But integrating legacy applications into a new Web-based rollout can tax the most experienced IS department. For Saab Cars USA Inc., Web access to corporate data has given the auto maker a jump-start in the world of online commerce. With little or no training, salespeople and technicians can navigate the company's corporate data banks for information about parts, inventory, and warranties simply by pointing and clicking.
Fewer hassles mean improved customer satisfaction.
But to make Saab's project a reality, integrators had to overcome the challenge of bringing together three disparate systems that held the data. Pa. And to make things even more complicated, a corporate mandate barred the team from making any changes to existing 3270 and 5250 applications running on the mainframes. The new system lets customer information be entered once at the dealership and then imported into Saab's relational data-bases, eliminating the duplicate data entry at the company's headquarters. Ga. When the effort first got under way in May last year, Saab called on IBM Global Services for its expertise in building the system. The auto manufacturer has no in-house IT department and instead relies entirely on integrators and consultants to provide its systems needs.