Success Story - JRP & Associates, LLC

Jay Pierce, President of Pennsylvania-based JRP & Associates, repurposed wholesale floral supplier Zieger & Sons' Customer Order Entry application and gave it a modern web browser interface with Presto. The application, which was originally accessed by Zieger & Sons employees via green screen, now acts as an online B2B Order Entry and Account Inquiry.

Clients can directly access the application to order products and self-manage their accounts, a process that has saved time by accomplishing tasks that Zieger & Sons employees manually completed in the past.

Challenge

Zieger & Sons identified a need to extend their Customer Order Entry application to the web. Although their Customer Order Entry application was functional, it required hands-on attention from employees who placed orders and managed client accounts on request (i.e. fulfilling account balance inquiries and providing statement histories).

The floral supplier believed that a web-based application would improve customer service by allowing their clients to independently place orders and make account inquiries at their convenience. They didn't want to introduce this level of client-application interaction within a green screen environment so it was necessary to make the application available on the web within a familiar, easy-to-use interface.

Solution

Knowing that they could give the Customer Order Entry application a web GUI with Presto made it feasible for JRP & Associates to repurpose the application for client use. "We chose Presto because it allows us to control all of the business logic on the IBM i and to reuse existing business logic modules," says Jay.

Jay first repurposed the application for client use by enhancing certain aspects of it. This included the addition of a governor that restricts customers to their specific information and history (i.e. invoice history, AR statement history and purchase history).

Jay then used Presto to give the application a web browser interface and to enhance the look and functionality of approximately 25 screens. This included:

• Integrating the application with Zieger & Sons' public website and creating a custom skin to match the look and feel.
• Moving clickable function keys from the bottom of the screens to a left sidebar.
• Alternating subfile row colors.
• Adding datepicker functions along with icons for subfile option actions, and Next and Previous subfile paging buttons.
• Linking to PDFs. When a user clicks on an option to display an invoice or statement as a PDF, the file is retrieved from the IFS and displayed in a new window. The user can then Save or Print the PDF.

The total Presto development time was about 60 hours. "We feel this was a very short time frame for this much web development," says Jay. Jay also believes that Presto was a great match for this project. "Any IBM i shop that has a need to extend an application or data to the web could use Presto with their in-house RPG developers. Presto allows for the creation of a web application at a fraction of the cost. I also discovered that the IBM i box is a screaming HTTP server - the Zieger application is amazingly fast, even over the Internet," he says.

Results

Zieger & Sons' clients are now able to log in to their customer account via the public website instead of calling customer service, and:

• Register as a new customer.
• Place orders based on real-time inventory levels.
• View purchase history and replicate past orders.
• View invoice history and past A/R statements and save/print PDF versions.
• View current A/R balance.
• Manage their own passwords.

Prior to launching the application, Stephen Zieger, President of Zieger & Sons, informed Jay of how impressed he was with the final product and how quickly the project came together. The company is looking forward to saving time that was previously used to input orders and fulfill client requests. They are expecting widespread approval from end users.

About Jay Pierce and JRP & Associates

Since the early days of midrange systems, JRP & Associates has performed the full range of client services, from designing and developing ERP systems to extending their customers' core system functionality to the Internet.

Jay Pierce is President of JRP & Associates and has been an IBM midrange consultant for almost 30 years. He has developed on IBM S/36, S/38 and IBM i for a wide range of industries. In his free time, Jay enjoys fishing, camping, hiking, and skiing. He hopes to visit Vancouver Island, BCD's technical headquarters, for a fishing vacation someday.

About Zieger & Sons

Since 1910, Zieger & Sons has been a premier provider of wholesale floral supplies and fresh flowers to professional florists. Their commitment to unparalleled quality and dependable service enables them to go the extra mile in supporting their clients' business growth and success.