Maximum Computer Systems Uses YouTube to Explain Its Business

May 18, 2010 by Leave a Comment

It’s nice to see Long Island-based technology systems integrator Maximum Computer Systems using YouTube to explain how it develops software solutions for the wholesale distribution industry.  While the nearly five-minute video is very informative, I would like to see future videos feature company executives, employees and existing clients talking about results that are being achieved thanks to MCS’ solutions.  This would allow potential clients to “meet” some of the personalities behind Maximum and help them better understand how their own companies may benefit from MCS’s offerings.

Take a look at the video below and let me know what you think.

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VAI Makes Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100 List

May 17, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Long Island-based technology solution provider and IBM Premier Business Partner VAI was named to the 2010 Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100 list, according to a press release issued this morning.

Published annually by Supply & Demand Chain Executive, the SDCE 100 features the top supply chain solutions and services providers in the U.S.  More than 200 companies applied for this year’s list, and submissions included descriptions of how companies assist the supply chain function to help clients achieve supply chain excellence and prepare for post-recessionary growth.

“The Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100 is a prestigious program, and we are pleased to be considered one of the top supply chain solutions providers in the industry,” said Bob Vormittag, President and CEO, VAI.  “Our inclusion in the ‘100’ further demonstrates that our S2K Enterprise Software Suite is a superior solution, highly beneficial to clients working to keep their businesses profitable during and after the recent economic downturn.”

VAI specializes in enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions for the distribution, manufacturing, retail and service industries.  VAI’s S2K Enterprise Software Suite is an ERP package that streamlines manufacturing, distribution and warehouse management operations.

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Future Tech and IBM Migration Factory Help Adecco Improve IT Infrastructure

May 12, 2010 by 3 Comments

I came across a great IBM case study published earlier this year involving technology solution provider Future Tech Enterprise, Inc. and staffing company Adecco Group North America, two Long Island-based companies.

As the North American division of the worldwide staffing company Adecco has grown, so has its IT environment, resulting in a disparate infrastructure that became increasingly difficult to manage.  As primary systems began reaching end of life, the organization faced rising maintenance costs and IT support concerns.

To address these concerns and to accommodate the company’s continued growth, Adecco embarked on a massive consolidation effort, refreshing the IT infrastructure while migrating the systems onto a common platform.  The project would involve Adecco’s mission-critical systems, including a customer management system supporting 2,000 to 2,500 concurrent users, as well as payroll, financial, and data warehouse systems. Support systems included provisioning, electronic data interchange (EDI) systems, FTP and tax systems.

Adecco evaluated infrastructure solutions from HP, Sun and IBM, but ultimately chose to standardize on IBM’s POWER™ processor-based architecture.  Utilizing IBM Migration Factory, the organization consolidated 50 HP and Sun servers onto a five-node cluster of IBM System p®570 servers running the IBM AIX®V5.3 operating system.  Adecco also took this opportunity to upgrade a number of enterprise applications and to clean up legacy processes.

At the same time, the company was also undergoing a data center consolidation effort, relocating the primary data center from Long Island, NY, to Charlotte, NC.  With the help of IBM Business Partner Future Tech Enterprise, Inc., Adecco consolidated five data centers, relocating infrastructure components to the new facility.  As part of the data center consolidation, Adecco also migrated to an IBM managed storage architecture.

The new infrastructure solution has delivered dramatic results to the organization, including a net 600 percent improvement in performance for Adecco’s commissions process.  It has also enabled payroll batches to run three to four times faster and has enabled an increased service window for their service center.  Adecco has also seen significant financial savings because of the lower costs of maintaining the consolidated environment.

You can read the full case study here.

Filed Under: Future Tech Enterprise Tagged With: , , , , ,

Vicom Joins Sentilla Reseller Program to Offer Energy Management Software for Data Centers

May 10, 2010 by 1 Comment

Long Island-based Vicom Computer Services is one of three North American solution providers to join the new global reseller partner program announced last week by Sentilla Corporation, a provider of demand-side energy management solutions for data centers.

“Vicom will integrate the Sentilla Energy Manager into its infrastructure and virtualization offerings as a critical component of the Data Center Practice, delivering optimization, efficiency and cost reduction of a critical data center asset—energy,” said Kevin Fitzsimmons, VMware solution manager, Vicom Computer Services.

The launch of the Sentilla reseller partner program, which also includes as charter members OnX Enterprise Solutions of Toronto and San Francisco-based Kovarus, is intended to meet growing enterprise demand for intelligent data center energy management solutions.

