Douglas-Danielle, Inc. Credits Ericom® Software's PowerTerm® Host Publisher with Helping to Save a Customer Time and Money
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Industry
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Financial Collections
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Customer
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Douglas-Danielle, Inc.
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Solution
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PowerTerm® Host Publisher
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Server
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Windows 2003
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Host System
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IBM AS/400
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The Challenge
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To find a cost-effective solution to integrate existing disparate host data for a customers online collections solution.
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Result
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PowerTerm Host Publisher serves as a middleware solution that has enabled Douglas-Danielle to achieve an improved return on investment (ROI) for its customer.
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Benefits
- PowerTerm Host Publisher helped significantly reduce cost compared to phone and mail channels.
- PowerTerm Host Publisher was deployed in under two months.
- PowerTerm Host Publisher works seamlessly with many third-party integration frameworks.
- PowerTerm Host Publisher is non-invasive — no changes or modifications need to be made to the existing legacy applications.
- Ericom's customer service was very responsive.
"Our client is extremely happy with the savings that PowerTerm Host Publisher has helped realize. The success we've had with it is encouraging, and we'd certainly consider PowerTerm Host Publisher for other projects."
Katie Hitchcock, Senior Web Developer, Douglas-Danielle, Inc.
Background
Douglas-Danielle, Inc. helps companies improve the performance and reduce the cost of direct marketing programs. The company offers a modular framework of solutions that generate immediate, measurable and improved results. Companies come to Douglas-Danielle for direct response program planning and execution, as well as development and management of self-service Web response solutions.
Saving the Customer Time and Money
A credit card issuer selected Douglas-Danielle to develop a self-service Web solution designed to improve the rate and reduce the cost of collection compared to mail and phone channels.
The client's existing host data integration vendor charged on a per transaction basis. Thus, as the site began to successfully increase the rate of collections for the client, the client incurred additional transaction fees from the integration vendor.
As a result, Katie Hitchcock, senior web developer at Douglas-Danielle was tasked with searching for alternate middleware solutions with screen saving options, and found PowerTerm.
"With the old solution, our customer was being charged a fee for each transaction — regardless of whether or not the transaction was successful," said Katie. "We needed a solution that was going to meet our customer's requirements but not cost them an arm and a leg."
According to Katie, one of the main reasons for choosing PowerTerm Host Publisher was due to Ericom's responsiveness.
"We had a very tight deadline and we needed a solution fast," recalls Katie. "Ericom made sure we received the PowerTerm Host Publisher demo quickly. After evaluating it, I knew I would be able to get the project done in the limited timeframe. From evaluation to deployment took under 60 days."
Transforming Disparate Applications into Reusable Web Services
PowerTerm Host Publisher acts as middleware that allows disparate applications to interface in ways that are transparent to the user. "From our Windows 2003 server we integrate the data from the organization's AS/400 applications. PowerTerm Host Publisher software enables us to transform selected portions of character-based (screen-based) applications into reusable services without disrupting our legacy applications," explained Katie.
Using Service Oriented Architecture, PowerTerm Host Publisher exposes applications as services and then connects them with other applications to be meta-applications of building blocks of other services. Because SOA is a loosely coupled system, parts of the system can be replaced without affecting the whole.
PowerTerm Host Publisher has proven itself to be a viable tool for Douglas-Danielle. "I don't have much experience with mainframes," Katie admitted, "but with PowerTerm Host Publisher, I can walk through and record the code for the business processes that I need, which was very helpful in implementation." As a result, explained Katie, implementation has paid off for their customer. "Our client is extremely happy with the money that PowerTerm Host Publisher brings in. The success we've had with it is encouraging, and we'd certainly consider PowerTerm Host Publisher for other projects in order to help our customers save money."
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