WebSphere Advisor Excellence Awards -- See how the best and brightest are working with WebSphere technology. ++ Tags: Analysis, Application Development, Application Server, Business Automation, Business Software, Business Solution, Business Strategy, Bus

WebSphere Advisor Magazine Excellence Awards 2001 celebrate the best achievements with IBM WebSphere technology such as WebSphere Application Server, VisualAge for Java, WebSphere Studio, WebSphere Commerce Suite, DB2 Universal Database, and more.

We asked you, the WebSphere community, to tell us about the development projects where you are using WebSphere technology to improve business processes, promote e-commerce, improve customer service, expand business opportunities, or otherwise benefit users and the organizations you work with.

Our judges evaluated the entries based on the following criteria:

Appropriateness of solution to the problem

Innovative use of WebSphere technology

Quantifiable business benefit

Development creativity and ingenuity

Showing off the new awards, Advisor editors John Hawkins, Liz Olsen, Christa Coleman.

We congratulate the four winners as stellar examples of WebSphere technology in action:

CompuFlex International

Ensinger Inc.

SBi Inc.

Versant Corporation

CompuFlex International

PROJECT: PackageX.com

TECHNOLOGIES: IBM WebSphere Application Server, IBM DB2 Universal Database, IBM HTTP Server, CompuFlex WebAccel

CompuFlex International's WebAccel technology helped PackageX Inc. quickly develop an innovative Web site to better serve customers. PackageX Inc. is an international provider of e-commerce solutions for the packaging industry. Packing professionals need an efficient, collaborative, Web-enabled solution to meet rapid time-to-market demands. Vendors and customers must coordinate with each other on complex business processes such as proposals, reviews, approvals, modifications, production, etc. PackageX stepped in with a design library through which users can browse for the design that most closely meets their needs. The users can see various graphical views of the package design, and they can dynamically resize a design online. The user can then consult online with structural engineers who provide input and specifications for the design. PackageX also links to the back-end ERP system to facilitate online ordering, re-ordering, and real-time order status lookup.

The next step involves file upload and download processing, which involves multi-part MIME type support. The CompuFlex WebAccel Framework offers seamless detection and handling of multi-part forms. WebAccel also uses multi-purpose JavaServer Pages (JSP) to provide database-intensive transaction support, which makes the PackageX site easier to navigate and manage, and more efficient to process. WebAccel's component-based toolkit significantly reduced the site’s development time. Because of WebAccel, PackageX.com required only about 30 percent of the components that would have been needed for a traditional hand-coded JSP project.

PackageX chose IBM WebSphere Application Server because of its ability to meet the overall application platform requirements. Built using IBM WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere Commerce Suite, IBM DB2 Database, and IBM HTTP Server, the system easily integrates with other technologies and provides the Web-based environment necessary for online collaboration and development.

WebSphere Advisor congratulates CompuFlex on its ability to help get the WebSphere-based PackageX site up and running quickly and efficiently and help produce a site that's easy to navigate and manage.

CompuFlex International
Woodland Hills, California
877-832-6434
http://www.compuflex.com

Ensinger Inc.

PROJECT: Shopforplastics.com

TECHNOLOGIES: IBM WebSphere Commerce Suite (formerly Net.Commerce), IBM DB2 Universal Database, Lotus Notes and Domino

Ensinger Inc. is a leading industrial manufacturer of high-performance engineering plastics. Its product lines include various grades of thermoplastic stock shapes, extruded plastic shapes, plastic profiles, and point-of-purchase displays. Ensinger wanted to launch a transactional e-commerce storefront to let their partner-distributors buy products via the Web. The goal was to maintain its channels of distribution and circumvent any competitor that had a small foothold in the U.S. plastics distribution market from coming up with a direct sales strategy using the Internet. Ensinger also wanted to publish regularly updated inventory levels on the site and make sure every transaction had full accountability at each level of the process to adhere to ISO 9002 certification standards.

Ensinger started with IBM Net.Commerce and has since upgraded to IBM WebSphere Commerce Suite (WCS) 4.1, and uses Lotus Notes in the RFQ and interactive FAQ sections. A discount program running on WCS shows buyers contract price levels. Inventory uploads and order status are updated throughout the day.

Ensinger wanted the site to offer more to its customers than even the friendliest customer service representative could. So, it wanted to add as many functions to the site as possible without putting off the less-savvy computer user. It appears it succeeded because many Ensinger customers have switched from using the 800 number to placing orders online. In addition, even those customers who don't purchase products via the site still use it to obtain technical information. The obvious benefit is the cost savings, both in terms of telecommunications and personnel. In the first 13 months (during which time there was a five-month beta phase), Ensinger did more than US$1 million in online transactions. Over the past few months, as the economy has begun to contract, online sales have increased for Ensinger.

WebSphere Advisor congratulates Ensinger on its use of WebSphere technology to expand via e-commerce and better serve its customers.

Ensinger Inc.
Washington, Pennsylvania
724-746-6050
http://www.shopforplastics.com

SBi Inc.

