Case Study: Transtar Industries, Inc.

Company Profile: Transtar Industries, now the world's leading distributor of automotive transmission kits and components, has grown from a single telemarketing operation in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1975, to an integrated distribution network of over 20 regional centers serving independent transmission repair businesses throughout the U.S. and in over 60 countries around the world.

Transtar sales representatives are the most reliable and knowledgeable in the industry and are trained to be the customer's single point of contact for ordering, servicing and problem solving. Transtar's technical staff and product information systems answer customer questions with clarity and responsiveness. Its service bulletins and product data sheets are designed to bring order to the growing and complex technical landscape.

Transtar's Model 820 iSeries (AS/400) supports 100 users at the Cleveland headquarters and 200 remote users at 22 locations. The company's order processing, inventory management and distribution systems guarantee rapid response--nearly all orders placed are shipped complete the same day. All distribution centers are electronically linked, allowing instantaneous inventory visibility throughout the network.
Problems to Solve
  1. Install thin clients to give remote users access to server-based Windows applications (e.g., product catalog, email and office software via Citrix), and retain 5250 devices where appropriate (e.g., warehouse, shipping)
  2. Improve response time for remote locations (were experiencing up to 4 seconds on existing SNA network)
  3. Replace the SNA Twinax network with a Frame Relay, TCP/IP 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: 22 BOS e-Twin@x Controllers.


Why Transtar chose BOS e-Twin@x Controller:

  1. BOS e-Twin@x Controller is extremely reliable: "…haven't replaced one all year"
  2. Easy installation: "Pre-configured the controllers at headquarters, shipped them to each branch, and walked the designated person through the installation over the phone. Another vendor bid hundreds of dollars per location."
  3. Remote configuration tools are just outstanding: "Through our frame relay network, we can service all locations, including, over the Internet, Puerto Rico."
  4. Software upgrades can also be done remotely from headquarters.
  5. Devices work great: "Converting from SNA to TCP/IP was like night and day-average response time was improved by a factor of 10, from 2 seconds to .2 seconds. Users were absolutely giddy-even those who stayed on 5250 terminals."
  6. BOS e-Twin@x Controller is the only controller using pure TCP/IP.

Customer Comments
"We wanted to bring Windows-based applications to remote locations (mainly our product catalog, personal productivity software and email) without installing PCs and disrupting the way they were accustomed to doing business. We have hundreds of terminals and printers, and our staff is very used to them. At the same time we wanted to improve response time, which our analysis showed was due to our SNA network. One second would have been acceptable, but we had two, three and even four-second response time. By attaching BOS e-Twin@x Controllers to a passive Ethernet hub at each location, we were able to solve both problems at one time."

"We evaluated Perle controllers for a few days, but decided against them because we didn't like their APPC, their price, and their cumbersome configuration process."

"The BOS solution allows for easy change-out of dumb terminals to thin clients: just change one wire."

"Our Puerto Rico office had its own computer system because letting them use ours via frame relay would have cost $4,000 a month. Now they can dial into headquarters over the Internet and use all our systems. Our only cost is a local ISP account for about $100 a month. This has saved both staffs at headquarters and in Puerto Rico numerous hours of manual reporting, faxing and phone calls each day."

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

Contacts:

John J. Daley
Transtar Industries
E-mail: jdaley@transtarindustries.com

Jim Bell
Peak Systems Group, Inc.
Tel: 800/692-7400 E-mail: jim@peaksystemsgroup.com