Private i: Inside Solutions is an opportunity for IBM i and Power Systems vendors to describe a customer success story involving one of their products. System iNEWS receives no payment from the vendor, and the vendor receives no payment from System iNEWS. Answers are edited for continuity and clarity.
With news that support was ending for IBM Domino Fax for i, Roto-Rooter (rotorooter.com), the largest plumbing and drain-cleaning services provider in North America, needed a new solution fast for faxing documents from Lotus Notes running on its i. It took a tip from IBM and looked at Quadrant Software's (quadrantsoftware.com) FastFax for Domino. After a seamless transition, the new solution is up and running as part of Roto-Rooter's operations, supporting document delivery for its call center users.
Talk about Roto-Rooter.
Founded in 1935, Roto-Rooter is the largest provider of plumbing and drain-cleaning services in North America. Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, Roto-Rooter operates businesses in more than 100 company-owned branches and independent contractor territories and approximately 500 independent franchise operations, serving approximately 90% of the U.S. population and parts of Canada.
What kind of IBM i environment does Roto-Rooter use?
Roto-Rooter has 500-plus users attached to their six IBM i systems. With an IT staff of 25, the company runs four i 520s, one i 525, and one i720, most of which are on 6.1. They have a server in each call center running homegrown software, with the remaining servers in their home office.
One server runs Roto-Rooter’s Lotus Notes system with homegrown applications. They run a Lotus Notes test environment on another. In addition, the company has a partition running disaster recovery, another partition running JD Edwards accounting software, and another System i access for web.
What was the problem Roto-Rooter wanted to solve when it implemented FastFax?
Prior to the implementation of FastFax for Domino, Roto-Rooter depended on IBM Domino Fax for i for its document delivery needs. IBM announced this year that it was removing IBM Domino Fax for i from the market, with support ending in April 2012. Roto-Rooter needed a supported solution for faxing documents from Lotus Notes—something to seamlessly replace IBM Domino Fax for i. IBM recommended Quadrant Software’s FastFax for Domino.
Talk about FastFax for Domino and how it's used by Roto-Rooter.
FastFax for Domino allows users to send, receive, and manage faxes and emails using Lotus Notes. Sending and receiving faxes is as simple as sending and receiving emails, with no additional email software required.
Roto-Rooter's main users of FastFax for Domino are its call center users. They use the solution mostly for commercial customer orders in which document delivery is handled through Lotus Notes and FastFax for Domino.
How did the implementation go?
“The implementation went really smooth; the base of the product and setup were very similar,” says Dave Stall, i5 hardware and operating systems manager for Roto-Rooter. “Our users don’t even know we made the switch. It was seamless for them. The only thing they know is that faxes no longer come in as TIFs … they are PDFs. I have not had one phone call questioning what we had done.”
How has FastFax for Domino been running since it was installed?
“FastFax for Domino has a lot more flexibility than what we used to have and gives us much more control,” says Stall. “We haven’t had to touch the product since we had it up and running. That’s a good thing around here!”
Roto-Rooter is now utilizing the solution's advanced features and tools. “There are a couple of features that Quadrant Software has that we didn’t have in the old software," Stall says. "For example, resending a fax that has problems … it’s easier to get to and see what the problems are. In the old system you could see where it failed, and we’d get hung up on researching what when wrong. Also customizing cover sheets is a lot easier.”
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