Unisys & Galvano Groothandel BV
Breakthrough: At Galvano Groothandel BV,
IT Drives Future Growth.
Imagine it.

Achieve lasting competitive advantage by becoming the information centre of the value chain and growing the percent revenue derived from e-business transactions.

Done.

A scalable, low-risk infrastructure based on Unisys ClearPath® Plus Libra servers enables real-time communication between core business applications written with Unisys Enterprise Application Environment (EAE) and Galvano’s customer-facing, Internet-enabled services. As a result, more than 55 percent of Galvano orders are received electronically.

Results: Competitive Advantage Enabled by SOA

Galvano developed a central communication environment supporting processes, workflows, and a standard, synchronous data interchange between mission-critical applications written with EAE and other satellite systems. This service-oriented architecture (SOA) facilitates Galvano’s e-business strategy and helps it realize competitive advantage. In addition, Galvano deployed a Real-Time Infrastructure (RTI) based on two Unisys ClearPath Libra 400 systems, which enable low-risk, high-availability operations with server failover and stand-by capacity.

 

Metrics

Business Challenge: Enabling Customer-Supplier Process Integration

Founded in 1917, Galvano is The Netherlands’ leading wholesale supplier of luxury bathroom fixtures, vanities, lavatories, heating supplies, and accessories. A part of Saint-Gobain Distribution, The Netherlands, since 2007, Galvano prides itself on delivering the right products at the right time to fulfill its customers’ demanding requirements.

 

Ron Kessels, e-Business Coordinator for Galvano, explains: “We strive to understand our customers’ business processes and be the source of knowledge in the value chain. We target products and customers at the higher end of the market and gain competitive advantage by identifying trends and translating them into value-added concepts for private labelling, special packaging, and so on. We are proud of the unrivalled client partnerships Galvano enjoys and credit our IT focus as a contributor to that success.”

 

Galvano distributes 60,000+ products from more than 200 suppliers and carries 17,000 items in stock. The company’s 20 delivery trucks average 400 stops daily. This complex supply chain is managed through Galvano’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system called GVIS (Galvano Information System), which the company developed using Unisys EAE. Driven by a “best of breed” strategy and running on a Unisys ClearPath mainframe, GVIS is connected with other applications, such as demand forecasting and ordering.

 

In the 1990s, the company’s management team identified the opportunity to grow its business and improve customer service by providing the ability to receive orders electronically. Galvano implemented a Videotex ordering system that was integrated with its Unisys mainframe-based applications. In 2001, Galvano developed its first Internet applications and its customers welcomed the opportunity to create orders online or offline using a PC-based program.

 

While this initial foray into e-business was successful, the solution had limited functionality and lacked the real-time capabilities that are now expected in a 24x7 business environment. The wholesaler wanted to extend more online services to its customers, such as an advanced search facility, the ability to check stock availability, and calculation of a customer-specific net price as an order is created. It was time to take a further step into e-business and Galvano turned to its trusted technology partner, Unisys, for help.

 

Solution: Service-Oriented Architecture Creates New Opportunities

Because Galvano sees IT as a business enabler, it decided to redesign its IT architecture to make core-business transactions available as web services. It was this strategic vision and the hard work of its IT staff that led Galvano to leverage existing applications and skill sets to provide more e-business capabilities.

 

Our IT team developed an SOA that delivers high availability and superb response times and is also easily maintainable and flexible. At its foundation are two ClearPath Libra 400 systems, which offer additional capacity and form a strategic element of our real-time infrastructure.
Frans Govers
ICT Manager
Galvano

“Our objective was to implement a uniform, role-based, personalized, and integrated IT environment supporting processes, workflows, and real-time data interchange between applications,” recalls Frans Govers, ICT Manager for Galvano. “Our IT team developed a SOA that delivers high availability and superb response times and is also easily maintainable and flexible. At its foundation are two ClearPath Libra 400 systems, which offer additional capacity and form a strategic element of our real-time infrastructure.”

 

With staff in four different locations and more than 1,000 retail clients using its online services, system reliability and real-time availability are of utmost importance. Galvano simplified its infrastructure using a limited number of servers with scalable capacity. Galvano developed a SOA component layer for the back-office GVIS application using Enterprise Application Component Enabler with Big Buffers. This maximized business logic re-use, prevents double or triple entries of information, and supports complex content interpretation.

 

Govers explains. “Our ERP system GVIS is continuously improved and so are our e-business tools: SaniNet Boxes (virtual design), GOOP (showroom quotation and ordering), and GALOP (order entry). Using GOOP, our customers’ salesmen can generate a client quote in 20 minutes or less, a significant reduction from the industry average of two hours or longer. With our new SOA-based e-business solution, the design/quote process and product search/ordering will become even faster.”

 

“Our Unisys ClearPath Libra 400 server and Component Enabler-based SOA do the thinking and Microsoft® Windows® .NET takes care of communication,” observes Govers. “We also centralized all business logic in our EAE-based applications. By doing so, we can transport all data regardless of the application or content style it is going to be used in. If we need new functionality, we build it using EAE and make it available as a service.”

 

Results: Conquering Clients’ Desktops with Innovative e-Business Tools

Thanks to ClearPath Libra 400 servers and a SOA, Galvano is transforming the way it does business. “Galvano offers clients state-of-the-art services, such as a real-time electronic catalog and ordering system with up-to-date order and invoice information, which are made possible through our proprietary application software and available via clients’ in-store desktops,” says Kessels.

 

From the moment it was implemented, the ClearPath Libra 400s and our SOA-based infrastructure have allowed us to decrease the average response time from .3 seconds to .03 seconds – and response time is much more predictable.
Frans Govers
ICT Manager
Galvano

“Our goal is to conquer our customers’ desktops,” says Kessels. “Whenever a customer uses our design tools and online resources, Galvano has a good chance of winning the order.”

 

System response times are also crucial. Govers explains. “From the moment it was implemented, the ClearPath Libra 400s and our SOA-based infrastructure have allowed us to decrease the average response time from .3 seconds to .03 seconds – and response time is much more predictable. Our service staff depends on continuous and reliable access to serve clients in the best possible way.”

 

Galvano’s decision to leverage IT as a business growth strategy has shifted an impressive 55 percent of its business to the web. And, new web services development with its SOA framework facilitates the next big leap for Galvano’s e-business.

 

Profile: Galvano Groothandel BV

Solution at a Glance


 

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