INFRASTRUCTUREGrainger Reduces Network Expenses While Boosting Availability

From Left to Right:Harold Cabahug, Network Engineer, GraingerTom Lessing, Director of Technology Services, GraingerGlenn Allison, Manager of Network Services, Grainger

Volume 1-1, Sponsored by Infoblox

1Grainger IT Ahead of the CurveHow does Grainger, a distributor of facilities maintenance supplies with an average invoice price of just more than $200 per transaction, reach nearly $7 billion per year in revenue? One way is through technology solutions that can handle 120,000 complex business-to-business transactions daily and a flexible technology infrastructure which integrates different parts of the business, and supports the company’s multi-channel strategy.

Along the way, it hasn’t hurt that Grainger has long been an early technology adopter in a number of areas, including the Internet, electronic data interchange and the electronic availability of its vast catalog of products. Broad access to an extensive catalog of industrial products is essential to their service offering to customers. Technology plays an essential role in helping customers efficiently source maintenance, repair and operating products.

Grainger was ahead of the curve in recognizing the link between core network services and the impact they have on the availability, flexibility, and cost of operating the network. In 2002, the company selected Infoblox to replace a less powerful core network service automation solution resulting in 50 percent reductions in both capital and operating expenses. In addition, the lower maintenance costs of both hardware and software enabled Grainger to reduce the operational support for its network services by 50 percent.

Keeping the Network Strategic to the BusinessThe Grainger team built an advanced, distributed VoIP contact center in 2004 at over 450 locations, and launched one of the world’s largest “big bang” SAP deployments two years later. Grainger expanded their network investments in 2006 with advanced

real-time clustering across redundant data centers, as well as expanding capacity for eCommerce in 2008. The eCommerce deployment (Grainger.com) was the first transaction-capable website in the industry and facilitated over $1 billion in annual eCommerce sales in 2008.

In 2008, Grainger established wireless and rapid deploy networking kits in vehicles to not only enable faster customer response in emergencies, but to re-affirm its commitment to the communities in which it operates.

By embracing innovative technologies that align with business goals and improve the company’s operating performance, Grainger's IT organization has become a strategic asset to the company that had a record year in 2008.

The Infoblox Payoff for Core Network Services 50% reduction in capital and operating expenses

IP management costs 60% below industry average

Greatly improved flexibility and responsiveness

Availability increased to 99.99%

For more information about how Infoblox can help your team to drive costs out of your network while boosting productivity you can call us at 1-866-463-6256 or email us at info@infoblox.com. You can also visit our website at www.infoblox.com.

Technology at GraingerEstablished in 1927, Grainger, which has operations in Asia as well as North America, is a leading broad-line supplier of facilities maintenance products throughout North America. Grainger provides almost two million businesses and institutions with the tools and supplies they need to maintain, repair and operate facilities.

The company’s investments in technology have generally fallen into two categories: infrastructure and customer facing/go-to-market solutions.

Infrastructure investments have enabled the company to deliver on customers needs effectively and efficiently. Infoblox, for instance, has helped Grainger increase availabil-ity and reduce network cost while dynamically addressing the unique and on-going needs of customers, suppliers and employees.

Prior to Infoblox, Grainger experienced several network outages causing increased effort for employees to service customers. With Infoblox, availability has improved to more

than 99.99%, including scheduled mainte-nance periods, and has helped improve system reliability.

Technology also drives more intimacy with customers’ purchasing processes. Through customer facing solutions such as Grainger.com, EDI, eProcurement and inventory solutions, Grainger has been able to lower its cost-to-serve ratio, while generating larger orders.

While open to new technologies, Grainger is not prone to dabbling in the “next new thing.” Rather, the company uses a highly disciplined, data-driven process that uses detailed statistics, sophisticated risk

modeling and rigorous business needs analysis to justify the introduction of new IT systems.

The net result is probably one of today’s most strategic, available, flexible and economical enterprise network infrastructures. Its ability to keep operational costs low has also enabled Grainger to pass along savings to its customers.

And when it comes to automating once labor-intensive core network services (including Domain Name System (DNS), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and IP Address Management (IPAM) processes), Grainger has taken advantage of Infoblox appliances to provide flexibility and real-time visibility into the enterprise-wide status of the network.

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“Infoblox helps our network keep up with business demands by making it more dynamic and more available.” Glenn Allison Manager of Network Services

Grainger Network Team(From left to right)

Harold Cabahug, Harold Heather,Glenn Allison, Keyur Desai

and Don Walsh

Infrastructure 2.0 at GraingerGrainger employs 18,000 people, has more than 600 branches, 18 distribution centers and multiple websites, as well as numerous data centers. With that in mind, the company has maintained an intense focus on system availability through an architecture which aligns technology investment with business volume and accounts for the risks associated with mobile and remote workers. Branch network technology design and redundancy, for example, are closely aligned to branch revenue, establishing a tier-based approach, which is closely tied to profit and loss. That tight relationship between investments and revenue helps Grainger to maximize its return on investment.

Speed of order fulfillment is critical to Grainger success as its customers often depend upon Grainger whether in times of normal business operation or in the wake of a natural or man-made disaster. This makes system availability of paramount importance and is a vital reason why Grainger has made the network strategic to its business. And that vision of a strategic, dynamic infrastructure has paid off in many ways. Without core network services, essentially all of Grainger's internal and customer-facing applications come to a

halt. Automating core network services allows Grainger to make needed changes with minimal operations expense and reduced risk. In order to manage core network service automation, Grainger depends upon a best-practices architecture of Infoblox appliances, distributed over multiple data centers and call centers, serving more than 65,000 endpoints.

With built-in Infoblox IP address manage-ment, network status and changes are tracked and updated in real-time, dramatically reducing the manual labor typically required to keep the network both highly available and

flexible. In addition to increasing availability, the system also offers tremendous cost benefits. A recent survey in a leading technology publication indicated that, with manual processes and commonly used tools (like spreadsheets), the costs to manage every IP address in a network grows as the network grows. The survey indicated

that larger enterprises pay an average of about $10 per IP address per year for address management. Grainger pays substantially less, under $4 per IP address.

By automating labor-intensive and error-prone processes, Grainger has lowered operating expenses and further reduced downtime, which translates into benefits for its customers looking for access to product solutions. And by implementing an Infoblox Grid, the company has achieved tremendous flexibility, enabling them to easily modify their infrastructure, dynamically responding to a broad spectrum of customer needs that range from natural disasters to software upgrades and security threats.

© 2009 Infoblox Inc. All rights reserved. Photos by Maday Photography, art direction by Domani Studios.

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“The foundation for Grainger's success has always been its people. We develop solutions and processes around the needs of our customers' by hiring passionate talent, leveraging a diverse leadership team, providing rigorous training and partnering with world class partners - all with an emphasis on maintaining a LEAN culture. Combining the right technology with a high impact team has been a recipe for success.”

Thomas Lessing Director of Technical Services