With US headquarters on Norcross, GA, Mizuno USA, Inc. manufactures and distributes high-quality golf, baseball, softball, running and volleyball equipment, apparel, and footwear. Mizuno’s roots stem from its parent company Mizuno Corporation, established in Osaka, Japan, in 1906 by Rihachi Mizuno. The company’s product development strategy is to create products with features that enhance athlete performance and are unique to Mizuno.
Mizuno USA, Inc. needed a comprehensive systems management software solution that would efficiently deliver services to new divisions within the global company, offer module solutions the company could pick and chose from, manage scheduled jobs, and provide a high level view of systems. After reviewing several solutions, Mizuno purchased Halcyon Operations Center Suite (Level 4), Network Server Suite, and Authority Swapper.
Modern Solutions
“When I was looking to make a change in our systems management technology, I looked to Halcyon. They are an innovative company that builds modern solutions and I was confident that they could fulfill our organizations technology needs," said Butch Nelms, IBM i Operations Manager at Mizuno USA, Inc.
Operations Center Suite, Halcyon’s flagship software suite, provides administrators with advanced job scheduling; system message handling; manual task automation; and performance, disk, and spooled file management, as well as templates to assist with the monitoring of ERP business applications.
Authority Swapper allows users to temporarily swap to a different profile to complete a specific task on their IBM i environment. Network Server Suite centralizes the monitoring and management of Mizuno’s networked servers and SNMP devices.
Modular Solutions
Halcyon provided web-based support for the installation and software training and assisted in transitioning Mizuno from their exisiting solution over to the replacement software from Halcyon. Additionally, Halcyon identified the various ways in which the technology could work and provided Mizuno with the final decision on how the technology should be implemented.
“I enjoy working with Halcyon—they are a first-class act. Their support is tremendous, they produce a high-quality product, they listen to our business needs, and they value our feedback. I truly feel that Halcyon is committed to making our solution work well for our organization. I see Halcyon as a strong partner for Mizuno”, said Nelms.
Mizuno is especially pleased with four features of the technology:
- Enterprise Console provides the IT department with a bird’s eye view of what is going on in each individual system. It enables them to be more productive without having to manage each individual partition.
- Disk Space Manager does an excellent job of collecting data so that the company is better able to manage disk utilization. It’s quick to identify any problems and pinpoint any issues.
- Performance Analyzer looks across a period of time to see how the system is performing and allows Mizuno to make good decisions about capacity planning in the future.
- Halcyon’s Advanced Job Scheduler allows Mizuno to streamline its processes and working practices because each morning it provides a visual overview of all the jobs that have run overnight and it highlights and alerts Mizuno to any failures.
Scalable Solutions
By using Halcyon solutions, Mizuno is able to stay within their current IT budget and also purchase technology that offers added functionality to be more efficient and productive without having to add additional employees. Mizuno estimates that the company has saved $50,000 switching to the Halcyon technology.
After using the technology and finding that it suited their needs, Mizuno purchased the Advanced Reporting Suite, a cross-platform reporting solution, which allows IT administrators to create tailored reports to demonstrate that customer service level agreements are being met.