AFS Technologies
AFS Technologies is a leading provider of innovative computer solutions to food distributors and processors, and to produce, meat, equipment, tobacco, candy, beverage, and wine and spirits distributors and importers. AFS customers range in size from $5 million to $400 million in sales and include service market leaders such as Pocono Produce in Pennsylvania, City Line Distributors and Slocum and Sons in Connecticut, and Novick Brothers in Philadelphia.
Recognizing a growing customer need for real-time information, AFS recently began creating Web services that use xfServerPlus to access Synergy logic and is now using these to provide customers with a software package that increases accuracy and streamlines inventory management.
“We have two uses for Web services right now,” explains Dan Ellis, development manager for AFS Technologies. “One is to communicate between our Synergy/DE-based software and a warehouse management system written in VB .NET that runs on Symbol handheld barcode scanners. The other is to provide real-time information from the Synergy application via an Internet order entry system written in C# .NET.”
AFS Technologies’ software package tracks inventory, monitors expiration and lot information, and records movement of products through the warehouse. Because the barcode scanners can communicate with the Synergy application in real time, the Synergy application is immediately updated as the barcode scanners collect the product information from the warehouse.
In addition, end-users can log on to the Internet order entry system and quickly view a real-time summary of all available items and corresponding prices, as well as place their orders online.
When asked why AFS Technologies decided to incorporate Web services into their business software package, Ellis’ answer was simple: “The customers needed real-time information, and there really was no other way to get a Synergy application and a non-Synergy application communicating in real time.”
By acting on the growing customer demand for real-time information, Ellis was able to expand AFS development efforts to create an application that easily meets these customer demands.
Ellis is confident that moving to Web services was the right decision. “By using Web services to connect to handheld scanners, we have a whole new software package that we previously would not have been able to provide.”
For more information about AFS Technologies, visit their web site: www.afsi.com
