Dial-In Solutions Keeps Track of Warehouse Stock

The Challenge:
The company was looking for a dial-in solution that would allow its customers’ suppliers to check warehouse stock levels. It also needed to give IT staff remote access to the AS/400 and provide office-based employees with Internet access from the LAN.

THE CUSTOMER:
Founded in 1970, Eddie Stobart Ltd. is one of the UK’s leading transport and warehousing organizations, with a fleet of over 800 vehicles and depots throughout the country.

THE CHALLENGE:
An Entire Range of Dial-In Technologies One of Eddie Stobart’s biggest customers needed to provide its suppliers with dial-in access to warehouse information, for the purpose of monitoring stock levels. Eddie Stobart Ltd. recognized the potential of offering a dial-in service but also understood that its customers and their suppliers could be using many different technologies. "Customers could use ISDN or mobile phones, low spec old modems or high-speed modems. The dial-in solution we chose had to cope with the entire range of dial-in technologies available to our clients," said Dave Mossop, the company’s Technical Systems Manager.

A Far-Reaching Solution
Mossop also needed to identify an easy-to-use, reliable solution that would give IT staff remote access to the AS/400 and provide office-based employees with Internet access from the LAN.

THE SOLUTION:
The Perle 833AS Access Server
Eddie Stobart Ltd. selected the Perle 833AS Access Server to meet its far-ranging needs for a remote dial-in access product.

The Value Of Experience
Eddie Stobart Ltd. had a long-standing and successful relationship with Perle Controllers, which connect branch offices to its central AS/400 systems. As Dave Mossop said: "Perle Controllers are now completely integral to our network infrastructure. We just switch them on and we know they will run. It seemed logical for us to choose Perle again to meet our remote dial-in requirements. Considering the price, performance and support that the company offers, Perle is the clear choice and we know what we are getting. From a technical point of view, because we know and respect how Perle works, we did not feel we had to look any further."

An Integrated Solution
The Perle 833AS is a complete, integrated remote access solution that allows multiple remote dial-in users to access corporate LAN resources across 56 Kbps analog or ISDN connections. Eddie Stobart is particularly satisfied with the product’s security features, ease of use and low maintenance. Mossop also likes the level of support that is part of the product, "Installing the server was so easy, we did it ourselves. It was, however, reassuring to know that with Perle’s support program, we could contact a Perle Engineer at any hour for help."

Scalability For Future Expansion
Eddie Stobart Ltd. is growing fast, so the scalability of the 833AS is crucial, as Mossop explains: "The scalability of the 833AS enables us to expand as needed in the future. For example, if we want to add another 48 channels via an ISDN PRI line, we just have to buy a card and put it in." The 833AS can provide simultaneous access for up to 96 users across 4 T1/PRI connections.

Future Developments
“Very soon, we will be able to use dial-in services as part of a package we offer all our customers, so that they can keep track of their stock in our warehouses. But, we also need to ensure security is not a problem, so that our customers are comfortable using this system,” said Mossop. The Perle 833AS offers multi-level security and security management features, some of which particularly interest Eddie Stobart as it opens its network to selected users. “When we have completely migrated towards NT, we can have these users authenticated against the NT domain server, which the 833AS supports as a standard feature. That way we only need to keep one set of user names and passwords secure,” explained Mossop.

To provide LAN-based users with Internet access, Mossop plans to use the Perle 833AS Access Server for dial-out as well. “With the 833AS we don’t need to buy new software because it comes with a powerful dial-out client” said Mossop.