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Modernize and Extend with LANSA
J.D. Edwards (JDE) software solutions
consist of software suites for many industry types, such as Distribution, Services,
Manufacturing, Energy and Chemical, Construction and Real Estate. JDE Financial and Human
Resource suites are popular across many industries.
"Whether we use LANSA to access the JDE files
directly or to extract the data indirectly, LANSA integrates fine. The turnaround of
programs has been considerably shortened with LANSA."
JDE solutions are cross platform, but have a strong presence in the AS/400 market,
where JDE has its roots. Many JDE users use LANSA to modernize and extend their
applications and can testify that LANSA offers a practical and productive tool in the JDE
environment.
LANSA has helped many JDE customers worldwide to take advantage of new technologies,
integrate AS/400 and PC applications, modernize and extend their AS/400 systems.
LANSA is widely used to provide rapid native AS/400 enhancements that integrate
seamlessly with JDE modules. From the California based international shipping group
ANZDL's Horizons package, to giant Dutch metal smelter Metaalgieterij Giesen which is re-engineering thousands of RPGII
style programs, to the National Investment Bank of the Netherlands
core business systems and New York based Echo Design
Group's award winning Distribution system.
Other companies use LANSA to give easy end-user access to JDE information. For
example US metal fabricator Fabwel Inc's
sales analysis reporting extensions.
JDE customers such as American Skandia and Children's Aid Society of Toronto have used LANSA's intelligent
middleware to integrate PC data , Microsoft Office and VB applications with AS/400 data
and applications to remove human error and provide up to date information.
One of the biggest advantages of LANSA for the Web is its ability to integrate
with existing AS/400 applications and data, which allows JDE customers to quickly offer
AS/400 e-business solutions. Examples include; Shell
Canada’s Employee Services System that offers employees access to personnel and
payroll information, Canada Lands' Property Management System
that bring properties to customers and Scholastic Canada's Clubs
Online system that lets school teachers order books online.
 Australia New Zealand Direct Lines
(ANZDL), a
full-service ocean carrier headquartered in Santa Ana, California, use LANSA in
combination with the Financial Modules of JDE.
Marc Boyer-Chammard, Vice President Systems and Communications at ANZDL comments,
"We developed our ‘Horizons’ shipping software in 1994 with LANSA to handle
ANZDL's activities worldwide. Horizons 3500+ programs and 700+ files can handle all
aspects of the shipping business. It is used throughout the world by about 350 users at
ANZDL and is marketed to other shipping companies through the software company, Intec.
Horizons interfaces extensively with JDE Financials. All customer information and
Account Receivables coming from different Horizons modules integrate with JDE in a
seamless fashion."
Metaalgieterij Giesen BV, a very large Dutch Metal
Smelting company, is using LANSA to re-engineer existing their RPG S/36-style extensions
to JDE.
John Schreur, IT Manager at Metaalgieterij Giesen says, "We still have 2800
S/36-style RPG programs and most of them interface with our JDE Financial, Purchasing,
Distribution, Sales and Maintenance modules. We have started to gradually re-do all those
programs with LANSA, adding some functionality at the same time. LANSA integrates
well with our JDE 7.3 environment and I expect the majority of the conversion to be done
by the end of this year."
The National Investment Bank (NIB) of the
Netherlands, with overseas branches in London, Antwerp and Curacao, uses LANSA for their
Credit Information system.
Gerard Nap, Director of IT, says, "The Credit Information system is our
core business system and we have between 10 and 15 developers working on this.
This Credit Information system posts bookings to our JDE General Ledger system and checks
the account numbers in existence in JDE files. Another interface compares the total of
sub-ledger balances in the Credit Information system, with the general ledger balances in
JDE and reports if the accounts don’t balance."
 JDE software is popular in the petroleum industry. For example, Mobil
Oil in Calgary uses a project management interface to JDE and another large oil
company in North America integrates JDE Address Book, Sales Orders, Accounts Receivable
and Accounts Payable files with LANSA applications.
Several LANSA-based systems are integrated with JDE files. The most important of these
is the Cooperative Advertising system, which traces sales orders, claims and
re-imbursements. The Tank Monitoring system is fed with data from daily transmissions from
meters that are located in the tanks of the customers. Once it drops below a certain level
a LANSA application generates a sales order in the JDE system. Another LANSA-based system
registers loans to retail sites.
The Echo Design Group,
a New York-based company that designs and distributes fashion accessories internationally,
received the Midrange Systems Best Distribution/Wholesale solution award in 1997.
Jack Schoaf, IT Manager, says, "Our new distribution system was built,
tested and implemented by Echo’s small but dedicated team of only five staff members
in less than eight months. This was mainly due to the productivity of the LANSA
repository and 4GL. The new system integrates paper and EDI invoicing and generates
journal entries for our JDE General Ledger system."
"Subsequently we have also integrated this database along with the Customer Order and
Production databases utilizing LANSA for the Web to provide our sales team around the
country with secure 24-hour access to customer order status information. They can now get
'up to the second' status information which lets them respond more quickly and accurately
to their customers. They love it and this is only the tip of the iceberg of what
we are going to be doing with LANSA for the Web."
