Oracle Validates RF-SMART Integration with JD Edwards World A9.1

Oracle Certified Advantage Partner ICS achieves second integration validation of RF-SMART with Oracle’s JD Edwards applications in the past four months

ICS, Inc., developers of the RF-SMART® brand of mobile enterprise solutions for Oracle’s JD Edwards, announce the integration validation of RF-SMART’s interface to JD Edwards World A9.1. This integration was validated through the Oracle PartnerNetwork Application Integration Architecture for Partners initiative.

JD Edwards World customers rely on RF-SMART’s automated data collection (ADC) software because of its real-time performance and the fact that it’s written specifically for JD Edwards World and the IBM Power System, the platform of choice for World customers. The integration validation to JD Edwards World A9.1 is the most recent demonstration of ICS’ commitment to meeting the rigorous application integration standards Oracle offers for its ISV partners—and ICS’ ultimate objective of providing the most reliable, high-performance mobile applications for JD Edwards customers and channel resellers.  RF-SMART was also recently validated for Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 8.12.

“We are pleased that ICS continues to authenticate its 27-year commitment to providing JD Edwards’ customers with mobile solutions that complement and add value to our enterprise applications,” said Denise Grills, Oracle Senior Director, Oracle’s JD Edwards World Product Strategy.  “We value our relationship with the RF-SMART team and the many benefits we’re able to provide our joint customers.” 

Validation through Oracle PartnerNetwork Application Integration Architecture for Partners gives customers confidence that integrations between Oracle Applications and complementary partner solutions have been tested and work together as designed. This can help reduce risk, improve system implementation cycles, and provide for smoother upgrades and simpler maintenance. Validation through this initiative applies a rigorous technical process to review the integrations of third-party software to Oracle Applications products, including productized repeatable integrations from system integrators. Oracle provides tools, resources and training to assist partners in the integration. Partners who have successfully validated their integrations are authorized to use the “Integrated with Oracle” logo. For more information, please visit Oracle.com at http://www.oracle.com/partnerships/isv/integration/search.html.

Oracle and JD Edwards are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.

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ICS Achieves Oracle’s Certified Advantage Partner Status

Developers of RF-SMART and Equential earns Oracle CAP status
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Information and Computing Services, Inc. (ICS) has attained Oracle’s Certified Advantage Partner (CAP) status – Oracle’s highest partner designation and one achieved by fewer than five percent of Oracle’s more than 19,000 worldwide partners.
ICS – the developers of RF-SMART and Equential solutions – is a leading, global provider of automated data collection, wireless and mobile software solutions for the manufacturing, distribution and construction industries. ICS also is a long-standing provider of Oracle’s JD Edwards implementation and consulting services.

Already an Oracle Certified Partner, ICS easily met the stricter qualifications of Certified Advantage Partner status further demonstrating their commitment to high customer satisfaction, continued support of Oracle’s products and services, and expert technical and product knowledge.

“Clearly our ever-expanding 25-year relationship with Oracle’s JD Edwards optimizes our mutual customers’ return on their software investments,” said Adrian Thomas, President and CEO of ICS. “Certified Advantage Partner is one more outward sign of what our current customers already know – we are dedicated to their success.”

To achieve Certified Advantage Partner status, ICS proved its advanced technical capabilities and expertise, and confirmed its ability to deliver the highest quality service to Oracle’s JD Edwards’ customers.


Oracle and JD Edwards are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.

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Stryker Medical Implements Equential Mobile Solutions

Stryker Medical completed implementation of Equential's goOrder solution. Stryker Medical - a division of Stryker Corporation - produces, markets and services patient handling equipment such as hospital beds. Through the implementation, Stryker Medical provides more visibility and connectivity for its more than 65 Field Services Representatives across the United States.
The Equential goOrder solution provides Stryker Medical's remote field reps with all the information they need - customer, asset, service and pricing. Field reps can more quickly create service orders while on site with pre-populated information pulled directly from Stryker's JD Edward's ERP system. Also, they can receive or update data anytime, anywhere via wireless air card, wireless network, or connection from hotel or home. Finally, Stryker will add Equential's inventory reconciliation solution to enable field reps to ensure accurate inventory levels. With Equential, Stryker Medical is truly mobile.

