Ubbink Garden 

 

Pervasive DataExchange^â„¢ for Data Synchronization

"Real-time sharing of inventory data enabled by Pervasive DataExchange has helped us increase sales and reduce inventory. In addition, the technology decreases communication costs by more than € 100,000 per year."
Jean-Luc Heymans, general manager of Ubbink Garden and member of the Board of Nortène S.A.

About Ubbink Garden
Founded in 1896, Ubbink Garden (www.ubbinkgarden.com) is Europe's leading manufacturer and distributor of garden products and accessories. These allow recreational gardeners to add the enjoyment and excitement of ponds, streams and waterfalls into their garden environments. Example products include linings, pumps, and decorations. Ubbink distributes more than 6,000 products through a network of 10,000 resellers spanning more than 30 countries.

As a member of the Nortène group, headquartered in Paris, France, Ubbink Garden operates distribution warehouses in The Netherlands, Germany, England, France and a sales office in Belgium. These warehouses distribute inventory to their dealer network.

Business Challenge
Ubbink Garden's warehouse in Alkmaar, The Netherlands, had recently implemented a state-of-the-art warehouse management system. The system, developed by Kleinsmit Automatisering in The Netherlands for Ubbink Garden, is powered by a Pervasive.SQL^® database on a Windows^® 2000 Server. To provide system access to the sales subsidiary in Belgium, Ubbink Garden employs Citrix MetaFrame.

In the summer of 2001, Ubbink Garden wanted to implement the application in their Bocholt, Germany warehouse. At that time the warehouse was running a different management application. Initially, they considered two scenarios for the migration:

• Extend Alkmaar's system via Citrix. This would allow all users to access the same system and see a single view of data. However, this would require additional Citrix licenses and increased communication across national boundaries. Since the additional bandwidth would be purchased at international telecommunication rates, the ongoing cost would be prohibitive.
• Install a copy of Alkmaar's system. This would allow the new warehouse to benefit from the same functionality already in use, without the same bandwidth costs. However, not having one single view of data between both sites would lead to business inefficiencies.

Pervasive DataExchange^â„¢ Solution
Ubbink Garden implemented a hybrid solution to achieve the best of both scenarios. First, Alkmaar's warehouse management system was deployed at Bocholt. Then, Pervasive DataExchange was brought in to provide a single view of data between the two sites.

DataExchange leverages sophisticated database replication technology to synchronize the Pervasive.SQL databases at each site. DataExchange hooks into each database engine. As changes are made to one database, DataExchange captures these changes and transmits them to its counterpart on the other, which applies them locally, synchronizing the two databases. Says Harry Kleinsmit, director of Kleinsmit Automatisering, "Performing replication at the database level via Pervasive DataExchange resulted in a significantly simplified system architecture, reducing the cost to Ubbink Garden of moving to a multiple warehouse system with decentralized sales offices in different countries and a central purchasing department."

DataExchange executes replication over a relatively inexpensive ISDN (128 Kbps) line between locations, which is shared with other applications such as email and file sharing. Communication between databases is encrypted using a 128-bit key, so the security of mission-critical inventory data is ensured. Synchronization is near real time, with the most critical database tables replicated 8 times a minute.

Bottom Line
Pervasive DataExchange provided Ubbink Garden the following benefits:

• € 100,000 per year reduction in communication cost relative to extending the Citrix system to German users because Pervasive DataExchange allows Ubbink Garden to share only changed database contents dramatically reducing the bit traffic when compared with Citrix.
• 3% increase in revenue growth resulting from having all international data updated and available for sales managers within seconds.
• 30% reduction in inventory due to improved visibility because Ubbink Garden has eliminated combined overstocking.
• Significant improvement in application responsiveness because users in Germany access a local system and database instead of accessing the system in The Netherlands.

The benefits of the Pervasive DataExchange-powered solution have exceeded already high expectations. Says Jan Molenaar, ICT Manager, Ubbink Garden, "We are so satisfied with the Pervasive DataExchange solution that we are planning to extend it to our other locations. This will spread the benefits of our real time data sharing network throughout the entire company."

About Pervasive Software
Pervasive Software is a leading global data-management company powering the success of application developers by providing solutions that deliver the industry's best combination of performance, reliability and low administration costs. Pervasive's strength is evidenced by the size and diversity of its customer base, serving tens of thousands of customers with hundreds of thousands of end-users in nearly every vertical market around the world. Founded in 1994, Pervasive sells its products into more than 150 countries and is based in Austin, Texas, with offices in Europe. More information may be found on the Web at www.pervasive.com.

For more information
To learn more about Pervasive Software and our solutions, please visit www.pervasive.com. To reach the North American sales office, call 1.800.287.4383, extension 2. For Latin, Central and South America, Australia and New Zealand, call +1.512.231.6000. In Europe, for Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, call +800.12.12.34.34. For any other European, Middle Eastern, African or Asian countries (excluding Japan), call +32.70.23.37.61. For Japan, please call +81.3.3293.5300, or visit www.pervasive.co.jp.