Nortel Networks 

Contact:
Nortel Networks
8200 Dixie Road, Suite 100
Brampton, Ontario L6T 5PG
CANADA
www.nortelnetworks.com

Tools used :
Baan's Supply Chain Management (SCM™), IONA's Orbix™, CORBA®

Problem:
Nortel Networks needed a solution to integrate proprietary applications with their existing Baan Supply Chain Management Software.

Solution:
IONA® Technologies' Professional Services division implemented a Supply Chain Management (SCM) solution at Nortel Networks, a global manufacturer of telecommunications solutions including transmission, access and switching systems. Nortel Networks used IONA's Orbix to integrate a range of proprietary applications controlling purchasing, sales and stock with Baan's SCM software. Development of the new enterprise was assisted by the use of the Orbix Code Generation Toolkit, one of the new features of Orbix version 3.

Nortel Networks chose Baan software to introduce a common IT platform for the management of manufacturing, distribution and finance applications. IONA's Professional Services designed and implemented a 'Connector' using Orbix which enables customized in-house software applications to interoperate with Baan SCM software. Basic and repetitive code tasks were automated by the Orbix Code Generation Toolkit, allowing Nortel Networks to implement the new enterprise solution in a significantly reduced timeframe.

"Before implementing an enterprise supply chain management system to our Nortel Networks sites, careful consideration of the challenges relating to systems integration was undertaken," commented Fiona Shaw, Systems Analyst at Nortel Networks. "Following a systems review, building an open solution based on Orbix surpassed all the other alternatives in terms of speed of development and flexibility to react to future system modifications. Thanks to Orbix and the superior middleware expertise of IONA's consultants, we have a fully integrated solution which offers us significant cost reductions and allows us to evolve our IT systems easily in the future."