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VAI Helps Midwest Distributor Streamline Operations and Improve Customer Service

May 6, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Long Island-based VAI announced yesterday that Fertilizer Dealer Supply, a Philo, Ill.-based provider of fertilizer and chemical application parts and plant maintenance products, has upgraded to version 5.0 of VAI’s S2K Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software for Distribution, while adding S2K for Service & Repair and S2K Commerce Express to its solution portfolio.

The S2K for Distribution upgrade will enhance and streamline operations at the company’s seven warehouse and distribution facilities. The addition of the Service & Repair module will aid FDS in tracking equipment sales, preventative maintenance services and warranty information, while Commerce Express will make it easier for customers to find, select and purchase orders, review account information, view payment history and obtain answers to queries.

Assisting in the implementation of S2K 5.0 for FDS was DMi Technology Group, an IBM and VAI business partner based in Normal, Ill.

Tom Grady, Vice President, FDS, said, “After years of working successfully with VAI and DMi, we decided to upgrade our S2K Software to receive the benefits available with the new service billing module. This feature will allow FDS to monitor our equipment sales and preventative maintenance services through more efficient order entry and reporting options. We are also employing VAI’s e-Business capabilities, which have allowed us to expand our business throughout the country, rather than only servicing regional dealers.”

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Nastel Demonstrates Enhanced Application Performance Management Offerings at IBM IMPACT 2010

May 4, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Long Island-based Nastel Technologies has been demonstrating its AutoPilot® M6 Suite of application performance management offerings this week at IBM’s IMPACT 2010 conference in Las Vegas.  Highlighting Nastel’s appearance at the show was an AutoPilot educational session by guest speaker Tony Konczak, a senior mainframe sustaining engineer from financial technologies giant Fiserv.  In addition to discussing the performance benefits Fiserv has achieved, the Mr. Konczak explained how AutoPilot was implemented at the Fortune 500 company that supplies financial services technology solutions to more than 16,000 institutional clients worldwide.

Fiserv, an AutoPilot customer since 2006, uses Nastel AutoPilot for monitoring and service level agreement (SLA) management for their bill payment and fraud detection applications.  A program of work was initiated in 2006 to develop a new solution that could address the needs of Fiserv’s middleware team, to introduce more flexible and efficient mechanisms for assuring the performance and availability of their critical lines of business.

According to Nastel, AutoPilot M6 gives IT professionals and line-of-business managers 360-degree situational awareness of the entire IT environment, including both transactional and operational data in a unified business context.  The solution, with its built-in complex event processing engine, enables management teams to identify and fix problems—even predict and prevent them—before they compromise SLA or other performance standards.

This week Nastel also announced that it has enhanced the predictive problem analytics capabilities of the AutoPilot® M6 Suite.  This powerful capability utilizes an embedded Complex Event Processing (CEP) engine to rapidly search for patterns that show a business is veering from business normal to business abnormal.  It is packaged with pre-built policies for industry standard infrastructure with a wizard interface for user-defined policies. Added to this are new algorithms for automatically determining what is normal and abnormal for your business without requiring any intervention on the part of the user.

“Early-warning identification of problems is essential for today’s large enterprises, especially in the financial services and healthcare industries,” said Albert Mavashev, CTO for Nastel.  “With increased regulation, requirements for transparency and a mandate to manage risk, businesses need to know about problems when they first show up and not wait until they blow up. AutoPilot has proven itself to be a critical factor in enabling its customers to proactively manage their mission-critical business applications.”

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Calling All IBM Business Partners on Long Island

April 30, 2010 by 1 Comment

By my count there are more than a dozen IBM Premier or Advanced Business Partners based on Long Island.  Some of them, like VAI, Future Tech Enterprise, and Nastel Technologies do a very good job with their public relations efforts and participate in social media activities like Twitter and blogging.  Companies like Vicom Computer Services and Maximum Computer Systems seem to be dipping their toes in the social media waters, but they could be doing more to engage with their clients and potential clients.

However, it would great if we knew more about companies such as The Ergonomic Group, Salmon LLC, ENI Systems, Software Engineering of America (SEA), ABC Services, KMR Systems, Progressive Technology Group and Computer Equipment Services.  I’m sure they are doing great work.  They just need to toot their own horns more and join in the conversations taking place in various social media networks.

If you work for or represent any of the IBM Business Partners mentioned here, please post a comment or send a note to michael[at]techsources[dot]com.  I would love to help spread the word about your accomplishments.

Filed Under: ABC Services, Computer Equipment Services, ENI Systems, Ergonomic Group, Future Tech Enterprise, KMR Systems, Maximum Computer Systems, Nastel Technologies, Progressive Technology Group, Salmon LLC, Software Engineering of America (SEA), VAI, Vicom Computer Services Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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