Case Study: Yusen Air & Sea Service (USA), Inc.

Company Profile: This largest wholly owned subsidiary of Yusen Air & Sea Company of Tokyo, was established in North America in 1968. Yusen ranks among the world's top 10 multi-modal, international air and ocean freight forwarders and customs house brokers. With U.S. headquarters in Garden City, New York, Yusen currently operates 28 cargo branches and sales offices around the country.

Yusen's AS/400 is used for shipping scheduling with the airlines, shipping advices to customers and other freight forwarding and brokerage functions as well as accounting and billing. The AS/400 supports some 200 terminals and 100 system and desktop printers in the remote offices.

Problem to solve: Wanted to simplify its network, and allow users to communicate with each other as well as the AS/400. Decided on TCP/IP as the standard protocol while building a Wide Area Network. To do this and still support the SNA devices (terminals and printers), needed a remote controller that supports Twinax over TCP/IP.

Product Installed: 26 BOS e-Twin@x Controllers

Why Yusen chose BOS e-Twin@x Controller:

  1. BOS e-Twinax Controller is "small; easy to install; remotely configurable by browser, and costs less than the Perle controller."
  2. BOS e-Twinax Controller has Remote Access Server function, allowing IT staff to dial in and support any remote controller from anywhere and Sales and Operations staff to have access to AS400, whether on the road or at home.
  3. BOS e-Twinax Controller is the only controller using pure TCP/IP.

When: From Middle of November '99 to End of December '99

Contacts:
Hajime Hikita, PC Network Manager, E-mail: h-hikita@yusen.co.jp
Rodney Wilson, Operation Manager, E-mail: r-wilson@yusen.co.jp

Customer comments:

"In August 1999, when we began planning to change, we had Perle and IBM controllers for our SNA network. We were considering the Perle TCP/IP solution when a BOS dealer, Productivity Systems Inc. out of Milwaukee, introduced us to BOS e-Twin@x Controllers. Since we have to support 25 locations, we were very interested in the remote configuration via browser. Our Perle controllers had to be on site for reconfiguration, and then the whole controller, rather than individual devices, had to be reset. We use the remote configuration capability all the time now, when our offices want to replace a device or change its address. We can even send upgrades via e-mail to all of the offices." - Hajime Hikita

"Since one of the reasons we were changing our network away from SNA was to simplify networking, we were attracted to BOS's pure implementation of TCP/IP. Perle's TCP/IP controller uses an Anynet connection on TCP/IP and looked complicated." - Hajime Hikita

"The dial-in Remote Access Server capability is a real plus for the IT department when we take business trips. With it, we can support any controller in the remote offices from wherever we are. It's definitely a time- and headache-saver." - Rodney Wilson

"I think we have more different makes and models of printers in our large network than most AS/400 users, so at first we had problems with printer drivers for the less commonly found printers. However, BOS worked with us -- they even sent a technician to our largest office where we had the most printers -- to solve these problems. Now it all works fine. Overall, the controllers have been very reliable." - Rodney Wilson

"The benefits of using the BOS e-Twin@x Controllers fall into three categories: cost savings, time savings and ease of support. Since we had to buy 26 controllers, it was a plus that these cost less than Perle's. Both the IT department and our end users save time with the remote configuration via browser feature; they used to do the hands-on part of the remote configuration, with us directing their efforts over the phone. Finally, support and maintenance is much easier for the IT department." - Hajime Hikita

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