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WALDENSIAN
BAKERIES PREPARES FOR THEIR FUTURE WITH THE HELP FROM SYSTEM
Z
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The
Client
Founded
in 1916, Waldensian Bakeries supplied customers in five Southeastern
states with bread and other bakery products from its factory in
Valdese North Carolina. While the company was keeping up the change
and growth which later lead to its future acquistions by CooperSmith
Inc and eventually now by EarthGrains, their Data Processing Manager
knew it was time to move off their aged Texas Instruments- based
computer system.
The
Need
"Simply put, Our systems were at capacity," said Nancy
Shupp, Waldensian's Data Processing Manager. "We knew the time
had come to buy new hardware-and we decided a move to Unix would
be beneficial."
The
Challenge
The company selected a Hewlett-Packard 9000 as its new hardware.
But the DP staff was still facing the issue of what to do with 700
COBOL programs that were at the heart of the business. "Our
main applications at the time were Order Entry, Payroll, Accounts
Receivable, Accounts Payable, Production Scheduling, and Sales Analysis,"
Shupp recalled. "Obviously, we needed all of these core applications
to continue running in order to keep the company running.
Shupp added, "we assumed we would have to do a complete line-for-line
rewrite. I'd been through that experience once before in my career-and
it took two every long years! I wasn't looking forward to doing
it again."
That's why Waldensian was so pleased to learn of Zortec and Sytem
Z. "First of all, System Z appealed to us because of programs
written in Z were highly portable. Secondly, we were impressed with
the conversion technologies offered by Zortec."
The
Solution
"With Z's conversion utilities and Zortec's assistance, we
completed our conversion process in only six months. And Z is as
portable as claimed! Our applications run on TI, HP and PCs.
Furthermore, we've since developed other applications and found
Z to be a great productivity tool."
The
Result
"Management is very pleased because, as the company has grown,
we have not had to add DP staff and the company has been able to
reduce office staff due to our automation quickly and easily,"
she emphasized. "Yet, we've been able to respond to requests
for new applications and enhancements.
Shupp concluded, "Z is one of the few products I've encountered
that actually lives up to its advertising."
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