Strategic
Business Systems delivers e-commerce Web site
for Mikasa with LANSA for the Web in just five
weeks.
Ramsey,
New Jersey, January 31, 2000. Mikasa Inc.,
the worldwide leader in elegant dinnerware,
crystal stemware and decorative accessories,
had a successful proof-of-concept during the
busy Christmas season. Strategic Business Systems
used LANSA for the Web to deliver a Web based
proof-of-concept storefront to Mikasa in just
five weeks.
Raymond
Dingman, President and Chief Executive Officer
of Mikasa Inc., says, "Our biggest asset is
our brand. We are selling a product that should
add joy and beauty to your home and we wanted
the same look-and-feel of casual elegance on
our Web site. We felt that if we wanted to have
a real test, we should go live during the busiest
time of the year. We also wanted to test our
internal capabilities in terms of customer service,
operations and other issues. Strategic successfully
delivered a working and attractive entry-level
e-commerce Web site within the aggressive time
schedule required."
Strategic
used the LANSA for the Web "Plants for You"
demonstration system as the initial framework
for the site. The important thing was that customers
could place orders online. Mikasa was looking
for a proof-of-concept that could grow as the
site grows and could be extended to include
automated order processing and full integration
with Mikasa's existing AS/400 systems.
"LANSA
was the only way we could deliver the store
application in the time frame that was required,"
explains John Muoio, Technical Products Manager
at Strategic Business Systems. "Heavy demands
were placed on our project team and they came
through with a great deliverable. I have a great
deal of respect for our development staff and
the LANSA tool we used to get the job done."
Henry
Bernal, Vice President Information Systems
at Mikasa, says "Strategic has been able to
put a very attractive and stable application
in front of us, without any bugs and without
any difficulties. Whenever we asked them for
a change in the application, they did that very
quickly. We haven't done any coding ourselves
yet, but judging from the end result, LANSA
must be a very good product."
John
Muoio of Strategic agrees, "We have delivered
many Web browser-based applications to clients
using LANSA. Mikasa is just one more example
of what you can accomplish in a very short time
frame, if you use the right tool. Whether it's
business-to-business or business-to-consumer,
the tool we depend on to provide these solutions
is LANSA. LANSA combined with an IBM AS/400
server is the most dependable and productive
Internet platform I’ve seen."
Raymond
Dingman concludes, "I absolutely consider the
proof-of-concept a success. We certainly have
confidence to go forward. Even though we established
this retail site with the end consumer in mind,
we also had inquiries leading to business development
opportunities all over the world."
Mikasa
Inc., an American company headquartered in New
Jersey, is a leader in the design, development
and marketing of quality tabletop products and
accessories for the home. Mikasa products can
be bought from over 6000 retail accounts worldwide,
including 158 company owned and operated stores
in the US and Canada. Mikasa employs approximately
3,500 staff and is listed on the New York Stock
Exchange. 1998 revenue was 410.6 million US
dollars. For more information and online shopping
visit Mikasa at www.mikasa.com.
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