Looking for software solutions (long message) -- SYSTEM21

We're looking for software solutions in the following areas.  I would be
interested in feedback from other users about products they've successfully
implemented (or others to stay away from).  Vendors are welcome to contact
me via private e-mail.  I expect these requirements will require a variety
of solutions, but we would prefer to keep the total number of different
vendors involved to a minimum.  

Our environment:

We are a 3rd partly logistics provider to manufacturers in the medical
industry, providing distribution, customer service, billing and a variety of
IT services.  We use JBA ERP v3.5.0 on a AS/400 620-2179 with about 60 users
(all TCP/IP connected PC's) over a LAN and frame relay WAN.  Our Web Server
is MS Windows NT IIS.  For e-mail we use MS Exchange.  Our CRM software is
Corepoint ExpertSupport (3 tier NT w/ SQL Server).  For in-house AS/400 app
development we use GeneXus (host-centric applications at this time).  Our
printers are all TCP/IP connected HP LaserJets (a mixture of 4000's, 5's and
4+s).  Our current fax server is Quadrant FastFax / LAN.  We're using HiT
OLE/DB.

Our needs:

We want to publish system generated reports on our web based extranet.  They
would be available for viewing and printing to authorized users.  They
should be able to select from a user friendly catalog of reports.  Ideally,
there would be the ability to do this via their browser without any client
software requirements.  Enhanced capabilities requiring client s/w (i.e.
Java or ActiveX controls) would be nice.  We would also like to be able to
"push" the reports out to specified users via e-mail.  Our initial
requirement is for AS/400 text based reports, but it would be nice to also
be able to publish NT generated reports from Corepoint and other PC
applications (originating from Crystal Reports and Access).  As we implement
forms overlay software, we'll want to be able to publish graphical reports
generated in other formats (HP PCL?).  It would also be nice if reports
could be published to the web in an Excel format for further manipulation by
the client.

We need to enhance the look of some AS/400 (RPG) text reports with multiple
fonts (even on a single line) of varying sizes.  We also need to have
bar-codes for a few fields.  These reports are printed both locally and over
the WAN (128 kb frame relay to one location and 256 kb to another).  We also
would like to eliminate the requirement for pre-printed forms when printing
invoices.  We vary the logo depending upon the customer.  We need to be able
to re-print these invoices and fax them to customers as part of the
collections process.  We also would like to eliminate pre-printed A/P checks
and have them generated "on the fly" with all the typical security and
possibly have checks under a specified dollar limit be "pre-signed".

We need to print bar-coded labels for our products in the warehouse.  We
would need to purchase label printers (like a Zebra?).  The data for the bar
code would in some cases be on an AS/400 RPG report and in other cases
should be printed on demand (a few at a time) driven by one of our RPG
applications.  Most printing would be to lan attached printers, but it would
be nice to have support for printers via Radio Frequency (RF) portable
printers.

We need to automate shipping labels (FedEx, UPS, etc.) with an interface to
JBA warehousing.  In most cases, we want to print labels in advance as part
of the pick list generation process.  In addition, we want to support a
packing/weigh station that would print labels after the order has been
picked.  We need to support multiple accounts with each shipper within the
same warehouse and company.  Some vendors have suggested we accommodat this
by us specifying a variation on the designated carrier field in JBA.  The
system should allow post shipment inquiry into the order details to get a
list of tracking#s.  Of some interest, but lesser importance, is the ability
to determine shipping costs for an order in advance.

We are also interested in tools for developing interactive web for our
customers in our web based extranet.  Primarily we would be accessing data
from DB2/400, but also SQL Server 6.5 and 7.0 on Windows NT.  We previously
attempted to use Crystal Reports, but version 7 was single-threaded and
couldn't perform adequately in our environment.  I understand Crystal
version 8 is multi-threaded and may address the performance issues, but as
we've gotten into this we've developed reports with fairly complex database
relations and it appears that a traditional report writer alone will not
suffice.  We've wrestled with how to present users only the subset of data
that they are authorized to view and have implemented a fairly complex
security model to enforce this.  At this point, we're using a combination of
Active Server Pages, HTML, SQL and VisualBasic.  We've had cases where users
want an interactive report that offers multiple levels of drill downs and
drill arounds, others where they want to simply print a report and yet other
cases where what they are really looking for is a data extract to Excel or a
text file.  User oriented ad hoc query building is not a requirement, but if
available would be nice.  All of this needs to be presented in an
environment were we can maintain the look and feel of our web site.

Thanks in advance to any help or suggestions in response to this message.

Dan Thomas
Sr. VP Information Systems
Medical Distribution, Inc.
4500 Progress Blvd.
Louisville, KY  40218-5058
Phone (502) 454-9013 ext. 120
email  DThomas@lpw-mdi.com

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