Grainger Reduces Network Expenses While Boosting Availability - Network World Case Study

1. INFRASTRUCTURE
Grainger Reduces Network Expenses
While Boosting Availability
From Left to Right:
Harold Cabahug, Network Engineer, Grainger
Tom Lessing, Director of Technology Services, Grainger
Glenn Allison, Manager of Network Services, Grainger
Volume 1-1, Sponsored by Infoblox

2. 1
Grainger IT Ahead of the Curve
How does Grainger, a distributor of facilities maintenance supplies with an average invoice
price of just more than $200 per transaction, reach nearly $7 billion per year in revenue? One
way is through technology solutions that can handle 120,000 complex business-to-business
transactions daily and a flexible technology infrastructure which integrates different parts of
the business, and supports the company’s multi-channel strategy.
Along the way, it hasn’t hurt that Grainger has long been an early technology adopter in a
number of areas, including the Internet, electronic data interchange and the electronic
availability of its vast catalog of products. Broad access to an extensive catalog of industrial
products is essential to their service offering to customers. Technology plays an essential
role in helping customers efficiently source maintenance, repair and operating products.
Grainger was ahead of the curve in recognizing the link between core network services
and the impact they have on the availability, flexibility, and cost of operating the network.
In 2002, the company selected Infoblox to replace a less powerful core network service
automation solution resulting in 50 percent reductions in both capital and operating expenses.
In addition, the lower maintenance costs of both hardware and software enabled Grainger to
reduce the operational support for its network services by 50 percent.
Keeping the Network Strategic to the Business
The Grainger team built an advanced, distributed VoIP contact center in 2004 at over
450 locations, and launched one of the world’s largest “big bang” SAP deployments
two years later. Grainger expanded their network investments in 2006 with advanced
real-time clustering across redundant data centers, as
well as expanding capacity for eCommerce in 2008.
The eCommerce deployment (Grainger.com) was the
first transaction-capable website in the industry and
facilitated over $1 billion in annual eCommerce
sales in 2008.
In 2008, Grainger established wireless and rapid
deploy networking kits in vehicles to not only enable
faster customer response in emergencies, but to
re-affirm its commitment to the communities in which
it operates.
By embracing innovative technologies that align with
business goals and improve the company’s operating
performance, Grainger's IT organization has become
a strategic asset to the company that had a record year
in 2008.
The Infoblox Payoff for
Core Network Services
50% reduction in capital and
operating expenses
IP management costs 60% below
industry average
Greatly improved flexibility
and responsiveness
Availability increased to 99.99%
For more information about how Infoblox can help
your team to drive costs out of your network while
boosting productivity you can call us at 1-866-463-
6256 or email us at info@infoblox.com. You can
also visit our website at www.infoblox.com.

3. Technology at Grainger
Established in 1927, Grainger, which has operations in Asia as well as North America,
is a leading broad-line supplier of facilities maintenance products throughout North
America. Grainger provides almost two million businesses and institutions with the
tools and supplies they need to maintain, repair and operate facilities.
The company’s investments in technology have generally fallen into two categories:
infrastructure and customer facing/go-to-market solutions.
Infrastructure investments have enabled the company to deliver on customers needs
effectively and efficiently. Infoblox, for instance, has helped Grainger increase availabil-
ity and reduce network cost while dynamically addressing the unique and on-going needs
of customers, suppliers and employees.
Prior to Infoblox, Grainger experienced several network outages causing increased effort
for employees to service customers. With Infoblox, availability has improved to more
than 99.99%, including scheduled mainte-
nance periods, and has helped improve
system reliability.
Technology also drives more intimacy with
customers’ purchasing processes. Through
customer facing solutions such as
Grainger.com, EDI, eProcurement and
inventory solutions, Grainger has been able
to lower its cost-to-serve ratio, while
generating larger orders.
While open to new technologies, Grainger
is not prone to dabbling in the “next new
thing.” Rather, the company uses a highly
disciplined, data-driven process that uses
detailed statistics, sophisticated risk
modeling and rigorous business needs analysis to
justify the introduction of new IT systems.
The net result is probably one of today’s most strategic,
available, flexible and economical enterprise network
infrastructures. Its ability to keep operational costs
low has also enabled Grainger to pass along savings
to its customers.
And when it comes to automating once labor-intensive core network services (including
Domain Name System (DNS), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and IP
Address Management (IPAM) processes), Grainger has taken advantage of Infoblox
appliances to provide flexibility and real-time visibility into the enterprise-wide status
of the network.
2
“Infoblox helps our network keep up with
business demands by making it more
dynamic and more available.”
Glenn Allison
Manager of Network Services
Grainger Network Team
(From left to right)
Harold Cabahug, Harold Heather,
Glenn Allison, Keyur Desai
and Don Walsh

4. Infrastructure 2.0 at Grainger
Grainger employs 18,000 people, has more than 600 branches, 18 distribution centers and
multiple websites, as well as numerous data centers. With that in mind, the company has
maintained an intense focus on system availability through an architecture which aligns
technology investment with business volume and accounts for the risks associated with
mobile and remote workers. Branch network technology design and redundancy, for
example, are closely aligned to branch revenue, establishing a tier-based approach, which
is closely tied to profit and loss. That tight relationship between investments and revenue
helps Grainger to maximize its return on investment.
Speed of order fulfillment is critical to Grainger success as its customers often depend
upon Grainger whether in times of normal business operation or in the wake of a natural
or man-made disaster. This makes system availability of paramount importance and is a
vital reason why Grainger has made the network strategic to its business. And that vision
of a strategic, dynamic infrastructure has paid off in many ways. Without core network
services, essentially all of Grainger's internal and customer-facing applications come to a
halt. Automating core network services
allows Grainger to make needed changes
with minimal operations expense and reduced
risk. In order to manage core network service
automation, Grainger depends upon a
best-practices architecture of Infoblox
appliances, distributed over multiple data
centers and call centers, serving more than
65,000 endpoints.
With built-in Infoblox IP address manage-
ment, network status and changes are tracked
and updated in real-time, dramatically
reducing the manual labor typically required
to keep the network both highly available and
flexible. In addition to
increasing availability, the
system also offers tremendous
cost benefits. A recent survey
in a leading technology
publication indicated that,
with manual processes and
commonly used tools (like
spreadsheets), the costs to
manage every IP address in a
network grows as the network
grows. The survey indicated
that larger enterprises pay an average of about $10 per IP address per year for address
management. Grainger pays substantially less, under $4 per IP address.
By automating labor-intensive and error-prone processes, Grainger has lowered operating
expenses and further reduced downtime, which translates into benefits for its customers
looking for access to product solutions. And by implementing an Infoblox Grid, the
company has achieved tremendous flexibility, enabling them to easily modify their
infrastructure, dynamically responding to a broad spectrum of customer needs that range
from natural disasters to software upgrades and security threats.
© 2009 Infoblox Inc. All rights reserved. Photos by Maday Photography, art direction by Domani Studios.
3
“The foundation for Grainger's success
has always been its people. We develop
solutions and processes around the needs
of our customers' by hiring passionate
talent, leveraging a diverse leadership
team, providing rigorous training and
partnering with world class partners -
all with an emphasis on maintaining a
LEAN culture. Combining the right
technology with a high impact team has
been a recipe for success.”
Thomas Lessing
Director of Technical Services