In a deal worth in excess of R5 million, the Department of Land Affairs has upgraded its head office and regional networks.
n-Time, part of the MB Worksoft group of companies (the software and services arm of JSE-listed MB Technologies), recently migrated the existing network from Novell GroupWise 4.1 to GroupWise 5.5. The network integrator competed the installation of more than 25 sites in a just over a week.
Guy Venter, MD of n-Time attributes the success and speed of the project to the combined efforts of his company and the staff of Land Affairs. "Some months before the scheduled dates, the Department set up a test lab at its head office to pioneer the roll-out. This comprehensive planning and testing was crucial to the project`s success, proving that good management is not exclusive to the private sector." "In addition," he continues, "the existing WAN was unevenly implemented across the country - a result of rapid growth in the Department. This had to be standardised before the roll-out could take place."
According to Gerald O` Sullivan, the Department`s IT director, the decision to migrate the network from GroupWise 4.1 to 5.5 was based on several existing issues. "By staying with a Novell product, we avoided having to implement an entirely new infrastructure. This also meant saving time on any Y2K issues, as well as keeping training and costs to a minimum."
Peter Harms, network manager at the Department, continues: "The upgrade also brought with it the much-needed functionality to improve the efficiency of the day-to-day running of the business and to improve existing work flow processes. Remote offices now have e-mail functionality which was not available previously. In addition, the roll-out has enabled the Department to focus more effectively on its main objective - land reform."
Richard Beytagh, MD of Novell South Africa, says the time taken to complete the roll-out is evidence of the good planning and commitment on the Department`s part, and of the services and skills offered by n-Time. "Novell, via n-Time, delivers a high standard of technical support and access to a comprehensive knowledge base".
The next step, according to O` Sullivan, will be the roll-out of a management software and operating system upgrade. "At this point," he says, "we are looking at a scheduled date of August 1999 to roll-out Novell NetWare 5, ManageWise and ZenWorks. This will lay the foundation for future business applications and give us total network support and co-ordination from our central help desk."
GroupWise from Novell simplifies communications by providing single access point for all types of messages, calendar information, and documents. The software supports LDAP, IMAP4, and POP3, and includes a Java- and HTML 3.2-enabled version of WebAccess. In addition, GroupWise 5.5 includes WebPublisher, a document management tool that enables users to publish documents to the Internet and intranet. GroupWise 5.5 runs on Windows NT 4.0, 95, 98, 3.1, UNIX, and Mac OS platforms. The 5.5 administrator is integrated with the 32-bit NetWare administrator utility, which enables easy installation of the GroupWise messaging system. WorkFlow Professional is a workflow automation software that delivers comprehensive tools for designing and managing project workflows. It operates within GroupWise 5.5, providing graphical symbols that represent actions and participants in a workflow. The symbols are used to design a workflow for a project, and automate the assignment of project tasks.
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