Web-enablement Revs Up Automotive Business

by John Ghrist

AS400 Network, December 2000 Article ID: 8976  Department: Case Study  Related Topics: Web Development

Like most mechanical things in common use, many people don’t fully realize how complicated an automobile can be. It’s easy to think of it simply as something that gets you from place to place — perhaps with a bit of style, depending on your taste — but unless you’re mechanically inclined, the thousands of working parts that make a car are not given much thought. Coming to mind even less frequently are the steps needed to assemble all those parts into a motor vehicle, deliver the finished product to a dealership, and support the customer’s warranties and maintenance needs after the sale. Most of us happily leave those complexities to the car dealers and mechanics.

However, as in so many other industries, e-commerce is changing the automobile business behind the scenes. Two companies involved in different aspects of those changes are making use of AS/400s and Internet communications to stay at the forefront of their markets — one in the realm of providing software applications for automobile manufacturers, the other in the area of providing custom-built sports cars to the general public.

Strategic Business Systems (SBS) is a New Jersey-based software company that has written the Strategic Motor Vehicle System (SMVS), an AS/400 application. SBS offers SMVS on an Application Service Provider (ASP) basis and also sells it directly to the distribution operations units of motor vehicle manufacturers to manage industry-specific activities, such as vehicle distribution, service and warranty administration, and parts distribution. SMVS started its life on an S/38 in 1985, became an AS/400 client/server solution in the 1990s, and was reissued as a Web-enabled application in 1998. 

Qvale Automotive Group is an Italian sports car manufacturer headquartered in Modena, Italy, with sales offices worldwide. Among other products, it makes the Mangusta, a high-performance sports car that is built to order for each customer based on the customer’s selections from a long list of features and options. The two companies do business because SBS decided it needed to Web-enable SMVS — the decision that eventually made SMVS attractive to Qvale.

An Enabling Alliance

Before the SMVS transformation took place, however, SBS had to figure out how to carry it off. By early 1998, SBS knew it wanted to do the project in-house but realized it was facing a classic problem of lack of resources.

"We were very adept at producing both AS/400-terminal and client/server applications and had written Web programs using RPG," recalls John Myers, an IBM Certified Specialist in AS/400 Technical Solutions for SBS. "But with each new technology we adopted, we suffered a skill-set dilution as someone on the staff moved over to focus on the latest thing. This was becoming very costly to SBS because we needed to maintain a ‘critical mass’ in each skill set."

SBS decided it needed some Web-enablement tools to help the development staff take on the SMVS conversion. SBS assembled a team consisting of the SMVS product manager, the systems development manager, an RPG/400 developer, and a Visual Basic developer. The team was charged with determining technologies needed for SBS’s next-generation systems and developing a list of requirements SBS would need in a Web-enablement tool. These included multiple-language support, the ability to carry out multiple client/server implementations using the same skill set, and potential for extending legacy applications to the Web without rewriting them.

"After examining nine different application development solutions, we chose LANSA for the Web," Myers remembers. "It let us consolidate our skills into a universal skill set and let us develop applications using the same program skeleton that we can then deploy on either a Windows client or an AS/400 for access by terminals or Web browser."

Rather than simply purchasing the product for its own use, however, SBS elected to become a LANSA business partner. "Some LANSA business partners are solely product developers, others are resellers. SBS has two business units, one that fits into each mold," Myers explains. "Our Motor Vehicle Industry unit uses LANSA products for all new systems development. Our technical products business unit, the leading installer of AS/400 Internet connectivity on the east coast, likes LANSA because the unit focuses on Internet-based systems development, and LANSA’s total compliance with WebSphere makes it very useful in that market also. SBS is able to use a common technical staff that we share between those two marketplaces, which makes it much easier to maintain the expertise needed for successful Internet projects."

SBS sent one RPG/400 and one Visual Basic developer to two weeks of LANSA training. When the pair returned, they started a project of Web-enabling the dealer-facing section of SMVS’s Parts Distribution system. With a few days of mentoring from LANSA staff, this initial project was completed in one month.

KTM SportMotorCycles was the first user of the Web version of the Parts Distribution system. The application let KTM offer parts order placement over the Web, which cut data entry costs. Built-in checking of data entered online cut costs associated with determining what to do with invalid part numbers appearing on orders because the system wouldn’t accept invalid numbers. As well as cutting fulfillment costs, KTM was able to increase parts sales significantly because dealers found it easier to order parts directly from KTM via the Internet than go looking for parts from aftermarket parts companies.

