Benchmark Demonstrates Applications Can Meet Projected Year-Five Volume for Large Retailer
COLUMBUS, Ohio--Sterling Commerce, a subsidiary of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), announced today the results of high-volume benchmarks conducted for a large, global retailer that set new standards in order management processing performance. In the benchmark, the Sterling Customer Order Management application processed an average of 1.4 million order lines per hour and 1.2 million inventory updates per hour. This represented a projected peak that the retailer expects to reach in five years, but Sterling Commerce software was able to demonstrate that it could handle this volume today.
Brad Day, vice president at Forrester Research, states, “Really pushing the performance benchmark threshold requires running a true application’s specific workload test against the collective piece parts of complete system architecture, including the operating system environment, CPU, memory and I/O aspects of a server system.” (“Demystifying Performance Benchmarks”, February 2, 2007.)
The benchmark measured order lines per hour and inventory updates per hour for 200,000 grocery items and 600,000 merchandise items. The test included a complete end-to-end order process, including creating the order, conducting a fraud check, validating and scheduling the order, confirming shipment, and handling invoicing and payment. The benchmarks were conducted at Sun Microsystems’ Menlo Park lab using a Sun Fire™ E25K server and three Sun Fire E6900s, all running UltraSPARC™ IV+ dual-core processors and the Solaris™ 10 Operating System (OS).
“For 25 years, Sun has been supplying the world’s biggest businesses with IT infrastructure that exceeds the demands of their most imposing business challenges. Hitting the benchmark for one of the world’s biggest retailers is an accomplishment we’re proud to share with Sterling Commerce,” said Bob McGaughey, senior director, Enterprise Servers Systems Marketing Group, at Sun Microsystems. “This further proves that the current portfolio of Sun UltraSPARC servers, running on the Solaris Operating System, can handle the most extreme performance, scalability and availability needs of any business on earth.”
“System scalability and performance are top priorities with many companies looking to replace their first generation order management solutions,” said Steven Aulds, senior vice president of engineering at Sterling Commerce. “Sterling Commerce prides itself on providing software that has been built from the ground up to deliver not only deep functionality to help our customers solve their most complex business problems, but also superior performance by leveraging our business process engine that is specifically tuned for high-volume, online transaction processing environments.”
Sterling Supply Chain Applications Suite is a set of integrated applications that enable the synchronization and coordination of shared business processes for effectively managing demand and supply across an extended network of partners and suppliers. The result is higher customer loyalty and sales, improved partner and supplier relationship management, and lower supply chain costs. Sterling Customer Order Management combines all steps of the order lifecycle - from order capture through order fulfillment - into a single, unified process that encompasses all parties in a customer’s supply chain. It crosses application and enterprise boundaries to provide a central view of fragmented financial, inventory and logistics processes.
About Sterling Commerce
Sterling Commerce, a subsidiary of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), helps 80 percent of the FORTUNE® 500 thrive in a global economy by solving complex business process challenges. The company’s innovative software and services integrate customers’ systems - inside and outside the four walls of the enterprise - so companies can conduct business without borders. Sterling Commerce solutions help customers adopt best practices in e-sales, supply chain execution, payment processing and business-to-business integration. The solutions also give executives and front-line managers greater visibility inside and outside the enterprise in order to improve profitability, reduce costs and minimize risk. Sterling Commerce enables businesses to innovate key processes in real time, while continuing to deploy ERP or transaction system infrastructures. With more than 30,000 customers worldwide, Sterling Commerce has unparalleled experience in retail, consumer packaged goods, manufacturing, financial services, supply chain, logistics, and telecommunications. More information on Sterling Commerce can be found at www.sterlingcommerce.com.