PROJECT: iFit.com

TECHNOLOGIES: IBM WebSphere Application Server, IBM WebSphere Commerce Suite, IBM iSeries, IBM DB2 Universal Database, IBM DB2 OLAP Server, IBM DB2 DataWarehouse Manager

ICON Health and Fitness Inc. is one of the world's largest manufacturers and marketers of fitness equipment. ICON's product brands include NordicTrack, ProForm, HealthRider, Weslo, Weider, IMAGE, JumpKing, and a Reebok line of home fitness products. To maintain and enhance its reputation as fitness experts, ICON sought to improve its customer relationships and explore new marketing and sales avenues. ICON selected SBi and IBM WebSphere technology to deliver a highly interactive, integrated Web site for personalized fitness and nutrition.

iFit.com goes beyond the capabilities of other fitness Web sites because iFit.com is the workout. iFit.com controls the fitness equipment. The user connects the equipment, logs onto iFit.com, and iFit.com automatically adjusts the equipment to meet the fitness goals, objectives, and the user's physical condition by sending special signals to the equipment. For example, iFit.com can control the incline or decline of the treadmill. iFit.com also offers music, interaction with personal trainers from around the world, and visual images that personalize workouts. iFit.com can also customize a daily workout based on individual fitness needs and goals and maintain a personal workout history that records the calories burned, activity, intensity levels, etc. to show long-term progress. ICON predicts that by spring 2002, almost 3 million iFit-compatible fitness equipment units will be in homes worldwide.

iFit.com uses IBM WebSphere technology to power the site's customization and commerce capabilities. Applications running WebSphere Application Server on the iSeries platform let customers create their own workouts, work with live personal trainers, and compete in real time with other iFit.com members. The password and authentication capabilities lets customers use their iFit.com profiles from home or any participating club or gym. iFit then personalizes the routine based on location and ICON dynamic rules. SBi also used WebSphere technology for the commerce capabilities behind the site -- for example, by letting customers order nutritional supplements online. WebSphere Commerce Suite and WebSphere Application Server integrate with back-end accounting systems to maintain the financial components of the site.

WebSphere Advisor congratulates SBi on its innovative use of WebSphere technology, and its success in helping ICON explore new revenue opportunities. By developing a services offering to round out ICON's business strategy and complement its fitness equipment sales, SBi helped ICON compete more effectively.

SBi Inc.
Salt Lake City, Utah
801-733-3200
http://www.sbionline.com

Versant Corporation

PROJECT: Consumer Direct

TECHNOLOGIES: IBM WebSphere Application Server, IBM VisualAge for Java, Versant EnJin

Versant EnJin helped Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (CGE&Y) quickly develop and efficiently maintain a complex Web application for insurance companies. CGE&Y helped build Consumer Direct, a portal through which insurance companies sell their products. Consumer Direct includes the provision of people, processes and technology to deliver full end-to-end servicing of personal insurance product lines. Consumer Direct is accessible over a choice of channels-Internet, call center, interactive DTV-across which engagement appears seamless, thanks to channel-agnostic XML and XSL templates that appear to the insurance company customer to be channel-specific.

CGE&Y's underlying Service Delivery Framework (SDF) can integrate any number of individual component-enabled services and coordinate their delivery through multiple e-business channels. The core Consumer Direct service can easily be extended into CRM and marketing/personalization packages. This flexibility provides CGE&Y with a competitive advantage, and the company relies on Versant EnJin to make it happen.

Consumer Direct has to be responsive to anything that might alter the dynamics of the market, whether it's changes in technology, business practices, or customer behavior. This is handled by a highly configurable domain-specific overlay of SDF, but the product development cycle for enhancements must still be as short as three to four months. CGE&Y estimates that, for the most datastore-intensive component of the application, using Versant EnJin reduced core development effort by 80 percent through the elimination of the need to map the object model onto the relational paradigm. The Versant Enterprise Container (VEC), a component of EnJin, made integration with the WebSphere Application Server virtually transparent to the CGE&Y development team. An extra benefit was the complete removal of entity bean considerations from the application's configuration and deployment. CGE&Y's use of Versant EnJin as a middle-tier datastore improved performance and reduced the hardware infrastructure requirements.

WebSphere Advisor congratulates Versant for its work reducing development cycles for WebSphere-based applications.

Versant Corporation
Fremont, California
510-789-1500
http://www.versant.com

ADVISOR AWARDS

WebSphere Advisor Excellence Awards

See how the best and brightest are working with WebSphere technology.

WebSphere Advisor Excellence Awards

No reader comments ... yet.

What do YOU think about this topic? Share your advice and thoughts using this form.

Your Name

REQUIRED : PUBLIC

Your E-Mail

REQUIRED : PRIVATE

Job, Company

OPTIONAL : PUBLIC

City, State, Country

OPTIONAL : PUBLIC

Your Web Site

OPTIONAL : PUBLIC

Your Comment

Please help everyone by keeping your comments on-topic, using clean language, and not defaming or making personal attacks.

Your e-mail address is required, but it will not be displayed to the public or given to anyone. See our Privacy Policy. Comments become visible after they pass our spam filter, and spammers and abusers are permanently blocked. Please report spam or abuse.

ARTICLE INFO

Print Edition: October 2001, Page 14

FREE ACCESS

MORE ADVISOR

Read the advanced guide to creating custom business database solutions with FileMaker software. Subscribe now to gain access to all the archives and downloads.

Learn the fundamentals of using FileMaker Pro software. Every issue gives you step-by-step instructions on creating the databases you need. Subscribe now!

Submit your tips, techniques and advice and let Advisor promote your business and build your career. Show the world what you know!