06
Sun, Oct
2 New Articles

Case Study: ASNA's AVR for .NET

Case Studies
Typography
  • Smaller Small Medium Big Bigger
  • Default Helvetica Segoe Georgia Times

A business doesn't get to be nearly 100 years old without doing many things right. Labatt Food Services of San Antonio has clearly been doing many things right--for 94 years. Once a small family-run wholesale grocery, Labatt has grown into one of America's fastest-growing food service distributors. Today, with sales in the hundreds of millions of dollars and more technology than NASA, Labatt Food Services still holds dear many of the basic tenets of business learned all those years ago.

In this day when virtually everything is a commodity, Labatt makes it a point to focus on being the "home of the best" in the food service industry. Labatt promises its customers the most professional representatives and the highest quality products--all delivered with the most innovative technology services. At Labatt, though, technology must answer for itself. It's not enough to use innovative technology just for the sake of using new and exciting things: Labatt demands that its technologies further empower the organization to continually improve customer service. Anything that doesn't deliver is replaced with something that does. Two technologies that have delivered for Labatt are the AS/400 and ASNA's Visual RPG for .NET. Labatt has used ASNA's AS/400 technologies for years to connect Visual Basic (VB) to its AS/400s. Long a user of ASNA's COM-based products, Labatt recently used ASNA's Visual RPG for .NET to build an Internet-based application for its salespeople to use.

The Road to Visual RPG for .NET

Labatt has been an iSeries shop for many years. While many technologies have come and gone, Labatt analyst Bill Neely says the iSeries will be a constant for many years to come. "We long ago invested in the AS/400 as the backbone of our core information technologies," says Neely. "The iSeries has been 100% reliable and scalable for us. We don't see anything taking its place for a long time."

But despite high confidence in the iSeries, Labatt has been frustrated with the tools IBM makes available for getting iSeries data to and from the Internet. After dabbling with several technologies (from both IBM and others), a couple of years ago the Labatt team chose ASNA's DataGate Component Suite (DCS) to connect Visual Basic to its AS/400s.
At the time, Neely and the IT team evaluated ASNA's COM version of Visual RPG (AVR) but considered it a little too proprietary for their tastes. Neely explains, "Although we were impressed with AVR several years ago, several members of our team were pretty heavily invested in Microsoft's VB, and the move to AVR, primarily because of its unique integrated development environment, was too much for us. We didn't want to have to jump back and forth between the very different VB and AVR development environments. However, we were very impressed with ASNA's iSeries database access technology, so we used ASNA's DataGate Component Suite with VB to build some early Web-based solutions. DCS gave us the speed and reliability we needed to get our AS/400 data to and from our Internet-based applications and it did so with a very low learning curve."

Application development proceeded in this arena unchanged at Labatt for several years. With ASNA's announcement last fall of Visual RPG for .NET, Neely and the team at Labatt thought maybe Visual RPG deserved a second look. Explains Neely, "We had been prototyping a few applications with .NET's ASP.NET Web development model with Visual Basic. We did a few projects using VB.NET with ASNA's COM-based DCS, but we really wanted to build 100% .NET solutions. .NET's tightly integrated Web debugging, better deployment, and its vastly improved overall Web development model really impressed us. Although we'd stuck with VB before, we did so in large part because of AVR's proprietary development environment. ASNA's Visual RPG for .NET snaps right into Visual Studio.NET, meaning all that we'd learned with VB.NET transferred directly over to AVR for .NET."

The Time Is Right

With the desire firmly in place to give AVR for .NET a try, several of Labatt's IT staff took ASNA's five-day intermediate AVR for .NET course. Some of these programmers were VB-oriented coders and some were RPG-oriented coders. Both noticed right off that AVR for .NET provided lots of common ground for the two camps. The acid test was yet to come: Could the two camps take back a few rudimentary skills and quickly get the entire team productive with AVR for .NET?

