Magnum Logistics

Tracking System, Intranet Development & Executive Summary Reports

Magnum initially began working with Ignus in August of 2003 to augment their in-house IT staff on various projects. Ignus was initially chosen because of our extensive experience with Linux.

As our working relationship grew, Magnum came to rely on Ignus for our wide range of expertise in areas such as: web design, MySQL database servers, PHP and Perl programming, business informatics and reporting, and Novell Groupwise and eDirectory. Ignus has completed numerous projects for Magnum, including:

1. Redesigning the Magnum corporate web site at www.magnumlog.com.

2. Creating a client portal where clients can track the status of shipments sent using Magnum’s services at my.magnumlog.com. This portal is password protected and ties directly into the proprietary operations software used by Magnum.

3. Creating business informatics reporting across all divisions of Magnum companies. These reports have enabled Magnum staff to shave days off information gathering processes.

In one case, new reports created by Ignus have eliminated the need for 80 person-hours each month from Magnum’s accounting department.

In another case, reports that managers need on a weekly basis have been reduced from a three hour process to under 5 minutes.

In all cases the accuracy of the information available to Magnum for use in making critical business decisions greatly increased. Ignus found many issues with the underlying data and previous software processes that would have gone undetected had it not been found by us.

4. Assisting with the establishment of a redundant data center in Magnum’s Blaine, MN, location. This data center synchronizes data with the headquarters servers continuously and can serve as the backup source of network data and services in the event that the primary server room in Fargo, ND, is taken off-line whether intentionally or due to a disaster of some kind.

5. Migration of the central corporate operations information off an aging database platform that was suffering from database corruption and lost data and onto a modern platform using the MySQL database system, hosted on Linux. Magnum estimates this project saved them between $500,000 to $1 million vs the alternative solution.

6. Implementing a new email and messaging system based on Novell Groupwise.

Future projects may include a company-wide intranet system, an improved HR applicant tracking system, a single-sign-on solution using Novell eDirectory to allow users to access all company network resources with just one username and password, and a new highly-automated EDI solution to replace the current, resource intensive, EDI system.