Top Notch Distributors Data Replication

Top Notch sells a wide selection of residential and commercial electronic access control products, parts, and accessories. Their inventory consists of over half a million products, parts, and accessories from more than 60 manufacturers. Products are available for same-day shipping from one of four warehouses throughout the US.

Although it was possible for distributors and customers to view their account and purchase history from Top Notch’s e-store, they rarely did so, as the site was not always able to display accurate inventory levels. Therefore, an excessive amount of time was spent checking inventory levels. The company has a SQL-based e-commerce site, with sales, inventory, and business data residing on an IBM for i (formerly iSeries) with ERP software, InFor.

"I’m an SQL guy, not an AS400 guy. Other vendors we checked into were not able to easily upload data into the AS400 like Stelo can. Now, changes are implemented in minutes, without a load on the AS400."

Jon Fehringer

IT Manager

Need

All departmental reports were run nightly with SSIS packages pulling data from the iSeries, but the reporting data was always a day removed from business activities. Top Notch needed a way to make real-time reporting available via their e-commerce store without relying on IBM for i resources. As Jon Fehringer, IT Manager explains, “Ultimately, if we could bring data on the [IBM for i] in real-time to SQL, we could power our website and not put any additional load on our [IBM for i].”

Solution

After a successful initial trial in a test environment, Top Notch now uses Stelo to move data in real-time from the IBM for i ERP program into SQL reporting tools to populate a dynamic e-store with up-to-the-second inventory. Stelo’s bi-directional replication means that Top Notch now can send order data from the SQL website to the IBM for i, accessing the latest inventory counts.

Building reports on an IBM for i requires specialized knowledge requiring scarce IT resources. However, with Stelo, data now moves seamlessly into SQL reporting tools so all departments have access to the information they most need without calling on IT. Top Notch employees can run the reports in SQL, giving them much more information and insight at any given time.