Yarde Metals

Migrated to VoIP with Siemon

Yarde Metals Inc. was founded in 1976 by Craig Yarde, with $1,000 in capital operating out of the basement of his home. A year later Craig partnered with his brothers, Bruce and Mark, and moved the company into a small rented building. Today Yarde Metals is completing construction of a new 500,000 sq. foot facility in Southington, CT supporting branches in Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Its International sales, shipping and processing locations in Long island, NY have poised Yarde Metals for accelerated expansion on the East Coast and overseas.

Drawing from multi-metal inventory centers specializing in aluminum, stainless, carbon steel, copper and brass in a wide range of standard and hard-to-find sizes, Yarde processes and ships over 1800 items per day, operating 24 hours/day utilizing state-of-the-art technology.

The company's success is due, in part, to Craig Yarde's innovative business philosophies and a loyal, motivated team of 500 associates. After 27 years of excellence in the metals industry, annual sales now top $160 million and are still growing despite a down economy and increasing competition.

A HISTORY OF INNOVATION
From humble beginnings in 1976, Yarde metals has grown into an international business with over $160 million in annual sales.

Yarde has been extremely effective in adopting new technology as it became cost-effective over the years, avoiding any "bleeding edge" risks, and as a result has never experienced a major setback as a result of poor technology decisions. "Yarde has always relied on the benefits of past experience when building any new installation", said Dave Pippenger, the newly hired Chief Technical Officer. "Total information awareness is our foremost concern". Historically, Yarde's competitive edge has always ridden squarely in the cost-benefit "saddle" where cost-benefit curves intersect.

Using its own home-grown ERP system, Yarde implemented bar code scanning in 1988 and wrote their own computer telephony integration (CTI) software to interface with their old Rolm phone system to match inbound phone numbers to company name, customer number, and client information — creating one of the first Caller-ID service centers in the industry.

The core business management is based on the MetalTraq ERP, which uses an ISAM (indexed sequential access method) database common in the mainframe world. Implementing a current phase of its strategic plan, Dave Pippenger's team is porting Yarde's existing system to Open Source software such as Perl and the Berkeley DB database — rewriting it as a web application "capable of supporting branch locations regardless of geography, with capacity for integrating many more regional specialties or emerging market opportunities...wherever the next ten years take us," said Dave. Pippenger's experience with large scale server farms stems from his Silicon Valley days during the startup of WebCrawler, the search engine later purchased by Excite, then again by @Home. "We have been around long enough to have a real appreciation of when it's done right."

Already optimized for supplying clients' JIT (Just In Time) demands, Yarde boasts an 92% on-time delivery record. "Fast inventory and rapid order turnaround are key competitive advantages for us," said Dave Pippenger. "Orders placed at 8:30 this morning can be in Cleveland by 11:00 tomorrow morning. Each client, with his own Internet account, can pull up delivery information and even an optical scan of the receiver's signature. But during the past two years we have effectively stretched our existing systems to their limits. We'd like to see fleet tracking in real time."

Critical to all strategic growth at Yarde Metals is infrastructure. In 2002, Yarde Metals acquired a 500,000 square foot former Pratt & Whitney defense facility in Southington, Connecticut. To future-proof this capital investment, Yarde needed a proven network cabling infrastructure that could be efficiently installed, changed, expanded or adapted to the inevitable future bandwidth-hungry applications.

PLANNING
Planning for the new facility began in 2001 with experts from all functional areas including 568Systems and Structured Design Associates. 568Systems, Inc. of Berlin CT, is a Siemon Certified Installer that specializes in the design, installation and service of structured cable systems for data centers and communications networks. Structured Design Associates of Woodbridge, CT specializes in computing infrastructure design and electrical engineering.

For the Yarde Metals facilities located in New Hampshire and North Carolina, and for the new 500,000 square foot headquarter facility in Southington, Connecticut, 568Systems selected and installed a Siemon/CommScope network cabling solution. The new corporate infrastructure, and a "top notch network plan" allowed Yarde Metals to implement widespread use of IP-based cameras and migrate completely to VoIP by June 2003.

"Where once the warehouse ran on a 9.6K data line, we now use streaming video training over 100 mbps drops switched to the desktops," said Dave Pippenger. "With our Cisco 4500 multimedia switch at the heart of our operation, we opted for high grade cabling to as many access point locations as possible."

The Siemon and CommScope Vision^® Ultralink^® solution with a Cat 6 backbone gave Yarde the bandwidth for Voice Over IP today and headroom for the future. "Whether the application is for surveillance, video, data, VCRs or live Power Point presentations, the rewards of our investment will pay off tenfold," said Pippinger.

"The Yarde Metals people are highly regarded as visionaries and entrepreneurs. They are extremely advanced in their views and implementation of IT systems as compared to most other companies," said Richard Chasse, RCDD, President and Owner of 568Systems, Inc. "It's a pleasure to work with such a sharp IT department. They are doing things that many other well-established organizations haven't even thought of yet."

