Case Study: Steel Technologies achieves real-time inventory control and streamlined EDI onboarding with Information Builders

Steel Technologies Controls Inventory With WebFOCUS and iWay

Steel Technologies, the eighth-largest steel service center in North America with 24 facilities across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, needed a way to track every pound of steel through a complex supply chain and to combine data from multiple repositories. The company struggled with fragmented reporting, legacy EDI interfaces (hundreds of partner maps), and long delays in responding to changes in forecasts or onboarding new trading partners—challenges that risked tying up capital and disrupting service to automotive, HVAC, appliance and other customers.

Working with Information Builders and partner Champion Solutions Group, Steel Technologies built function-specific data marts using iWay DataMigrator and a standardized EDI middleware with iWay Service Manager, while deploying WebFOCUS, ReportCaster and InfoApps for unified reporting and self-service analytics. The new platform delivered real-time inventory visibility, faster reaction to forecast changes, clearer return-on-working-capital metrics, streamlined onboarding of dozens of trading partners, and lower carrying costs through better inventory control.

Steel Technologies

Jim Honerkamp

Chief Information Officer