself would be overwritten in such a case. "Originally we purchased m-Power for Operational Reporting as a replacement to the use of Query and RPG. Though m-Power has now proved to be far more useful than originally planned." "It has been key to opening up our corporate database delivering data in a useable format whereas PC-reporting or 5250 sessions were just not right," explained Briggs. Value All custom reports are now generated using m-Power. GBC has also used m-Power to create supplementary databases around the edges of Movex to store new information. Furthermore they have developed a range of intranet applications using m-Power to deliver real-time information from Movex to their users' browsers. "Now, on our intranet we have used m-Power to create a number of downloads from Movex, with the data tidily collated for the end users. This has dramatically reduced the risks associated with giving users access to Query. m-Power is effectively the bridge between our database and the end users." "The productivity of the development team alone has delivered our payback. Our developers are now at least a third more productive as a result of using m-Power. Our return on investment is way beyond what was originally conceived because there are whole new areas to which it can be applied," said Briggs. "m-Power is a tried and tested iSeries solution - it has fully met our expectations." For information about General Binding Corporation, visit the GBC Web site. This article was written and contributed by Adam Hales, mrc (UK) office.