INSTALLATION
"We were conscious of esthetics as well as functionality," said Mark Laber, an MIS analyst at Yarde for nearly ten years. " Not only did the data center have raised flooring for better ventilation, but it also hid 876 wires to closets." Office space comprises 50,000 of the facility's half million square feet and includes expanses of open ceilings. "Exposed cable trays span the ceilings like railroad tracks carrying the blue CommScope cabling down through conduits into the wall, " said Laber. "Each cable is laid down neatly, strands tight, together. A very neat job."

The other 450,000 square feet is warehouse, manufacturing and storage space. "These areas are wired with Siemon MAX^® jacks, whose design seals off elements to protect them from dust, humidity and other less-than optimal environmental conditions," said Laber. "They are perfect for the conditions - which can be dirty and unsafe when jacks are not in use." Yarde continues to design future contingencies for additional wiring closets.

Siemon patch cords interconnect wall jacks to Cisco phones and computer hardware, while thousands of Siemon patch cords of different lengths interconnect network elements throughout the building. Over 150 new phone extensions running VoIP were activated several weeks before cutover.

The entire installation was independently tested by 568Systems, ensuring compliance in all ANSI/TIA/EIA-568B performance specifications for both fiber and copper, and was submitted for Siemon's strict certification. After reviewing the entire test package, Siemon issued its certification for Yarde's 20-year warranty. "Of all the cabling systems we install," said Richard Chasse, "Siemon is the strictest of all companies when certifying installations for warranty."

The new system consists of a new state of the art Data Center, two remote telecom rooms, and cable tray system. Also included are 876 Cat 5e cables, 216 Cat 6 cables, 160 strands of multimode fiber, 450 pairs of copper feeds, thirteen 19-inch racks, 8 cabinets, and RG6 and RG11 coax cable.

With hundred-pair telco feeds terminating in punch-down blocks, 568Systems patched each trunk location through a half-inch concentration cable under the floor to Siemon racks. Siemon patches made the entire configuration modular while eliminating any need for punch-down tools or screwdrivers. Electrical followed a similar documentation system, with all connections, labels, and drawings mounted with the equipment. Dual Redundant 40 kVa UPS plus general backup support all power contingencies. Remote power reboot server technology allows electrical troubleshooters to dial in, reboot and monitor from any internetconnected computer.

CUTOVER
Two major milestones of success came in the last week of May 2003, during the weekend cutover from Yarde's old Southington offices to the new facility, followed closely by cutover of the old Bristol, CT headquarters the following weekend. The biggest test of the system came in the first week when arriving Southington users depended upon the new cabling infrastructure.

Yarde's definitive IT document was a 15-page spreadsheet detailing all hardware components with old and new office locations and cable jack numbers. Prior to the move, 568Systems had pre-patched Cisco switches to locations on Siemon racks. Siemon jacks were already live when user equipment arrived as monitors, keyboards, mice and cords came out of plastic zippered bags labeled with stickers for each desk location.

"On Friday afternoon, (June 6, 2003) we moved the main database server to the new facility," said Dave Pippenger. "We reengineered the network to facilitate the move, converting the old database server onto its own branch, renumbering the network, and converting all terminals from static to dynamic. A combined effort among Yarde's MIS and other departments coordinated the cutover to the new Data Center, utilizing the user-friendly documentation and cable management scheme implemented by 568Systems, which allowed us to complete the cutover in a smooth and orderly fashion, by 8 p.m., that evening. "The entire cutover was performed smoothly within eight hours. "There was plenty of time left for double-checking our work," said Laber, "We even had time to celebrate."

On Monday, Yarde's Southington headquarters was back to full operations with its seven remote locations, and its 500-plus employees covering multiple shifts.

MULTIVENDOR MULTIMEDIA
Yarde's external telecommunications interface is as original as its business philosophy. Spreading risk among multiple carriers is nothing new, but Yarde has taken it a step further, using the (Cox) cable television carrier's broadband for digital video, local telephone and Internet DSL service. Cox had no precedent for such a billing configuration, more similar to a hotel than an industrial site. To reduce monthly recurring CATV costs, Yarde purchased its own distribution amplifier. 568Systems configured, installed and balanced the interior coaxial plant for traditional cable reception in eleven areas of the building.

Yarde uses a number of common carriers for its diverse telecom services. Yarde's branch locations employ MCI T-1 lines for voice, frame relay and Internet, with local telco services from SBC and Verizon. In the Southington headquarters, two MCI T-1's mesh together inbound 800 service and direct inward dialing (DID) for up to 300 of Yarde's individual phone numbers.

As its new business efficiencies began to take effect, Yarde's new Cisco ICS Integrated Communications System 7750 was handling over 2500 calls per day, with 30 or more lines in use at any one time. In August 2003, to increase customer service levels, Yarde implemented automatic call distribution (ACD) for routing of incoming calls. Clients, when put on hold, know their exact place in the queue, and have choices to hold, leave a message or transfer to a human operator.

With over 300,000 feet of CommScope Category 5, 6 and fiber terminated and managed with Siemon's components, this strategic infrastructure project completes a key element toward repositioning Yarde for further success in the global marketplace.