Designed by IBM premium business partner Fritz & Macziol, the architecture is designed to enhance the efficiency and transparency of the clothing company’s supply chain, and was the key to rapid implementation of its new business processes.
Based in Nuremberg, Rudolf Woehrl has approximately 2,900 employees and runs 38 stores, and works with 500 different suppliers and partners.
Woehrl’s IBM system has been in real-time operation since May 2006. As a result, the manufacturer says its business transactions now take place in automated form. IBM WebSphere Business Modeler also records and analyzes these processes, meaning greater transparency.
Basic IT elements such as free-form search functionality were required to create a link between Woehrl’s legacy system and the new technology. Following a proposal by Fritz & Macziol, the manufacturer opted for a service-oriented architecture based on IBM software.
The SOA implementation conducted at Woehrl is a classic example of the advantages that IBM products and solutions have on the SOA market. More than any other manufacturer, IBM offers its customers practical modules made using open standards, on the basis of which heterogeneous IT environments can be integrated within the scope of an SOA, said
Dietmar Frik, project manager at Fritz & Macziol, says that IBM’s SOA modules are based on open standards, which means that Woehrl’s previous investment – its COBOL-based inventory control system is not only protected but can still be utilized as the backbone of its business process.
