Case Study: Kenworth Sales Company, Inc.

Company Profile: This chain of Kenworth heavy duty diesel truck dealerships caters to smaller fleets and owner operators, out of six sales & service locations in Idaho, Utah and Nevada. The company had separate AS/400s in these locations and wanted to consolidate them to allow customers to charge parts & service wherever they were. To do this, Kenworth Sales Company built a frame relay WAN infrastructure: each location has a local point-to-point connection to their local telephone company, and data and voice traffic is then routed over the public telephone network. The savings are considerable: $300 vs. $1,500 per line for the connection, and an additional $1,000 monthly saving by routing long distance voice and fax traffic over the WAN.

Problem to solve: Install remote controllers at each branch office so as to preserve their investment in 25 twinax printers (from line printers to desktop document and check printers) as well as the 18 twinax terminals used as timeclocks in the branch service centers for payroll and billing purposes.
At each branch, wanted to install remote controllers that plug into the TCP/IP WAN (rather than requiring a separate phone line) and continue to use the twinax printers and timeclocks without disruption or rewriting software.

Product Installed: BOS e-Twin@x Controllers, Model 4608 (3 of 6 already installed)

Why Kenworth chose BOS e-Twin@x Controller:

  1. BOS e-Twin@x Controller is the only remote controller that does not rely on IBM's AnyNet IP protocol, but instead uses "pure" TCP/IP
  2. BOS e-Twin@x Controller plugs directly into the IP WAN, eliminating the need for a separate phone line to carry SNA traffic between headquarters and branch offices
  3. BOS e-Twin@x Controller has a browser-based configuration program that allows IT staff to dial in and support any remote controller from anywhere
  4. BOS e-Twin@x Controller is easy to install and configure
  5. BOS e-Twin@x Controller is a mature product and performs "out-of-the-box"

When: Summer 2000

Contact:
David Rasmussen
Director, Information Technologies
Tel: 801/412-4355
email: drasmussen@kenworthsalesco.com

Customer comments:

"We initially tried the Perle 594M remote controller, because we have a lot of Perle equipment, and a Perle remote access server in each office. It was a horrible experience: only one of seven worked, and that one died over a three week period. BOS had been another of our favorite suppliers. We knew they had great products and wonderful support--though in this case we didn't need any. In the past, we used their LANbada product to connect our remote offices to our System/36. When I saw their ad that said they didn't use the AnyNet protocol I contacted them right away." - David Rasmussen

"I think the BOS ads undersold the capabilities of this product. They promote AS/400 connectivity over the Internet, but I didn't realize I could control twinax devices remotely over the WAN." - David Rasmussen

"I volunteered to become a reference for BOS after I was able to switch over our printers and timeclocks to their e-Twin@x Controller in less than half an hour at each location. I went to each branch and did it myself because the users were so frustrated with our initial Perle controllers." - David Rasmussen

"The browser-based configuration program is wonderful -- I can do everything remotely. I can even reset individual ports; with Perle, we had to disable the unit and reset everything. This is particularly important with the timeclocks: they can't be down because we use them for billing our customers for service as well as paying our employees." - David Rasmussen

"BOS uses pure TCP/IP protocol, which makes a big performance difference, eliminating bottlenecks on the network and the CPU. It's also much easier and cleaner to configure." - David Rasmussen

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