The systems we are currently developing and have planned are going to revolutionize the
way we do business. The company is excited about how we are going to be using the internet
to make their jobs easier, more focused and allow them to better serve our
customers."
American Skandia, part of the Skandia Group an
international corporation offering insurance and financial services around the world, uses
LANSA Open to post journal entries that are entered with Microsoft Excel on the PC into
their JDE Financials on the AS/400.
Peter Gomis, Senior Developer, explains why he developed the interface. "There was
a need to automate a process of manually re-keying composite journal entries from an Excel
spreadsheet, where they are created, into JDE on the AS/400. The application I developed
for this purpose is written in Visual Basic and LANSA Open. The application uploads the
entries to the AS/400, validates them and posts them to the general ledger."
"The application reduced the time it took to re-key and post composite entries
from about 3 hours to roughly 20 seconds. These composite journal entries can contain
anywhere from 100 to 500 lines and our accounting department creates about 5 or 6
composite journal entries per month. The application also removed an extra source
of human error from the business process and has been very well received."
 Fabwel, Inc., a leading manufacturer and
fabricator of metal products for recreational vehicles, cargo trailers and building
products in the US, uses LANSA for most of their extensions to JDE Financial, Purchasing,
Distribution and Logistics modules.
Jim Holtsberry, Systems Analyst at Fabwel, comments, "During the last three years
we have developed a large number of JDE extensions with LANSA. These are mostly reporting
extensions, such as sales analysis, or entry screens. For some of the extensions we use
LANSA Built-in Functions that call a JDE server-type program for extraction of data,
rather then accessing the JDE files directly. This extraction method insulates us from any
changes JDE may make to its file layouts."
"Whether we use LANSA to access the JDE files directly or to extract the
data indirectly, LANSA integrates fine. The turnaround of programs has been considerably
shortened with LANSA and we can deliver solutions to our users quite quickly."
 Shell Canada needed a
new "front-end" to provide users with an easy-to-use online access and update
capability to their JDE Human Resource/Payroll system on the AS/400. An AS/400e based Web
solution that integrated with the JDE AS/400 environment made sense, as nearly all of the
data required already existed in the JDE system and the AS/400s supported the Shell TCP/IP
networking standard.
Ed Teron, Shell’s IT Project Manager, says, "LANSA offered a secure
and flexible method for linking the JDE data to an Intranet solution. Using
LANSA, LANSA Canada worked with the Shell Internet & Computing and Human Resources
teams to design and build a system that worked almost entirely within its existing
environment."
The employees and management have found the system extremely informative and easy to
use. Debbie Hutchings, Shell’s HR Systems Coordinator says, "By using an
Intranet solution Shell has empowered its employees across Canada with an intuitive,
bi-lingual application. At the same time the reduced reliance of employees on HR staff for
general inquiries has reduced HR administration costs."
 The Canada Lands Company
has extended their JDE Property Management system with their own in-house developed
Web-based Building Information System (BIS).
John J. Morrison, Vice President MIS of Canada Lands, explains how LANSA made Web
development simple. "Before we used LANSA we had extensive experience building
Web-based inquiry applications, using RPG and creating our own CGI code. But the task
became much more complex when we wanted to create applications to update the AS/400 data.
When we investigated LANSA for the Web, I realized how much of the complexity was taken
care of by LANSA."
John continues, "The information in BIS includes physical descriptions of the
building, estimated operating costs and pictures of the building itself. Now a prospective
customer can walk into any of our offices and our staff can quickly look up the required
information using a simple Web browser. We can even produce a color print for the customer
on the spot."
"Our staff can use the same AS/400 application to maintain the data as well. All
this using our existing AS/400 application, low cost Web browsers and simple PC equipment.
With LANSA for the Web we achieved the results we wanted in just under two months."
Francis Thibeault, Project Director, St Hubert Military Base, agrees, "The
system is great! I can bring my properties to the clients, instead of taking the clients
to the properties. A direct result is an increase in sales and rentals."
"LANSA helped us to quickly develop these interfaces while allowing us to
integrate with any other AS400 software. We are now looking at using LANSA for the Web to
‘Web-extend’ our Horizons software and allow our customers and vendors to easily
access our database."
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J.D.
Edwards develops, markets, and supports multinational, integrated enterprise software for
distribution, finance, human resources, manufacturing, and supply chain management. The
Company’s enterprise software operates in multiple computing environments, including
IBM® AS/400®, UNIX®, Windows NT® and the Internet. Founded in 1977, J.D. Edwards is
headquartered in Denver and posted fiscal 1997 revenues of $647.8 million.
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LANSA's unique repository architecture makes it easy to import JDE file definitions
into the LANSA Repository and it doesn't require any duplication of data or retyping of
definitions. Once the JDE files are known to LANSA, you can make Repository enhancements,
such as user friendly file and field names, virtual fields, validations, triggers, help
text and security definitions. These enhancements do not affect the original JDE
application. Both existing JDE programs and new LANSA functions access the same data
files. To upgrade to a new JDE version, you simply refresh the LANSA file definitions,
preserving existing LANSA enhancements in the Repository.
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