Avnet Enterprise Solutions Successfully Completes State-of-the-Art IT Infrastructure for Associated Food Stores.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers TEMPE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 26, 2004 Grocery Distributor Installs the Latest IT and Obtains More Capacity for Less Cost Avnet Enterprise Solutions, an IT solutions integrator, announced it has successfully completed a server consolidation project for Salt Lake City-based Associated Food Stores. In addition to providing consulting services, Avnet Enterprise Solutions implemented a hardware and software solution designed to not only save the company substantial assets, but also provide key functionality with significant reduced cost, availability and scalability advantages. As a cooperatively owned wholesale distributor to 600 independently owned supermarkets, Associated Foods is up against the supermarket giants and works with razor-thin profits. Keeping pace with the large chains requires maintaining a state-of-the-art IT infrastructure, yet an outdated UNIX UNIX Operating system for digital computers, developed by Ken Thompson of Bell Laboratories in 1969. It was initially designed for a single user (the name was a pun on the earlier operating system Multics). environment was costing it money in operating costs operating costs npl → gastos mpl operacionales . Avnet Enterprise Solutions decided an analysis of the current IT environment was the first course of business to determine the best approach to meet the customer's technical and financial goals. Using its exclusive Consolidation Impact Report (CIR (Committed Information Rate) In a frame relay network, the average transmission rate in bits per second (typically Kbps) for a virtual circuit. It defines the maximum rate that the network can handle under normal conditions. ), Avnet Enterprise Solutions provided technical and financial roadmaps and a Return on Investment (ROI (Return On Investment) The monetary benefits derived from having spent money on developing or revising a system. In the IT world, there are more ways to compute ROI than Carter has liver pills (and for those of you who never heard of that expression, it means a lot). ) analysis to compare current costs associated with Associated Foods' existing UNIX environment with the savings from the proposed migration to a new IT infrastructure. The analysis showed an ROI of 21 percent and a payback period Payback Period The length of time required to recover the cost of an investment. Calculated as: of only 25 months with new servers, storage array, tape library, backup software See backup program. (tool, software) backup software - Software for doing a backup, often included as part of the operating system. Backup software should provide ways to specify what files get backed up and to where. and lower maintenance costs. "The Consolidation Impact Report helped to bring all of our thinking together in a very professional way," said Byron Goodwin, Associated Foods' director of information services See Information Systems. . "We were able to eliminate a significant portion of our recurring maintenance expenses by replacing machines, plus we've got more power for our customers a year early without spending any more money. That's an excellent deal." In addition to the reduction in operational costs, the new HP server and storage systems delivered other benefits to Associated Foods, including reduced management overhead as a result of consolidating to one UNIX operating environment In computing, an operating environment is the environment in which users run programs, whether in a command line interface, such as in MS-DOS or the Unix shell, or in a graphical user interface, such as in the Macintosh operating system. and improved backup and recovery processes and completion times. A batch application that used to take 15 minutes processing time now takes three minutes. About Associated Foods Associated Food Stores Inc., headquartered in Salt Lake City, is a cooperatively owned wholesale distributor to almost 600 independently owned supermarkets in an eight-state region. Associated Food Stores champions the cause of independent supermarket owners and is the only independent wholesale distributor headquartered in the Intermountain West, employing more than 1,400 people and shipping more than 750 truckloads of groceries each week. About Avnet Enterprise Solutions Avnet Enterprise Solutions is a solutions integrator specializing in enterprise server, storage and network solutions that power leading business applications. The company is listed 85th of the top Value-Added Resellers for the 2003 VARBusiness 500. The company leverages its unique suite of technical and financial professional services to minimize risk, maximize flexibility and optimize IT investment. Avnet Enterprise Solutions integrates hardware, software and services from industry leaders including HP, IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) , Cisco Systems, Oracle, Tivoli and VERITAS. Headquartered in Tempe, Ariz., Avnet Enterprise Solutions (www.es.avnet.com) is a division of $4 billion Avnet Technology Solutions, an operating group of Avnet Inc. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : AVT AVT avian arginine vasotocin. See vasotocin. ). Avnet enables success at the center of technology, providing cost-effective services and solutions vital to a broad base of more than 100,000 customers and 250 suppliers. The company markets, distributes and adds value to semiconductors, interconnect, passive and electromechanical The use of electricity to run moving parts. Disk drives, printers and motors are examples. Electromechanical systems must be designed for the eventual deterioration of moving components that wear over time. The first TVs were electromechanical systems (see video/TV history). (IP&E) components, enterprise network and computer equipment, software and embedded sub-systems. Avnet generated revenue of $9.05 billion in fiscal 2003 (year ended June 27, 2003) through sales in 68 countries. Via its premier market position, Avnet brings a breadth and depth of capabilities, which help its trading partners accelerate growth and realize cost efficiencies. |
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