How Turtle & Hughes Improved Reporting and Minimized Database Disruption with OpenEdge Pro2

Turtle & Hughes is a fourth-generation, family-owned and woman-owned business and one of the nation’s largest independent electrical distributors. Its expansive portfolio of complex electrical construction projects includes the World Trade Center Reconstruction, New York’s Hudson Yards microgrid, the new LaGuardia Airport and the ongoing LA Metro Expansion. 

The company services customers from two primary divisions. Electrical Distribution provides engineering and procurement of power distribution, automation, lighting/energy projects and industrial infrastructure consulting. Turtle & Hughes Integrated Supply (THIS) provides MRO (maintenance, repair and operating) procurement and storeroom management services via an intuitive digital channel. 

To power its industry-leading customer experience on the backend, Turtle & Hughes uses the Infor SX.e ERP for distributors. However, with more customers relying on the system, Turtle & Hughes realized it needed to improve the availability of its database to keep up with demand and provide better reporting. 

“Database downtime is a major disruption for any business,” said Ajay Kamble, CTO, Turtle & Hughes. “But when your customers’ business depends on your database as well, it goes from disruptive to unacceptable.”

Turtle & Hughes found the answer to this database challenge at an Infor User Group Conference. That’s where Izabella Legocka, Director of IT Applications at Turtle & Hughes, heard about Progress® OpenEdge® Pro2™. 

Infor SX.e is based on the OpenEdge platform. That means the company can use OpenEdge Pro2 to take the data from the production database and replicate it in near real-time to a separate database. Not only does this protect against single points of failure that can lead to unplanned outages, it also enables Turtle & Hughes to run reports without disrupting the production database.

“We didn’t want to use the production database for reporting and all the integrations with other applications,” said Legocka. “We needed something that would alleviate stress from the production database. Pro2 was exactly what we were looking for.”

Turtle & Hughes is now using this replicated data 24/7. Providing a 360-degree view of operations, this data is used to facilitate BI tools like QlikView, CRM applications, supplier exchange applications, invoice processing and other key activities. It also supports customer-facing reporting.

To further improve database management, Turtle & Hughes also took advantage of the Managed Database Administration (MDBA) service from Progress. This service offers round-the-clock comprehensive database expertise straight from Progress.

“We have Progress DBAs across the world watching our database at all times,” said Kate Mankowska, Database Administrator, Turtle & Hughes. “They are there to hold our hand and help us through planned downtime and other events.”

Today’s customers have high expectations for businesses. They demand high levels of service that revolve around their unique needs. This is especially true for Turtle & Hughes, as the company uses its domain expertise to tailor its offerings to the needs of its customers.

As such, Turtle & Hughes is constantly evolving and adapting to market conditions. Progress empowers that agility, offering solutions and services that not only answer technical needs but provide peace of mind. 

With Progress, Turtle & Hughes doesn’t need to worry about downtime or any technology-related “surprises” along the way. Instead, the company can focus on innovating and reducing customer friction to better support customers in today’s fast-moving digital environment.

“The relationship with Progress is great,” Kamble added. “The responsiveness and professionalism—it helps us do what we need to do and focus on serving our customers.”

About Turtle & Hughes

Turtle & Hughes is one of the nation’s largest independent electrical and industrial distributors. With more than 900 employees, it serves the industrial, commercial, utility and contractor markets from 17 locations across the United States. Turtle & Hughes Integrated Supply division (THIS), services Fortune 100 companies operating nationwide, and in Canada, Puerto Rico and Mexico.