In very short order, that did indeed prove to be the case. Says Neely, "Our team really took to AVR for .NET quickly. Its tight integration with Visual Studio.NET and the natural way it dovetails RPG into the .NET framework made for a very low learning curve. Within three days, the team had a working prototype of a Web-based sales reporting application. In less than a week, the team had the first sales reporting Web app deployed. Out of the gate, and clearly without a lot of AVR for .NET experience, we saw a 50% improvement in our programmer productivity with just this first application."

To say the least, Neely and the entire Labatt team were won over with AVR for .NET.
With initial success under their belt, the team's current initiative is to move all iSeries Web development to AVR for .NET. Legacy ASP/COM Web apps will likely persist for a long time, but all new development will be done with AVR for .NET. Shortly after deploying their first Web AVR for .NET Web app, the team turned its attention to building a much-needed delivery status application.

Explains Neely, "Prior to the deployment of our latest AVR for .NET delivery status app, our in-the-field salespeople worked for days to prepare end-of-month delivery status reports. These tasks were not only time consuming, but they were done with Excel, and there was lots of work overlap and the potential for error. Now, with the AVR for .NET delivery status app, our salespeople see in five seconds what literally took them days to reproduce. Using AVR for .NET was certainly one of the reasons this app was so successful so quickly, but our staff deserves a lot of the credit, too. They worked very hard to quickly master both .NET and AVR for .NET. AVR for .NET is a very good fit for our hybrid VB and RPG programming team."

Coupling Labatt's first-class programming team with AVR for .NET is an unbeatable combo for Labatt. ASNA Visual RPG for .NET helps make it easy for the Labatt IT team to deliver on the original Labatt tenet of "home of the best."

Roger Pence is ASNA's education director. Prior to joining ASNA four years ago, Roger worked for many years as a journalist, speaker, and technical editor in the AS/400 community.
http://www.mcpressonline.com/articles/images/2002/ASNA-Labatt-case-studyV4%2006070400.png

ASNA
9901 West IH-10, Suite 1000
San Antonio, TX 78230
U.S.A. 800.289.2762
Europe +44 (0) 1483 570666
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Web: www.asna.com

ROGER PENCE

Roger Pence is ASNA's Product Evangelist. Roger has been in the IBM i midrange community for so long that Elvis was alive when he started. He has been with ASNA since 2000. Prior to joining ASNA, Roger was a technical editor for NEWS/400 and the author of the 400/Group's AS/400 and Windows newsletter.

BLOG COMMENTS POWERED BY DISQUS

LATEST COMMENTS

Support MC Press Online

$

Book Reviews

Resource Center

  • SB Profound WC 5536 Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application. You can find Part 1 here. In Part 2 of our free Node.js Webinar Series, Brian May teaches you the different tooling options available for writing code, debugging, and using Git for version control. Brian will briefly discuss the different tools available, and demonstrate his preferred setup for Node development on IBM i or any platform. Attend this webinar to learn:

  • SB Profound WP 5539More than ever, there is a demand for IT to deliver innovation. Your IBM i has been an essential part of your business operations for years. However, your organization may struggle to maintain the current system and implement new projects. The thousands of customers we've worked with and surveyed state that expectations regarding the digital footprint and vision of the company are not aligned with the current IT environment.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT Generic IBM announced the E1080 servers using the latest Power10 processor in September 2021. The most powerful processor from IBM to date, Power10 is designed to handle the demands of doing business in today’s high-tech atmosphere, including running cloud applications, supporting big data, and managing AI workloads. But what does Power10 mean for your data center? In this recorded webinar, IBMers Dan Sundt and Dylan Boday join IBM Power Champion Tom Huntington for a discussion on why Power10 technology is the right strategic investment if you run IBM i, AIX, or Linux. In this action-packed hour, Tom will share trends from the IBM i and AIX user communities while Dan and Dylan dive into the tech specs for key hardware, including:

