UCT boosted user experience and productivity with Ivanti Velocity web-host connectivity

For more than two decades, Ultra Clean Technologies (UCT) has been a trusted partner and supplier of critical subsystems, ultra-high purity cleaning, and analytical services primarily for the semiconductor industry. UCT offers its global customers an integrated outsourced solution for major subassemblies, improved design-to-delivery cycle times, design for manufacturability, prototyping and component manufacturing, and tool chamber parts cleaning and coating, as well as micro-contamination analytical services.

The need to upgrade to a next-generation ERP system

Nitin Miranda is the SAP Project Lead at UCT. He explains that UCT operates under two business units— Semiconductor Products and Solutions (SPS) and Semiconductor Services Business (SSB). Miranda says that UCT had been using a legacy Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system with the Intermec CK75 mobile devices using VB5250 terminal emulation software. These legacy systems were in need of an upgrade to next-generation ERP systems for much more efficient operational processes.

“As part of that exercise about four years ago,” Miranda says, “we selected SAP as our ERP software. Doing so gave us an opportunity to review new mobile devices from Zebra. And these were ultimately chosen due to form and functionality over the existing Intermec devices that we had. In addition, RedLine Solutions was already a trusted supplier to UCT and served as a good advisor to us in this decision.”

RedLine Solutions is a leading systems integrator and supplier specializing in warehouse management, wireless networking, and barcode and radio frequency identification (RFID) data capture and labeling systems. “We’ve been providing customers with robust, cost-effective solutions for over 23 years,” says Adrian Down, director of product management at RedLine. “We have our own in-house software development team that works on our cloud and on-premise-based WMS and traceability solutions, which are installed in customers across North America.”

RedLine recommends Ivanti Velocity web-host connectivity to UCT

According to Miranda, during the conversion from the company’s legacy ERP system to SAP, Nitin’s team employed within SAP what’s known as the ITSmobile or mobile Internet Transaction Server, which is SAP’s way of speaking back and forth with the Zebra mobile devices. “It lets us run applications based on what we say because of the GenPro programming module,” Miranda says.

He adds, “We had some challenges, especially around how we use them on these new devices, because we’re using multiple devices, screen sizes, resolutions, and so on. So these needed to be addressed so that we could get a consistent user experience, avoid system challenges, and enable much easier staff training as we moved across the different warehouses we have.”

“Given these challenges,” Miranda says, “RedLine then recommended Ivanti Velocity, which makes it easy to migrate existing telnet and browser-based web applications to Android devices. RedLine’s team walked us through how the system operation would be set up, the configuration, and the benefits of how screen-rendering and scripting options could address these challenges we had.”

A phased rollout, not a big bang

UCT had been using Intermec CK75 devices. During its ERP journey, it brought in all the latest devices available in the market and had warehouse staff evaluate them. “RedLine actually gave us a bunch of demo units, which we could use in our test environments. And based on the feedback we gathered, we finally shortlisted a few devices from Zebra,” Miranda says. “We conducted a phased rollout, not a big bang, so we could utilize older devices in the other locations, which were still on the legacy ERP system. We started using the Intermec devices in our warehouses, which were running the legacy environment, and got Zebra devices onto the SAP systems.”

He adds, “We’ve been using Ivanti Velocity for more than four years now. This product has given us an excellent tool, especially as UCT grows through acquisitions and as we roll out the solutions through our various sites.”

Web-Host Connectivity Solutions Are Important Matt Eschbach, an Ivanti Territory Manager, says, “It always surprises me when a business takes its mission-critical applications — like managing inventory in a warehouse—and runs them on a consumer-based browser. These browsers are not designed for enterprise applications. In contrast, Ivanti Velocity is a purpose-built industrial browser for mobile web-based applications that helps workers navigate tasks while leveraging the advanced data-capture technologies available in selected mobile devices—and interfaces with all leading systems— including SAP, Oracle and High Jump.”

Miranda concludes: “RedLine and Ivanti gave us excellent resources and very helpful personnel to address all our needs. Bottom line, they’ve been very easy to work with, and we’re very happy with the relationship we have. We are also evaluating additional Ivanti products, such as Avalanche, as we move forward in our SAP journey.”

_{Note: A customer’s results are specific to its total environment/experience, of which Ivanti is a part. Individual results may vary based on each customer’s unique environment.}