iWay Integrates Multinational Business Operations for Alcan, Inc.
Snapshot
Organization Alcan, Inc., a world leader in the production of primary aluminum, fabricated aluminum, and specialty packaging products. |
The Challenge Devise a low-cost, all-purpose integration strategy to streamline multiple e-business development objectives. |
The Strategy Wrap a ring of common services around Alcan's core information systems so developers can use XML, Web services, and other standard interface mechanisms to link users to information. |
The Results Annual savings of $16 million. |
iWay Solution iWay Software and Consulting. |
Note: In January 2005, Alcan spun off its rolled-products business into a company called Novelis, based in Atlanta, Georgia.
Pop open a can of soda or beer, and chances are better than one in three that the can you're holding was produced by Alcan, Inc. As a world leader in the production of primary aluminum, fabricated aluminum and specialty packaging – including aluminum, sheet metal for beverage cans – Alcan has significant interests in raw materials, primary metals, and fabricated products, as well as flexible and specialty packaging for the food, pharmaceutical, and personal-care industries worldwide. Whether its contributing to the design of a more fuel-efficient automobile, engineering a sophisticated industrial component, or devising a clever packaging concept for food products, Alcan has proven itself to be a market leader.
This relentless drive toward innovation and efficiency also typifies Alcan's information technology (IT) department, where employees such as Bo Foster are setting new standards for information delivery, sharing, and exchange.
"We have four key goals: to meet customer expectations, develop a low-cost development strategy, eliminate waste, and position Alcan for the future," explains Foster, who is responsible for Alcan's U.S. corporate applications and e-commerce programs. "Integration technology from iWay Software plays an important role in creating better e-business processes and delivering timely information to our users. We are budgeted to deliver $16 million worth of annual savings. iWay tools are an important part of that solution."
The Road to EAI
Alcan succeeds through a remarkable combination of talented people, innovative products, advanced technologies, and a customer-focused culture. With annual revenues exceeding $12.5 billion, the manufacturing giant employs 53,000 people and has operating facilities in 41 countries.
For a company with mature information systems supporting manufacturing, supply chain, financial, human resources, and logistics operations around the globe, meeting IT goals often comes down to a simple premise: staying connected. Foster says his primary business and IT tasks center around generating better information and ensuring better processes.
For example, Foster's team is closing the e-commerce capability gap by building self-service applications for employees, customers, and vendors, with an emphasis on business intelligence to boost productivity. "Self-service is our mantra," he says.
It's all part of a comprehensive e-business strategy designed to increase trading-partner intimacy while streamlining collaborative commerce and logistics. On the buy side, this includes lowering the cost of procurement, with online links to the company's freight database and electronic catalogs. On the sell side, it entails enhanced business processes for online ordering, portal integration, and access to self-service applications.
Selecting the Right Software
Successful e-business integration involves tying unique front-end applications designed for Web-based self-service into multiple back-end databases, transactions systems, and ERP applications. To meet these objectives, Alcan conducted a balanced scorecard evaluation that revealed iWay as the best fit for its application-integration needs. Alcan was drawn to iWay for its comprehensive, service-oriented architecture and overall ease of use.
"Realizing our e-business objectives requires an integration strategy that wraps a set of common services around our diverse core systems – and delivers cost-effective Web services as well," Foster explains. "The key challenge is diversity. iWay allows us to put a ring of common services around our core information systems. We can use XML, Web services and other standard interface mechanisms to link users to information."
Alcan compared iWay against several other application-integration solutions, with an eye toward cost, functionality, and an easy fit with their existing technology infrastructure. "One of the things that we were most impressed with was iWay's ability to execute a proof of concept in literally just a few hours," Foster recalls. "Some of the other vendors struggled to demonstrate similar capabilities in days, and even then we were never 100 percent satisfied with their results."
Putting iWay to Work
Alcan purchased the iWay software along with two weeks of iWay professional services. "The learning curve was fairly short, particularly with the consultants on board to assist us," Foster notes. "They helped us install the software, then went on to define and implement a service-oriented architecture that pertains to many of our business requirements."
By using iWay's integration framework, developers can build integration hubs composed of all the information sources that need to be accessed to service a business application or business transaction. Then, by plugging in the appropriate iWay adapters and connectors, data from multiple sources can be accessed and retrieved without having to hardwire all the separate interactions between the data sources and the applications.
iWay quickly demonstrated superior alignment with Alcan's overall EAI strategy. "As part of our procurement program, we had to pull information from legacy purchasing and maintenance systems, Oracle Financials, and several other point solutions and integrate it with our e-Marketplace," says Foster. "We accomplished this by using iWay as part of an EAI hub based on Microsoft BizTalk Server."
