News & Views, January 2001

The mrc Web site has been updated with an entire demonstration area dedicated to showing you the kinds of Web applications you could be building with the mrc-Productivity Series right now.

At this new Web site, you can query database files and receive instant responses. You may also view and update the contents of database files. The entire site and all its applications were generated using the mrc-Productivity Series, so you’ll see you already have the ability to build everything on the demo site. Click here to visit the site.

If you are considering building an intranet site for company employees, we’ve built a sample of the most common applications: a customer search by name/number application, an order search application, and a sales application that allows the user to compare sales figures from the past to those of today. Click here to try out these applications.

For those interested in communicating with vendors, resellers, and distributors via an extranet, you’ll want to try out the "Dealers Only" area of the demo site. This section uses our record-level security feature to deliver only the data relevant to that user. You have multiple identities to choose from to see how the data changes. Once you’ve logged in, you’ll be able to see some powerful business-to-business types of applications, such as an interactive program that allows the Web visitor to modify his contact information. There’s also an application that lets the user view his current orders, including shipping dates, products ordered, and both product and shipping charges. Click here to go directly to this extranet site.

If a B2C Web site is what you are interested in, then you’ll certainly be able to see that here (not to mention at the mrc Web site itself). After exploring this Web site, please complete the feedback form to let us know what you think!

We are thrilled to announce that the mrc-Productivity Series has been nominated in the Software - Application Development (AS/400-based) category for the AS/400 Technology SHOWCASE Product Excellence Award. We were honored with this award last year and hope to receive it again this year.

So once again, we are asking for your vote. You'll be eligible to win some great cash prizes, and have the opportunity to make your vote count as SHOWCASE readers determine what vendors have the best products in the AS/400 marketplace. Cast your vote for mrc at Midrange Computing’s website: www.midrangecomputing.com/awards/vote. By casting a ballot, you are automatically entered to win one of these valuable prizes:

• First Prize: $500
• Second Prize: $250
• Third Prize: $100

Hurry, the online voting ends February 28, 2001!

The Farner-Bocken Company is a wholesale distributor of convenience store merchandise. The family-owned company serves midwestern restaurants, schools, and convenience stores with over 12,000 products, ranging from fresh produce to cigarettes and snack foods. The impetus to Web-enable their customer service division came from the customers themselves, who wanted a self-serve environment and faster access to information. In response, Farner-Bocken deployed its business-to-business Web site ahead of schedule and under budget, extending their AS/400 data to the Web quickly and easily. Even more remarkable, they built the solution with their existing skill set by using the mrc-Productivity Series²⁰⁰⁰.

Essential to retail merchandise distribution management is the maintenance of constantly changing suggested retail prices (SRPs). Any change in product cost or desired profit margin must be reflected in the product’s SRP as quickly as possible. Farner-Bocken employed two full-time people to work with the store managers to maintain accurate and current SRPs of all products.

As the convenience store industry evolved and broadened its product line, manual maintenance of this much information became unwieldy. Store managers wanted to avoid delays in product pricing, and requested instant access to pricing data and sales figures. Farner-Bocken’s IT manager, John Perrin, began exploring different opportunities to Web-enable these processes, including hire Java programmers and training existing staff. Perrin soon discovered that the ideal solution with the least risk was already in use at Farner-Bocken:

"We have owned the mrc-Productivity Series²⁰⁰⁰ for a number of years, and it was well-positioned within our company. We developed many of our business applications with it very cost-effectively, such as reports, drill downs, and maintenance applications. Our end users were already using it to run reports and maintain files. Then along came mrc’s Web development capabilities, and it made perfect sense for us to try them."

Perrin and two project leaders began developing Web applications right away. Their familiarity with the mrc-Productivity Series and the customers’ business needs made it very easy for them to build Java applications, HTML pages, and Web-based reports right away, without any manual programming. Adds Perrin, "The beauty of building these applications with the mrc-Productivity Series is that I could use my strongest skills — knowledge of our core business and of the AS/400 — to develop these Web applications, without learning the programming languages that they were built in."

Farner-Bocken’s e-business solution was quickly ready for customer use. The Web applications access live AS/400 data and provide store managers with instant access to their mission-critical information. Customers can now maintain their own pricing, adjusting prices to maximize revenue. They also have immediate access to sales figures and reports.

The results of their e-business solution have greatly transformed the way Farner-Bocken communicates with and serves its customers. Customer service representatives no longer run and mail hundreds of reports every day. Convenience stores now access their mission-critical information instantly. The IS Department spends its valuable time resolving business issues — not learning new programming languages. Not to mention that the e-business solution was deployed well within the desired period. Perrin explains, "In three weeks I created all the e-business applications I needed to launch our site. Through traditional methods, they’d have taken six to eight months."

Is your staff up-to-date on the latest Web features of the mrc-Productivity Series? Is 2001 the year you might start building and deploying Web applications? You already own the tool that gets your business data to the Web. Why not enroll in one of our advanced training courses to learn how?

Do you have new staff members that need training? What about a refresher course for your existing staff? For fundamental or advanced training, our product specialists are here to help you get the most out of the mrc-Productivity Series.

Get ready for 2001 — schedule next year’s training today! Click here to view the class schedule online, or call Janet Vick at 630-916-0662 or e-mail Janet for more information.

mrc offers training sessions at both your location and ours. Visit our education area for more information on our education services, or click here to view our schedule for the entire year. (You will have to log in with your user name and password to visit this area. If you need login instructions, please click here first.)