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SelectBuild uses technology to take control of manual time collection and bring home the prize

Constructech Magazine honored Equential Customer SelectBuild with a 2007 Constructech Vision Award.

SelectBuild, competing in the greater than $500 million revenue category, received a Constructech Vision Award for innovatively applying Equential’s goLabor solution to significantly improve time savings, cost savings and accuracy. A division of BMHC, SelectBuild provides turnkey construction services to high-volume production homebuilders, including concrete, plumbing, framing, HVAC, stucco and other services.

Leveraging laptops, SelectBuild now electronically captures labor, job and payroll information in the field and subsequently can generate daily reports on job cost and production, all with dramatically improved accuracy.

Within several weeks of implementation, the accuracy of employee time data and the associated job and cost codes increased by 15 percent. During peak construction cycles, the increase in accuracy has represented a savings of up to 290 hours per week.

Payroll staff and managers no longer have to spend hours deciphering handwritten labor sheets, manually keying in labor information, and validating correct entry of labor data in their Sage Timberline accounting solution. And, SelectBuild achieved increased job cost accuracy by capturing actual labor versus estimates by lot.

Field supervisors spend substantially less time collecting, reviewing, coding, and approving employee time and labor budgets—enabling them to focus their energy, attention and experience in managing construction delivery and quality for customers.

One SelectBuild supervisor noted that goLabor reduces workload by 50 percent through automating manual processes of reviewing, approving and entering labor and job information into Timberline. In addition, job codes are always accurate.

“We heartily congratulate SelectBuild on winning the Constructech Vision Award for proactively seeking increased value for their builder customers through field data collection,” said Michael Morales, Equential managing director. “We are pleased to be recognized as their partner in this initiative.”

“We are honored to receive this award and to partner with Equential to achieve such positive results,” said SelectBuild’s Kari Lopez, business systems program director. “Our results are all about working as a team. We worked closely with our business to understand the challenges around this manual process, and with Equential on the best solution and a field pilot proving ground. When we evaluated our results, we were able to deliver a five-month return on investment – a very good value.”

The annual Constructech Vision Awards recognize companies that have displayed innovation in the way they apply technology to solve business challenges. SelectBuild and Equential accepted the award in a ceremony on August 23, 2007 in Chicago. This is the second year SelectBuild has received a Constructech award.

Equential mobile enterprise solutions enable organizations to track labor, equipment, inventory, deliveries and more in the field using mobile phones, handheld devices or PCs. Leveraging barcodes and other data collection technologies, supervisors can electronically collect, validate and synchronize field data with enterprise systems using cellular, 802.11 wireless, or cradle-synch methods. Equential delivers measurable value by eliminating the costs of manual data entry, improving data accuracy, enhancing visibility into operations, driving productivity, and improving cash flow.

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Admiral Beverage Selects Mobile goOrder Solution

Admiral Beverage Corporation of Worland, Wyoming has purchased the Mobile goOrder solution for its direct store delivery operations. Mobile goOrder will enable approximately 300 Admiral Beverage delivery drivers to manage product deliveries, capture signatures, report delivery completion, and provide receipts and invoices. A Pepsi bottler since 1947, Admiral Beverage today employs more than 1,000 people with 29 facilities in five states. They produce and distribute beverage products in 48 flavors and brands. ICS, Inc. is pleased to serve Admiral Beverages' distribution needs with its Mobile goOrder product.

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Amarr Garage Doors Chooses RF-SMART for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne

JACKSONVILLE, FL, USA (June 20, 2007) — ICS, developer of the RF-SMART® brand of bar-coding and RFID software for Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne software, reports that Amarr Garage Doors has selected RF-SMART for its automated data collection (ADC) needs.

Amarr is one of the world's leading designers, manufacturers and distributors of door access systems for residential garages and for commercial use in warehouses, shopping malls and more. The company's complex distribution mix includes an international network of company-owned distribution centers, more than 3,000 independent dealers worldwide and major retailing partners such as Costco Warehouses, Sam's Club, Sears and Lowe's Home Improvement. This mix required a scaleable, easy-to-implement ADC solution with seamless integration to their JD Edwards' system and Oracle database.