  • Magic MarkTRY the one package that solves all your document design and printing challenges on all your platforms. Produce bar code labels, electronic forms, ad hoc reports, and RFID tags – without programming! MarkMagic is the only document design and print solution that combines report writing, WYSIWYG label and forms design, and conditional printing in one integrated product. Make sure your data survives when catastrophe hits. Request your trial now!  Request Now.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericForms of ransomware has been around for over 30 years, and with more and more organizations suffering attacks each year, it continues to endure. What has made ransomware such a durable threat and what is the best way to combat it? In order to prevent ransomware, organizations must first understand how it works.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericIT security is a top priority for businesses around the world, but most IBM i pros don’t know where to begin—and most cybersecurity experts don’t know IBM i. In this session, Robin Tatam explores the business impact of lax IBM i security, the top vulnerabilities putting IBM i at risk, and the steps you can take to protect your organization. If you’re looking to avoid unexpected downtime or corrupted data, you don’t want to miss this session.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericCan you trust all of your users all of the time? A typical end user receives 16 malicious emails each month, but only 17 percent of these phishing campaigns are reported to IT. Once an attack is underway, most organizations won’t discover the breach until six months later. A staggering amount of damage can occur in that time. Despite these risks, 93 percent of organizations are leaving their IBM i systems vulnerable to cybercrime. In this on-demand webinar, IBM i security experts Robin Tatam and Sandi Moore will reveal:

  • FORTRA Disaster protection is vital to every business. Yet, it often consists of patched together procedures that are prone to error. From automatic backups to data encryption to media management, Robot automates the routine (yet often complex) tasks of iSeries backup and recovery, saving you time and money and making the process safer and more reliable. Automate your backups with the Robot Backup and Recovery Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAManaging messages on your IBM i can be more than a full-time job if you have to do it manually. Messages need a response and resources must be monitored—often over multiple systems and across platforms. How can you be sure you won’t miss important system events? Automate your message center with the Robot Message Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAThe thought of printing, distributing, and storing iSeries reports manually may reduce you to tears. Paper and labor costs associated with report generation can spiral out of control. Mountains of paper threaten to swamp your files. Robot automates report bursting, distribution, bundling, and archiving, and offers secure, selective online report viewing. Manage your reports with the Robot Report Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAFor over 30 years, Robot has been a leader in systems management for IBM i. With batch job creation and scheduling at its core, the Robot Job Scheduling Solution reduces the opportunity for human error and helps you maintain service levels, automating even the biggest, most complex runbooks. Manage your job schedule with the Robot Job Scheduling Solution. Key features include:

  • LANSA Business users want new applications now. Market and regulatory pressures require faster application updates and delivery into production. Your IBM i developers may be approaching retirement, and you see no sure way to fill their positions with experienced developers. In addition, you may be caught between maintaining your existing applications and the uncertainty of moving to something new.

  • LANSAWhen it comes to creating your business applications, there are hundreds of coding platforms and programming languages to choose from. These options range from very complex traditional programming languages to Low-Code platforms where sometimes no traditional coding experience is needed. Download our whitepaper, The Power of Writing Code in a Low-Code Solution, and:

  • LANSASupply Chain is becoming increasingly complex and unpredictable. From raw materials for manufacturing to food supply chains, the journey from source to production to delivery to consumers is marred with inefficiencies, manual processes, shortages, recalls, counterfeits, and scandals. In this webinar, we discuss how:

  • The MC Resource Centers bring you the widest selection of white papers, trial software, and on-demand webcasts for you to choose from. >> Review the list of White Papers, Trial Software or On-Demand Webcast at the MC Press Resource Center. >> Add the items to yru Cart and complet he checkout process and submit

  • Profound Logic Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application.

  • SB Profound WC 5536Join us for this hour-long webcast that will explore:

  • Fortra IT managers hoping to find new IBM i talent are discovering that the pool of experienced RPG programmers and operators or administrators with intimate knowledge of the operating system and the applications that run on it is small. This begs the question: How will you manage the platform that supports such a big part of your business? This guide offers strategies and software suggestions to help you plan IT staffing and resources and smooth the transition after your AS/400 talent retires. Read on to learn: