Overview

AXIAR Format and Deliver provide tangible cost savings and efficiency gains for one of the largest suppliers of building materials and construction services to the U.S. homebuilding industry.

Benefits

• UNIX server-based form conversion and routing eliminates the need for a dedicated Windows form server and allows any printer on the network to be used, simplifying printer requirements by limiting the need for specialized printer components (i.e. no DIMMs required).
• Ensured delivery capabilities of AXIAR Deliver (which reroute jobs to backup printers in the event of printer hardware errors) eliminate work stoppages due to form printing errors. Prior to AXIAR, there were an average of two print production stoppages per week, causing lost print jobs and customer/warehouse backlogs to occur. AXIAR communicates bi-directionally with printers and MFPs to route, track and verify print completion.
• Centralized print queue management with AXIAR Deliver gives UNIX personnel a global view of the printing environment and allows rapid troubleshooting of printer errors. The combination of AXIAR Format’s UNIX laser form printing and AXIAR Deliver’s UNIX print queue management capabilities reduced form printing help desk calls an estimated 50%.
• Output management reduces the amount of manual handling of office copies and documents destined for fax gateways. With a single print request, AXIAR formats and delivers documents dynamically based on data-driven triggers.

Return on Investment

Less than nine months.

Customer

A Fortune 1000 holding company with two subsidiaries that are among the largest suppliers of building materials and construction services to the U.S. homebuilding industry with sales in excess of $2 billion. These two subsidiaries specialize in delivering high-quality building products and turnkey construction services to national, regional and local homebuilders and contractors (contact LBM Systems for reference details).

Business Applications & Hardware

Infor ERP SX.enterprise?, which manages complex products, improves inventory accuracy, controls forecasting demand and simplifies fleet scheduling. The application generates document data (invoices, purchase orders, statements, reports, etc.) on a UNIX server and feeds the output to AXIAR for formatting and delivery.

The Business Challenge

The customer required UNIX-based laser form software to eliminate the existing Windows-based form software previously implemented. The Windows form software was implemented when the company had limited printing needs; however the Windows form software could not adequately handle the large print volumes and number of printers (1,100+) necessary to sustain the customer’s growth. In addition, the need to intelligently format and route documents based on data triggers to fax gateways for fax distribution of complete digital forms was identified as an enhancement to the document distribution process.

The Solution

AXIAR Format is used to convert, route and print approximately 350 different forms/subforms across a nationwide implementation at over 200 sites and 1,100 printers. AXIAR Format runs in UNIX, Linux, Windows and System i (AS/400) operating systems. By managing all printing and routing from the same UNIX server that runs the business application, printing bottlenecks are reduced and network traffic is reduced. AXIAR Format and AXIAR Deliver were implemented and were managing 1,100 printers enterprise-wide within one calendar month after purchase decision. AXIAR Format’s form design tool was used to create 350 forms/subforms in less than two weeks.

About LBM Systems, LLC

LBM develops and markets software products that manage data created by mission-critical business applications. LBM products format, deliver and retrieve output from financial/accounting, ERP, desktop and other applications vital to day-to-day business operations.