extol international
Accelerating e-Business Integration with Real-time Visibility

Anthony Baran, CEO, EXTOL International, is an adventure seeker who loves flying his open cockpit biplane over exhilarating locations like the Caribbean Islands. Being a flying expert, Baran is well-aware of the external factors that can affect his flight during unreasonable weather conditions and thunderstorms. Flying well requires a certain amount of precision, steadiness, planning and focus to execute plans speedily. Baran follows the same strategy, stability and preparation for running a successful business like EXTOL International. His farsightedness, focus and successful execution is a reflection of EXTOL’s expertise in providing high speed transformation of messages to achieve integration goals faster.

“The complex nuance of the logistics industry is the speed at which things need to be enabled. Sometimes the common problem arises when changes have to be included in data models, time schedule, order replacement or accommodation processes completely,” narrates Baran. When a non asset logistics provider—who performs functions such as consultation on packing, transportation, freight quoting and financial settlement, receives a contract from large manufacturers for distribution of goods, the problem lies in quickly arranging the space, organizing for transportation and integrating systems on a fast time scale. In order to solve this challenge, EXTOL provides unique solutions that deliver business-critical integration faster—by consolidating functionalities virtually from anything and eliminating latency through efficient project planning.

A farsighted entrepreneur at heart, Baran observed the necessity of introducing a product that would run across multiple platforms to accustom the new trend in logistics industry where several midsized companies switched from the IBM AS400 platform to platforms like the Windows. He also scrutinized that several manufacturers often look for integrating their system with logistics provider’s systems which is not necessarily through EDI. Instead, they look for a more direct connection between their systems.

Another key functionality of the product is the ability to duplicate rules from one product to a different one. This functionality does not require the maps to have the same document syntax. Baran explains that most implementations follow a pattern of copying an existing map and modifying it for the new partner or project.

Staying true to his word, the company’s core product EXTOL EDI Integrator (EEI) is a high-performance native software application that enables end users to simplify business-critical B2B transaction data at a faster rate. EEI’s potential to detect data errors helps in improving trading partner relationships, curbing time spent trouble shooting end-user requests and reducing operational costs. EEI contains EDI specific integration tools and supports a wide range of software applications.

EXTOL provides unique solutions that deliver business-critical integration faster—by consolidating functionalities virtually from anything and eliminating latency through efficient project planning

A multitude of companies, have gained from installing the firms solutions into their environment Burris Logistics, a sophisticated controlled temperature-food distribution company, was facing a time-consuming integration cycle that was eating into the company’s bottom line, since there were 350-500 trading partners and only 25 IT staff members in the company. In order to simplify and accelerate trading partner integration, as well as efficiently manage complex data capture and transfer, Burris then approached Extol International. The customer installed EXTOL’s integration technology advancement, EBI 2.5, a general purpose integration broker suite. This resulted in a major decrease in the time spent for integration process, gaining significant numbers every year.

Forging forward, Baran is determined to provide the best-of-breed solutions in logistics to lead EXTOL’s customers to streamline processes and develop innovative techniques to re-define the logistics industry.