Leading Medical Supply Distributor Modernizes Applications Through Innovative Mainframe Migration Project

Owens & Minor chooses mainframe migration to Windows over re-write or replacement to reduce costs, enhance customer service, and drive innovation

ROCKVILLE, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Micro Focus® (LSE.MCRO.L), the leading provider of enterprise application modernization, testing and management solutions, today announces that Owens & Minor, Inc. (NYSE: OMI), a leading distributor of medical and surgical supplies, has successfully migrated its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system from a mainframe to a Microsoft Windows environment using Micro Focus’ application migration solutions. The application modernization is expected to reduce IT infrastructure costs; savings that can be reinvested to further enhance Owens & Minor’s superior customer service and to drive innovation.

“This was a complex and mission-critical project, and we are proud of the benefits this successful collaboration brings to Owens & Minor”

The project, which was led by Owens & Minor’s IT services partner Dell Perot Systems, enabled Owens & Minor to modernize its core systems without conducting a costly wholesale ERP replacement project or a complete re-write – options that the company estimates could have cost between $100 million and $200 million. The choice to migrate means that more than 20 years of Owens & Minor data, systems and industry-leading business logic – significant elements of the company’s competitive differentiation – will remain intact.

“We looked at a wide range of enterprise application modernization strategies to improve performance and capabilities of our core systems and migration stood out as the best solution,” said Rick Mears, senior vice president & chief information officer of Owens & Minor. “A key benefit of the migration process was the ability to retain the intellectual property and business rules that have helped us become one of the leading distributors of medical and surgical supplies in the United States. Migration to a Microsoft Windows environment with Micro Focus was a low-risk, high-return way to accomplish our IT and business goals at a fraction of the cost of a re-write or wholesale ERP replacement. This was the ideal strategy for Owens & Minor, our customers and our shareholders.”

The migration will improve capacity and flexibility for business growth while enabling investment in applications designed to modernize and improve the customer experience. Among the first projects Owens & Minor will undertake are streamlining the interfaces used by customer service representatives and developing improved Web-based customer self-service capabilities. As a result, customers are expected to benefit from enhanced service levels and improved response times. The migration also ensures that Owens & Minor has a cost-effective way to add system capacity to meet future business expansion.

“Microsoft and Micro Focus technology enabled Owens & Minor to continue to deliver world-class service to its customers and provides a platform which will support the business critical computing needs of the organization for years to come,” said Bob Ellsworth, Director, Enterprise Platform Modernization at Microsoft.

“Industry leaders like Owens & Minor face a daunting challenge when modernizing their IT infrastructure – especially when IT has played a big part in helping to drive competitive advantage,” said Ken Powell, President, North American Operations at Micro Focus. “The value of modernization with Micro Focus lies not only in the ability to avoid spending millions of dollars on a costly re-write or replacement project, but also in the ability to preserve the processes and business logic that make our customers great. Owens & Minor has created a new IT environment that will serve as a foundation on which they can continue to build their market leadership.”

“This was a complex and mission-critical project, and we are proud of the benefits this successful collaboration brings to Owens & Minor,” said Chuck Lyles, president of Dell Perot Systems Healthcare Group. “The migration establishes a powerful and flexible computing platform to drive future growth and innovation.”

About Micro Focus

Micro Focus, a member of the FTSE 250, provides innovative software that allows companies to dramatically improve the business value of their enterprise applications. Micro Focus Enterprise Application Modernization, Testing and Management software enables customers’ business applications to respond rapidly to market changes and embrace modern architectures with reduced cost and risk. For additional information please visit www.microfocus.com.

About Owens & Minor

Owens & Minor, Inc., (NYSE: OMI) a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, is a leading distributor of national name-brand medical and surgical supplies and a healthcare supply-chain management company. Owens & Minor is also a member of the Russell 2000(R) Index, which measures the performance of the small-cap segment of the U.S. equity universe, as well as the S&P MidCap 400, which includes companies with a market capitalization of $750 million to $3.3 billion that meet certain financial standards. With a diverse product and service offering and distribution centers throughout the United States, the company serves hospitals, integrated healthcare systems, alternate care locations, group purchasing organizations, and the federal government. Owens & Minor provides technology and consulting programs that improve inventory management and streamline logistics across the entire medical supply chain--from origin of product to patient bedside. For news releases, or for more information about Owens & Minor, visit the company Web site at www.owens-minor.com.