"We selected RF-SMART based on its functionality and support capability," said Shawn O'Brien, Amarr's vice president of process improvement. "With the knowledge and experience of the RF-SMART team and the scalability of RF-SMART, we will create synergies that will enable Amarr's vertical growth and business expansion."

Amarr also required a solution that could keep up with their JD Edwards ERP system upgrade plans. RF-SMART's unique XML integration to JD Edwards insulates the solution from ERP Service Packs and Electronic Service Updates.

"RF-SMART complements our planned ERP path," said Andy Pryce, director of IT applications. "Our JD Edwards installation is heavily modified and our current data collection system could not make the move to JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 8.12. RF-SMART allows us to move some of our ERP modifications into their system, enabling us to more easily upgrade to EnterpriseOne 8.12 and beyond."

O'Brien also noted that "ICS is the type of company we want as a business partner." The two companies share a commitment to customer satisfaction. "We wanted a long-term partner who would share the load with us," he added. "I'm confident in the support we'll receive from ICS."

ICS founder and chairman Jorge F. Morales said, "We are very impressed with the Amarr leadership team and their business overall. Our team is already working to help Amarr achieve the objectives of their data collection initiative and we look forward to a long-term relationship with them."

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ICS Releases Latest RF-SMART Version for Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0

ICS, developers of the RFSMART® brand of wireless, mobile and RFID software solutions, announced the latest release of RF-SMART with extended support for Microsoft® Dynamics AX versions 3.0 and 4.0.

The most comprehensive release of RF-SMART for Microsoft Dynamics AX yet, version 3.4 is delivered with dozens of out-of-the-box transactions that extend Dynamics AX's
functionality for Trade and Logistics, WMS 1 and 2, Production, Shop Floor and Projects.

"This latest release, which supports versions 3.0 and 4.0 of Microsoft Dynamics AX, further enhances the strategic value of RF-SMART to Dynamics AX customers," said Jorge F. Morales, President and CEO of ICS. "We're providing a world-class offering for Microsoft customers by combining our in-depth knowledge of the supply chain industry, automated data collection and Microsoft Dynamics AX.”
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Pacer's Distribution Arm Implements Logimax®

Pacer Distribution Services (PDS), Inc., the warehousing and distribution arm of Pacer International, Inc. (Nasdaq:PACR), said it has acquired and implemented an integrated, advanced warehouse management system (WMS) from Logimax, replacing older legacy systems.The new system, which has been customized to support Pacer's value-added operations in Southern California, provides 24-hour web-based customer reporting and full inventory management capabilities, including radio frequency (RF) and barcoding, according to Kent Prokop, president of PDS.

He said it also positions the company to offer RFID (radio frequency identification) services with minimal additional cost and effort.

Prokop said virtually all of Pacer's existing warehouse customers have been transitioned to the new WMS system, and that the company is successfully handling record volumes of Asian imports through its warehousing and cross-dock facilities in the Los Angeles - Long Beach region, the nation's principal gateway for Asian freight.

He noted that inbound container flows through the Los Angeles gateway, on an industry-wide basis, were up by 11.3 percent during the first half of the year.

"Importers and distributors are already benefiting from improved functionality and inventory visibility," said Prokop.

According to Prokop, installation of the new WMS has helped prepare Pacer to better handle rapidly escalating inbound freight volumes in the future. "We are also better prepared to meet customer demands for increasingly complex value-added services, and the strict compliance requirements of today's large big-box retailers in such areas as EDI, systems integration, and UCC labeling." He added that PDS expects the added functionality will attract additional business.

PDS operates more than 800,000 square feet of warehousing and cross-dock capacity in the Los Angeles area, providing such services as consolidation, deconsolidation, transloading and cross-dock operations, order fulfillment, sorting and labeling, product manipulation, and even in-house drayage (local trucking). Its affiliates in the Pacer group also provide rail and truck brokerage, intermodal transportation, ocean services, and other supply-chain services.

The Logimax warehouse management system was developed by ICS, a global software development and systems implementation firm specializing in supply-chain technology solutions.

