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A Model Approach
"We started off by building a map of the business, working with management to determine the key things that we do and how we do them," Harris explains. "Then we looked for solutions available in the marketplace that we might be able to leverage quickly."
One of the first nuts to crack: a new data warehouse to power the company's supply chain. With his experience implementing data warehouses using Oracle, IBM and Teradata databases, Harris knew the area well. At a large enterprise, he had led a similar project that cost eight figures and took 18 months to complete.
With Web services, Harris was able to rapidly pull data from countries around the world -- all running on separate systems -- into the data warehouse. The data warehouse was then connected to SeaTab Software's PivotLink business intelligence solution, an application service hosted at the provider's Bellevue, Wash., data center and based on the company's proprietary database.
That resulted in a thoroughly modern supply chain application front end, served up to thousands of Shaklee's distributors worldwide. This piece took less than four months to deliver. Now Shaklee's distributors can log on and query the data warehouse via any Web-capable device and get instant information on sales, volume, customers and products.
Harris boasts that the system gives Shaklee's distributors more access to more information than any of its competitors. And Shaklee recovered its capital in the first year of data warehouse operation, because Web services made it so quick and inexpensive to deploy.
"We're talking about a six-figure, 120-day-max project to deliver a solution that, not long ago, cost eight figures and took 18 months," Harris says. "For somebody who's been around a long time, those kinds of numbers make you step back and say, 'Where was this 30 years ago?' It's just unbelievable."
One clear indication of the impact of SOA on Shaklee's ability to optimize business processes is the company's performance. In September, Shaklee announced its highest sales level since CEO Barnett assumed leadership of the 50-year-old firm. August sales were nearly 16% higher than July. And sponsoring was up 71% over its amount two years prior.
That's no surprise to SOA evangelists. "SOA isn't about technology," says David Moskowitz, president of Productivity Solutions Inc., a SOA consultancy in Bala Cynwyd, Pa. "Take the software-as-business-service approach, and you're more likely to have success that's actually measurable in terms of business performance."
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