As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc with the global economy, businesses are struggling to stay afloat while serving the needs of their customers. Distributors and companies that once relied on in-person transactions and retail sales are being forced to pivot to online sales, which can be a dramatic and unexpected change of pace.
Using the RESTful services in jBASE, Pennsylvania-based wholesale electrical distributor Scott Electric has been able to transform itself by providing online sales directly to its customers. Despite the coronavirus, March was the company’s strongest month for online orders.
Like many Pick MultiValue users that have been around for a while, Scott’s inventory management, purchasing, and accounting systems still relied on “green-screen” technology and database platforms. While that worked OK for business as usual, in order to keep pace with the needs of their growing customer base, Scott Electric needed a modern, web-based platform. The goal was to streamline sales, warehouse management, and communication with customers.
The company’s backend infrastructure was built on a SHIMS application, which, while providing the flexibility needed, was not built to support modern graphical interfaces. Scott started looking for a database solution for the 21st century that would not 30+ years of customized business logic.
After meeting Zumasys at the SHIMS User Group, Scott Electric System Administrator Al Metz realized that jBASE was the perfect way to bring Scott Electric’s database applications into the modern age without making more senior developers “rip their hair out.”
jBASE allows Scott Electric’s developers and IT personnel to easily hook into the company’s SHIMS backend while giving them the flexibility to create new systems that meet the needs of today’s web-oriented customers.
Systems Developer Bob Kelecava liked that jBASE uses RESTful services to tie into existing SHIMS business logic.
“The front end is all JavaScript based, Node.js, AngularJS, and Mongo,” says Kelecava. “I liked that because we get the JSON objects back from the RESTful services, so I’m working strictly with JavaScript the whole way through.”
Metz is just as happy with the back end process. “The transition to jBASE from my perspective was easy. Within six months I was very confident using jBASE,” says Metz.
Using jBASE, Scott Electric was able to take advantage of all the business logic that has refined over the years and refactor it in a way that creates an entirely new customer experience.
Scott Electric’s staff now spends much less time processing orders, and customers can get what they need faster. As for their IT team, Scott Electric’s seasoned coders are happy with the speed at which they can work through and navigate their data, and newer development staff no longer have to worry about learning a new programming language to build and launch new features. They can use the skills they already have to add value and improve the customer experience.
Harnessing the flexibility and development simplicity of their new jBASE system, Scott Electric was able to stand up a brand-new online storefront and, within hours of launching, over 150 users logged in. Sales only continue to increase.
Despite the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, Scott Electric is confident that they are in a good position to meet their customers’ needs now and into the future.
Modernize your MultiValue Application with RESTful Web Services
RESTful services are included for free with the current release of jBASE from Zumasys. The same functionality is available for D3, Universe and Unidata systems by adding MVConnect. MVConnect is available from Zumasys for $2,995 which includes first year of maintenance. For more information, visit https://www.zumasys.com/products/mv-connect/