Case Study: Western States Envelope Co.

Company Profile: Custom envelope manufacturer and distributor, headquartered in suburban Milwaukee (Butler, WI), with plants and warehouses near Toledo (Walbridge, OH) and Cincinnati (Erlanger, KY). Recent acquisitions include manufacturing/warehouse facilities in suburban Minneapolis (Maplewood, MN) and in Madison, WI.
AS/400 at corporate headquarters runs all customer, management, production and distribution applications. Supports two networks: Twinax with 75 remote users; Ethernet LAN at headquarters with 100 PCs.

Problem to solve: To improve response time, lower costs and use ISDN for back-up, Western States Envelope wanted to replace its leased lines with Frame Relay using TCP/IP. Therefore, needed a remote controller that supports Twinax over TCP/IP.

Product Installed: Two BOS e-Twin@x Controllers (Models 4556 - 56 devices).

Why Western States Envelope chose BOS e-Twin@x Controller:

  1. It is a remote controller that supports Twinax over TCP/IP.
  2. Although Western States was using Perle remote controllers, Perle did not yet have available a controller that supported Twinax over TCP/IP.
  3. BOS distributor Steve Willis from I/O Connections (Twinax terminal supplier) had attended a day-long briefing on the BOS product and was very excited about it. He felt it was the product we were looking for and highly recommended it.

When: First unit in Walbridge, Ohio late August 1999. Second unit in Erlanger, Kentucky end of November.

Contact: Denise Olson, Telecom Administrator or Karen Rember, Network Manager, Tel: (262) 781-5540

Customer comments:

"We had looked on the Internet and even asked IBM whether anyone had the solution we needed, so when Steve Willis first told us about all that the BOS e-Twin@x Controller could do, we didn't believe him. But with a 90-day trial, we had nothing to lose. I would recommend this solution highly to anyone in the Twinax environment. The BOS e-Twin@x Controller works, and both Karen and I are happy with BOS support and responsiveness." - Denise Olson

"The BOS e-Twin@x Controller is fairly priced, and its warranty includes one-day turnaround on swap outs if the unit doesn't function." - Denise Olson

"For me, as the Twinax network administrator, the fast remote set-up is a real advantage. I can dial in on a Web browser from Wisconsin to configure the unit, and don't have to fly down there. Plus the set-up itself only takes about an hour, versus half a day for the Perle units." - Denise Olson

"After we switched the first Twinax line to the BOS unit in Kentucky, response time was so fast that people were literally calling me and asking for it. Before, we had data entry personnel that were keying faster than the screens could refresh. The difference is like night and day. The screens refresh within an second or two, whereas some days before it took up to two minutes." - Denise Olson

Click here to read what else this customer and others are saying about the e-Twin@x Controller!