Aurora Health Care
The network manager at this sprawling Milwaukee, Wis., healthcare system battled corporate executives to pull network management in-house. She insisted Aurora Health Care use Aprisma's Spectrum network management software rather than renewing an outsourcing agreement with a firm using Computer Associates' Unicenter. Through Spectrum, she increased uptime of the network throughout the system's 250 facilities. In the first few months of installation, Aurora witnessed a 40% reduction in outage hours on the network.
Bear Creek
Going into the holiday season last year, this specialty retailer
discovered it wouldn't be able to handle all the traffic it expected
at the various Web sites it operates. (The company owns well-known
high-end gourmet gift fruit company Harry & David, rose producer
Jackson & Perkins and Northwest Express, apparel and accessory
outfitter.) Although the busy season had already started, it ditched
its old round-robin-style load balancer and implemented a more sophisticated
traffic controller, F5 Networks' Big-IP. After the three-day installation,
Bear Creek, in Medford, Ore., was able to handle 100% more traffic
than during the previous holiday season, by distributing traffic
for the three sites among seven servers. Given that Bear Creek loses
$40,000 for every hour of downtime, it says, the $52,000 invested
in load-balancing was easily justified.
C5
This New York postproduction company, responsible for the sound
effects in the blockbuster "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"
and myriad other films, has built a storage-area network (SAN) to
take the static out of its sound editing process. The SAN, comprising
Gadzoox Networks' Capellix 3000 switch and Fibre Channel transport,
lets editors access digitized films from the network rather than
from their own hard drives. Previously, C5 had to duplicate a film's
sound library and the digitized film itself to each editor - a storage,
management and version control nightmare. Now editors can get to
the files they need on their own with the confidence that they're
working on the latest versions. And network managers need only watch
over the SAN rather than individual storage devices at each of the
40 editors' desktops. C5 says the SAN cost $25,000, but has not
determined a return on investment.
Capital Region Health
Care (CRHC)
Network executives at this Concord, N.H., healthcare provider delivered
the prescription doctors needed to be able to schedule appointments,
update patient records and maintain other clinical information from
anywhere in the hospital while not comprising privacy. They brought
those critical resources online and gave the doctors access to them
via Web browsers. Previously, the doctors had to dial into the hospital
network using a toll-free number. Elimination of the dial-up cost
alone will save CRHC $360,000. CRHC network professionals manage
authentication through Novell's iChain 1.5 Web security service,
which uses the vendor's eDirectory directory software. Use of this
authentication service also will help CRHC comply with the government's
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act regulations,
which require increased security for access to patient records.
Ford Motor
This automotive giant is increasing productivity and improving
efficiency by making collaborative workspaces available to any team
within the company. The decision to extend collaboration throughout
the company resulted from an evaluation of how product development
teams worked collaboratively. Ford found many inefficient practices,
with individual teams using different products and following their
own processes. So it standardized on one collaboration package -
eRoom from eRoom Technology - and was able to streamline its supply
chain and product development processes. Now Ford has extended the
capabilities to any team within Ford that needs a collaborative
workspace. With one such application alone - monthly executive leadership meetings led by Ford's CEO - the company estimates saving $800,000 annually (plus efficiency gains) by cutting two hours weekly from the workloads of participating managers.
Hellman Worldwide Logistics
Hellman, a freight forwarder with offices on five continents,
is getting its own logistics in order thanks to a global VPN, support
for a universal directory and a new worldwide e-mail system. The
VPN connects the company's three main hubs, located in Germany,
Hong Kong and Miami. Hellman uses Novell Directory Services eDirectory
to manage network access and security from a central location. Novell
Internet Messaging System (NIMS) gives Hellman a scalable messaging
system for hosting and managing user accounts centrally. Standardization
on NIMS alone has saved Hellman more than $6 million.
Justin Brands
This Fort Worth, Texas, boot and casual wear company says it believes
it is defining how the Western wear industry will operate in the
future. It has established an e-commerce site that gives its 6,000-plus
dealers the ability to check inventory, get pricing information,
place orders, check order status and track shipments in real time,
24 hours per day. Previously, dealers placed orders via fax, phone,
electronic data interchange or directly to field sales representatives.
