Do it Best Does it Better Than the Rest

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Founded in 1945, Do it Best Corp. currently distributes to over 4,300 independently owned stores worldwide. Each store is serviced from one of seven distribution centers around the United States but can also get products directly from the manufacturer.

Headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Do it Best Corp. will become the second largest cooperative in the home improvement industry in June, stocking 68,000 hardware and building products. The co-op, whose buying power enables its member-retailers to get products at competitive prices, also offers unifying branding programs using the Do it Best® and Do it center® names.

The member-retailer is therefore the key to the Do it Best Corp. sales model, and accordingly, the company strives to offer these independent hardware and building material retailers the lowest cost of operation and the highest rebates in the industry.

Drafting the Plans

Needless to say, 68,000 products are quite a challenge for any distribution organization. To handle the enormous daily processing requirements associated with keeping member stores stocked and ready to sell, Do it Best Corp. built the majority of its supply chain computing functionality on an IBM mainframe running a VSE operating system.

However, the key business systems were built into "stovepipe" applications within the VSE environment. The mainframe handled inventory, pricing and ordering, but each of these distinct applications resided within different silos of functionality. Do it Best Corp. member-retailers had to reference a static desktop catalog application and then access each of these legacy systems to tackle daily transactional tasks. Sometimes data entry was redundant, and as a result, data integrity was suspect.

"Our systems are highly functional and completely customized to our daily business practices," states Bob Langston, Do it Best Corp. IT Manager. "However, as an organization devoted to the distribution channel, we knew that there was room for improvement regarding the deployment of these systems to our member-retailers."

"From an IT standpoint, we wanted to provide our member-retailers with unfettered Internet access to our mainframe applications," Langston continues. "However, to improve ease-of-use and increase the level of efficiency in the distribution process, we wanted all systems to be represented within a single user interface."

Building the Structure

Do it Best Corp. initially considered extensive programming modifications to give their retailers real-time Web access to the order entry process, but after further research, they decided that the development costs and the risk associated with disturbing the proven mainframe logic were prohibitive. Another alternative was emulation, but that type of solution did nothing to address the problems of inefficiency in the data entry process.

Do it Best Corp. wanted an open solution that would not only protect proven mainframe logic and improve productivity at the user interface, but they also needed a tool that would utilize existing programming resources to gain a quick return on investment, while enabling a more open component-based architecture. After further investigation into technologies that addressed these concerns, Langston and his team selected DataDirect Shadow z/Presentation.

"Shadow z/Presentation provides us with a cost-effective method for extending functionality from our VSE environments, and it also allows us realize immediate efficiency gains by incorporating multiple applications into a unified interface," states Do it Best Corp. Developer Erick Johnson. "Additionally, the tool provides a non-intrusive, manageable development environment that allows us to generate ready-to-use components from our mainframe logic."

Instead of leveraging a screen-based connection approach as most integration vendors do, Shadow z/Presentation connects to the mainframe directly through the Distributed Program Link found in the COMMAREA of the VSE application. Do it Best Corp. developers use Shadow z/Presentation, which is deployed natively on the mainframe, to access mainframe logic, automatically generate COM components and deploy these components on the company's application server.

Enjoying a Finished Project

"Shadow z/Presentation's development and deployment models offer a cleaner, more efficient architecture than the majority of alternative solutions," states Johnson. "The direct method of access allows for immediate performance gains that we would not realize with a screen-based approach. Also, Shadow z/Presentation's native deployment on the mainframe enables a centralized management philosophy that slashes maintenance and testing costs, as well as provides a more secure computing environment."

The entire process is transparent to the users at member stores, who simply see a list of inventory, confirmed reservations and personalized pricing on the Web interface. Stores now find product information, access inventory, determine pricing and place orders in real-time. In fact, all of this disparate logic, which was once segmented into disparate user-interfaces, is consolidated into one easy-to-use application, the online Infoplus catalog.

"Our new system is truly a revolution for Do it Best Corp.," states Langston. "The application provides our retailers with an efficient, easy-to-use interface. Before, users had to navigate through a variety of applications to accomplish a single transaction – now this process has been significantly abbreviated."

"Underneath the covers, Shadow z/Presentation provides the integration that makes enhanced user efficiency a reality," adds Johnson. "By providing us with a direct-access, yet open, solution that allows us to leverage not only proven mainframe logic but existing programming resources as well, Shadow z/Presentation not only indirectly impacts the supply chain but directly impacts our IT spending. In fact, the actual implementation happened in a matter of days."

Reduction in IT development costs is a benefit to be sure, but the real return on investment is felt in the member-retailers' stores. By encapsulating cherished mainframe logic into reusable, easily deployed COM components, DataDirect Shadow z/Presentation provides Do it Best Corp. with unimagined flexibility in the application development arena. Also, by allowing legacy code to work in concert with modern computing environments, DataDirect is enabling the hardware distributor to quickly bridge the gap between technologies previously thought to be a world apart.

"In essence, DataDirect Shadow z/Presentation allows Do it Best Corp. to respond immediately to the changing needs of our business model," comments Langston. "By bridging the technological gap between application development platforms, the solution allows us to quickly deploy mainframe functionality to modern computing environments in a cost-effective, efficient manner. At the same time, by generating reusable components, Shadow z/Presentation's flexibility will enable Do it Best Corp. to rapidly respond to future challenges as well."

"With this implementation, we have significantly enhanced the manner in which we conduct business on a daily basis," sums up Langston. "By providing our users with real-time access to mainframe functionality, DataDirect Shadow z/Presentation enables Do it Best Corp. to offer member stores the lowest cost of operation possible, and it allows our retailers to focus on the important things – customer service and selling more product."