A Good Track Record Attracts Attention

Since KTM’s adoption of the Parts Distribution system in 1998, SBS has extended the other portions of SMVS to the Web, as well as Web-enabling some of its other products.

"LANSA for the Web lets us easily extend our existing applications with a minimum investment," Myers points out. LANSA for the Web is also flexible enough that SBS was able to offer SMVS both as a standalone software package for purchase and as an ASP offering running on SBS servers accessed by remote clients. "We only offer our own applications on an ASP basis, and of course we’ve provided a help desk for our products for years. Many of our larger customers, like Harley-Davidson, Land Rover, and Saab want the control and responsibility of operating their own systems," Myers explains. "Others, like Hummer, realize they need the functionality the systems provide but don’t want the up-front costs or the ongoing responsibilities of building and managing the required IT infrastructure."

It was this combination of Web-accessible product functionality, a track record with other vehicle manufacturers, and availability on an ASP basis that attracted Qvale. Qvale’s challenge was that, with a planned expansion of sales offices to North America and the impending launch of its new Mangusta sports car, the company had to set up communications with new offices and a distributor network at the same time — with an IT staff of just 1.5 people.

Qvale needed a solution that was flexible and scalable, used the Internet for direct communications, and was compatible with the IBM AS/400 — already Qvale’s system of choice for its existing operations because of its reliability and longevity. "We needed a structured system tailored to an automotive environment rather than the more common manufacturing or warehouse slant," Vice President of Qvale Automotive Group John Wolbertus comments. "The system had to handle inventory control, vehicle distribution, warranty administration, and invoicing." By this point, SBS had modified SMVS to provide those functions. Qvale also needed the application to support direct AS/400 log-on through the Web and had to update databases in realtime rather than waiting for a batch processing run, functions SMVS also provides. After considering several other applications, Qvale chose SMVS and implemented the Warranty and Distribution system in June.

"Support was really the key," Wolbertus said of the final decision. "With Qvale needing to support dealers in both Europe and the U.S., we had to have worldwide support — at the time we were looking, SBS had that and others didn’t." Making SMVS available as an ASP resource also meant Qvale wouldn’t have time difference problems to worry about — all the dealerships around the world could access SMVS at any hour.

Qvale did some preliminary testing of SMVS using a Windows NT server, but began transitioning to the AS/400 in July. Qvale also uses as a graphical interface to SMVS NewLook, a TCP/IP emulation interface from LANSA partner New Look Software that LANSA recommends for many Web-enablement projects. 

"We needed some special modifications to SMVS," Wolbertus remarks. "For example, our European and U.S. dealers need separate file structures for handling queries because of currency differences. Also, because we custom-build our cars to the list of options and accessories approved by each customer, we needed many fields in the vehicle distribution part of SMVS to specify all the possible combinations. SBS was very responsive to midstream changes to SMVS. In fact, at times we were making almost daily requests for changes and SBS provided a fast turnaround on all of them."

SBS was able to respond to these SMVS tailoring requests because of the flexibility of LANSA for the Web. "One of the benefits of LANSA for the Web is that it’s easy to add new functions that can be utilized across an entire application," Myers explains. And SBS has seen an additional benefit from meeting Qvale’s requirements — the already-modified source generated to add Qvale functions is available as a model in case future SMVS customers need similar capabilities.

SBS has also used LANSA for the Web to build other products and several business-to-consumer Web sites for third parties. "Our next significant application will be in the area of customer relationship management. It will be Web-enabled and written in 100 percent LANSA for the Web," Myers predicts.

A Checkered Flag for Everyone

SBS’s modification of SMVS for Qvale using LANSA tools has resulted in a winning situation all around. From LANSA, SBS got development tools that make one of its major products appealing to international companies like Qvale. Qvale, for a single monthly fee, gets worldwide access to an application tailored for their business without having to worry about application maintenance or application server operations. LANSA acquired a business partner that helps it showcase its products in two different AS/400 market segments.

The SBS experience shows the value of tools that can help companies upgrade legacy applications for Internet e-commerce without major software reengineering and rewriting projects. Successful relationships such as those between LANSA, SBS, and Qvale show how applications can be made ready in months instead of years with a minimal investment in new personnel and retraining, legacy systems can be up to date, and users can promptly get on with the task of using applications to run their businesses.