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RF-SMART First to Validate to JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 8.12

RF-SMART is the first software product to receive validation from Oracle® for its integration with Oracle's JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 8.12. ICS is the developer of the RF-SMART® brand of wireless and mobile solutions for JD Edwards and is an authorized sales and consulting services partner for JD Edwards. ICS also validated RF-SMART with JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 8.11 SP1.

“We are excited to be the first Certified Partner in the Oracle® PartnerNetwork to achieve integration validation between our RF-SMART software and JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 8.12,” said Jorge F. Morales, president and CEO of ICS. “As a market leader, we understand how meaningful it is to our customers that we verify our technical expertise and application integration approaches. We see Oracle’s Application Integration Initiative as a terrific opportunity for us to demonstrate the integrity of our products and their seamless operation with Oracle applications.” Oracle established the Oracle PartnerNetwork Application Integration Initiative to help companies simplify their search for IT solutions that will fully integrate with Oracle applications. The validation process provides decision-makers with confidence that the integration between products has been tested and validated as functionally and technically sound, that the product integrates reliably with Oracle Applications and that the integration operates and performs as designed.

“Being the first company to achieve integration validation with JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 8.12 shows ICS’ commitment to our continuing partnership with Oracle, as well as our commitment to meeting the ongoing needs of our joint customers,” Morales said.

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Alamo Group Inc. Implements, Goes Live with RF-SMART

ICS, developers of the RF-SMART® brand of wireless, mobile and RFID software solutions for JD Edwards® enterprise software from Oracle®, announced that Alamo Group has implemented RF-SMART beginning in their Seguin, Texas, facility.

Alamo Group is a leader in the manufacture, distribution and service of industrial and agricultural maintenance equipment. Their products include mowers, loaders, excavators, street sweepers, backhoes, tillers, and related aftermarket parts.

“We searched for a cost effective, scaleable solution to multiple business challenges,” noted Keith W. Vinyard, Alamo Group’s Vice President, Information Technology. “One of our greatest operational needs was to move from batched data entry to real-time data collection to provide up-to-the minute information on inventory, sales order picking and shipping status, work order status, and other peripheral data collection capabilities.”

Alamo Group selected RF-SMART’s Manufacturing and Distribution suites based on the product’s strength, its easy adaptability to their growth needs, and its reasonable total cost of ownership. “RF-SMART proved to be the solution to our many needs and growth opportunities,” Vinyard said. “Part of our growth is through well-managed acquisitions. RF-SMART’s flexibility helps us be prepared and easily address those transitions.”

“ICS has provided an excellent level of service to Alamo Group and has been prompt and attentive to our business requirements. The level of support before, during, and after the implementation process has been exceptional,” said Rick Solano, ERP Application Specialist for Alamo Group based in the Seguin, Texas headquarters.

“RF-SMART is very easy to use and well-accepted amongst our employees, the functionality and performance has been extremely stable and reliable, and we look forward to implementing the solution at our other USA facilities.” Alamo Group will implement RF-SMART in their remaining USA facilities by the end of this year, keeping within their planned schedule.
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BTD Manufacturing Goes Live with RF-SMART

ICS, developers of the RF-SMART® brand of wireless, mobile and RFID software solutions for Microsoft® DynamicsTM AX (formerly known as Axapta), has announced that BTD Manufacturing of Detroit Lakes, MN has gone live with RF-SMART in their Detroit Lakes and Lakeville facilities.

BTD Manufacturing of Detroit Lakes, MN has gone live with RF-SMART in their Detroit Lakes and Lakeville facilities. “Our experience with ICS and the RF-SMART product has been great,” said Marty Kiebke, IT Manager for BTD Manufacturing. “Their team is very professional, they have met our deadlines, and RF-SMART does exactly what ICS said it would do for us,” Kiebke added.

Warehouse Manager Steve Quam added, “RF-SMART is so easy to use and provides such fast transaction speeds that our floor workers learned RF-SMART right away and like using it. I like how easy it is to configure RF-SMART to meet our unique needs.” BTD Manufacturing uses Microsoft Dynamics AX as their enterprise software and implemented RF-SMART’s Distribution Suite to add value to their Dynamics AX-driven logistics operations. BTD performs more than 2,500 logistics-related transactions per day using RF-SMART.

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