"There's no margin for error when you are delivering life saving medicines or time sensitive negotiable instruments. UniVision and WebWizard from Via are the edge we use to beat the clock."

J.D. Gamble, President, American Eagle

To keep an edge in the crowded courier business, your product isn't really packages; it's to be on time without fail.

Around the clock deliveries require exact timing

American Eagle is a courier company serving the East Coast, whose specialty is packages, small boxes and envelopes for customers such as hospitals, who receive medicines from pharmaceutical companies, and financial institutions, who must get checks and other negotiable items for payment. Headquartered in suburban Philadelphia, American Eagle's 325 drivers each make 35 stops a week around the clock.

"Selling a time sensitive service means no margin for error", states American Eagle president J.D. Gamble. "We began in 1982, right at the time the MultiValue market was dominating database software, led by Dick Pick. Our business model maximized what computers could do best---- order entry, customer service, tracking and reporting in a distributed environment.

"What goes around comes around"

By the mid 1990's, American Eagle had tried several software and hardware solutions, in the end relying upon a maze of homegrown software programs to run their business. They initially turned to their hardware provider for help to support these critical applications, but all they heard was the sound of silence. The company then migrated to Informix in 1999, just before IBM acquired it. Informix and IBM told American Eagle there would be no problem to modify its software and get new and improved applications working. "Nine months passed, three times longer than promised, and still no completion in sight," remembers Gamble.

Enter Via Systems and UniVision

Via President Bob Catalano had been one of the original designers of the American Eagle application. When Catalano paid a visit, and described the advantages of the full range of Via products, Gamble was sure that he'd finally found a solution provider who could really deliver. Last summer, Eagle migrated to UniVision, "and what had taken months to do with the other vendors, Via accomplished in weeks".

American Eagle runs UniVision 8.0 and Red Hat's Linux 7.3, with Via's WebWizard as the interface for drivers and employees to see the full activity schedule on the internet, "a solution that gives our people more real time data than either UPS or Federal Express", he says. And thanks to the stability of the UniVision/Red Hat platform, and the automated disaster recovery software provided by Via Systems, Gamble knows Eagle is now in a position to keep running non-stop .

Via gives Eagle end to end control of its business

The Via solution gives Eagle end-to-end control of its business operations. The Dispatcher sends out specifications to drivers, "which can be as exact as how to reach the mailroom or the boardroom," says Gamble. After delivery, the driver uses a laptop to verify the handoff, its time and other details of the transaction. The Via system then produces an invoice to the customer whose final tally is directly tied to the terms, timing and signoff. "This means no billing mistakes can occur. The Via capability also enables us to update and track our activities by the hour, a huge edge in a business where time is the measurement of success, " Gamble states. "On top of that, the UniVision database, the WebWizard web interface, and ViaDuct terminal emulators let us have a whole host of capabilities - and performance - we did not enjoy before."

Eagle is counting on Via's family of solutions to help them keep flying right .