Alcan went on to apply the same integration logic to its logistics, payroll, and HR systems. "iWay fits in very closely with our Microsoft .NET architecture and it simplifies the integration and transformation of data from mainframe systems, VAX midrange systems, and other legacy assets," says Foster. "For example, we are moving toward booking orders online using Microsoft Commerce Server and the Microsoft SharePoint portal server. iWay helps by simplifying the connections to numerous back-end systems."
For these and other e-business initiatives, iWay provides a consistent and reliable integration platform, enabling the reuse of enterprise IT assets across multiple business systems. For example, Alcan employees depend on iWay's standard, system-to-system interfaces to check pension balances and predict future earnings within the retirement portal. iWay also works hand in hand with Microsoft BizTalk Server to underpin a global logistics system.
"We needed a loosely coupled infrastructure to deliver information to manufacturers and transportation firms about loads and shipments," says Foster. "iWay simplifies the interchange of information and transactions that originate in half a dozen legacy systems.
"iWay has enabled us to obtain significant value by addressing business problems that we thought would be too expensive to tackle," Foster adds. "We have created data warehouses using iWay tools. We have also enabled partners, employees, and customers to leverage information that they could not easily access in the past."
Moving to Web Services
Looking ahead, Foster sees iWay as a fundamental component of Alcan's Web services strategy. Developers can use the iWay graphical workbench to automatically generate iWay Business Services – Web services that incorporate data or functionality from existing systems. "No programming knowledge is necessary to generate services that reuse functionality from ERP or CRM systems, legacy applications, and diverse data sources," says Foster. "iWay fits very well with our Web services integration initiatives."
Alcan's emerging portal architecture uses this Web services infrastructure to connect a Lotus Notes backbone, third-party content, information from data warehouses, and unique business applications with users throughout the organization.
"Some of our business units use Microsoft solutions," Foster explains. "Our corporate group in Montreal uses an IBM solution, while our European offices use SAP solutions. By creating Web services around each of these IT environments, developers throughout our organization can mix and match information and present it in the correct cultural format for each group. An employee in São Paulo doesn't necessarily want to see information in the same was as a user in Cleveland," he continues. "Our Web services strategy creates common serviceability for many different applications."
Built-in connectors and adapters make the entire integration process a turnkey operation. "iWay's use of Web services as a way to integrate applications is unique," Foster states. "It has allowed us to address some business problems that we didn't think were economically feasible, particularly in the case of our large-scale systems. Being able to start small gave us lots of opportunities."
Ultimately, iWay will enable a Web services engine for sales and marketing functions as well as the integration software that helps connect the AccessAlcan Web site to back-office systems for finance, logistics, order entry, and procurement. For example, supply-chain partners use the AccessAlcan report center via extranet connections to check the status of outstanding shipments, invoices, pricing information, and account balances – as well as to view the status of pertinent manufacturing operations. Shipping and logistics companies depend on the Alcan Logistics Portal to review load summaries, confirm deliveries, and track invoices online. "AccessAlcan supplies customer access to the ERP system, and is the gateway to other value added services," Foster explains. "The iWay Web services engine is an important part of this middleware framework."
Counting the Savings
Alcan has made significant headway toward achieving its overall e-business vision and the savings have been dramatic. According to Foster, one e-commerce site that combines user-managed content with an AS/400-based ERP system was expected to cost $500,000 to develop. It was delivered for only $160,000, thanks in part to the iWay infrastructure. An employee-benefits site that was quoted at $180,000 came in at $15,000. And a customer portal that uses SAP data was created for just $50,000 – once again, much less than expected, thanks to the reusable iWay infrastructure.
But by far the biggest savings have resulted from using iWay in the context of a massive freight initiative connecting business units across North America. "For a $600,000 IT investment, we are delivering $12 million in annual savings," Foster says. "iWay allows us to broker transactions among legacy manufacturing, financial, logistics, and load-tendering solutions to dramatically simplify the architecture."
These exceptional achievements were recognized by CAMP, Inc., a consortium of manufacturing companies in Ohio, when they awarded Alcan with their prestigious eVolution in Manufacturing Award. "Our goal is to meet customer expectations and devise a low-cost integration strategy," Foster sums up. "I believe that any company can benefit from the integration strategies that iWay makes a reality."