Justin serves these applications via Haht Software's HAHTsite 5.0.
Haht Commerce e-Scenarios sit in front of the company's enterprise
resource planning application from SAP. Through the site, Justin
has been able to expand dealer partnerships.
Kentucky Metro Sewer District
(MSD)
In a case of high-tech sewage, this nonprofit utility serving
Louisville increased the productivity of its maintenance workers
by outfitting them with handheld Windows CE devices and giving them
wireless Web access to corporate databases. With the devices, the
workers can access and update files from anywhere via a Web browser.
Novell's OnDemand software delivers applications to the devices,
which connect over a CDPD wireless network to the corporate net.
The workers get remote access to customer service applications,
map data and maintenance data inventory, e-mail and general Internet
applications. Customers also benefit by being able to get up-to-the-minute
status reports from service representatives with access to the same
databases. MSD estimates it saved $35 per seat, or $17,000, vs.
the alternative solution it studied.
Quaker Chemical
An international chemical products company based in Conshohocken,
Pa., Quaker Chemical has built a sophisticated collaborative intranet
it calls Quaker Business Intelligence (QBI) that opens the company's
knowledge stores to employees and, ultimately, customers. Information
stored in e-mails, documents, presentations and other unstructured
data is searchable via a Web browser, e-mail client or file folder
system. QBI is built on Intraspect Software's Web-based intranet
platform, which supports Internet standards and is easily integrated
with the company's SAS data warehouse output. Here's how QBI works:
Quaker salespeople pitch customized and tailored chemical formulas
and services to clients. Then salespeople use QBI to inferface with
other Quaker team members and gather the necessary data for each
account. QBI cost roughly $300,000, which Quaker says it quickly
recouped through efficiencies gained via the intranet searches and
collaboration.
State of Washington
In Washington, citizens, companies and government employees
are conducting business with the state via secured online transactions.
They present a digital certificate to a state gateway, called Transact
Washington, to gain access to multiple applications. For example,
the Department of Social and Health Services has substance abuse
providers filing sensitive reports, while Labor and Industries lets
attorneys access patient information for use in worker's compensation
claims. Transact Washington, which has been operational for one
year, uses digital certificates provided by Digital Signature Trust.
Tucker Anthony Sutro
When the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq decided to change
its valuations from eighths to decimals, Tucker Anthony Sutro, a
Boston-based full-services financial firm, knew it would need serious
improvements to its network infrastructure. But rather than simply
adding more capacity through additional leased lines, the company
turned to acceleration technology. It installed Expand Networks'
Accelerator products at each end of network links to move data more
effectively. The company says it expects to accelerate all applications
by 100% to 400%, preparing it well for the decimalization shift
and drastically improving quality of service.
U.S. Air Force Academy
When the U.S. Air Force Academy network goes down, it affects
cadets' education. So with that on the line, the academy decided
to deploy a range of network management software and to create proactive
network teams in order to keep the 8,500-node USAFAnet running in
"peak operating efficiency." Among the software installed
is Freshwater Software's SiteScope, for monitoring the network for
changes and modifications and providing alert notifications to technicians;
Hewlett-Packard OpenView Network Node Manager, for a topographical
presentation of the network; the free Multi Router Traffic Gopher
software, for showing bandwidth utilization; and Remedy's trouble-ticketing
software, for reporting outages and assigning workloads. The network
teams installed Microsoft Systems Management Server client and Norton
AntiVirus software at each academy organization so IT can remotely
administer remote desktops and push software and antivirus updates.
The academy gets its network management software as part of an enterprise
contract, so does not have cost figures. However, it says its payback
has been in reducing trouble tickets, technicians' time on the road
and in improving customer service.
Zurich U.S. Insurance
Zurich, one of the nation's leading property-casualty insurers,
threw out the diskettes and headed online in order to deliver up-to-date
claim information to customers quickly. It now offers its large
customers in the risk management business access to their critical
loss data and insurance information downloaded from Zurich's claim
system. Customers get to this information from an extranet called
RiskIntelligence, which Zurich built using Business Objects' WebIntelligence
e-business tool. Zurich attributes the extranet to reducing claims
processing time from 45 days to one day or less. And it estimates
that 5% to 10% of new business will be derived by offering RiskIntelligence.
