Imprimerie Nationale, leading French printer for government and business, has set up a unified multimedia editorial computer system on the Paris site, combining traditional printing methods and digital data services.
This service, the DIEG, called upon the combined skills of Software AG and Siemens Nixdorf to help with the migration to a Unix system to allow improvement of services, including access to the Internet.
Imprimerie Nationale relies on ultramodern industrial equipment, enabling it to integrate the most up-to-date techniques for print creation, production and circulation, as well as observe confidentiality and legal provisions. This has helped make Imprimerie Nationale one of the leading European contractors for large editorial projects, yearbooks, codes, databases and documentary systems.
Supporting the national printer`s work is a computing system based on enterprise systems software, such as Adabas, Natural and Entire Net-Work from Software AG, and hardware from Siemens Nixdorf.
Imprimerie Nationale decided to transfer its Siemens proprietary application on a mainframe with Adabas database management to a new open Unix environment. With the idea of reducing IT costs while improving performance, Imprimerie Nationale approached long-term partner SNI, as well as other hardware vendors, deciding on the SNI RM 400 server for Unix.
"Our decision was based on three reasons: the system chosen is economically advantageous, with lower software and technology costs; its performance is better; and it is technologically more advanced than its predecessor. Moreover, its configuration corresponds perfectly to the requirements of our site", explains Daniel Maingault, head of the editorial and graphic IT department at Imprimerie Nationale.
SNI provided the hardware equipment and Software AG was responsible for the migration of software. In just a few months, the data had been transferred, the Adabas and Natural programs migrated and testing carried out. Software AG provided assistance during the migration phase
"This successful operation is an example of Software AG`s increasing interest in migration - it provides the perfect answer to the growing requirements of companies developing gradually from a centralised computer system to support architectures concerning their decision centres. The client-server approach, which constitutes one of Software AG`s assets, provides an adequate answer to this," says Souheil Chami, the engineer in charge of Software AG`s operation.
Beyond issues relating purely to migration, the project also included providing interfacing and remote connections to external computing sources, particularly important in the applications and links with two of Imprimerie Nationale`s target customers - the French Ministries of Finance and Foreign Affairs.
Now, response times are clearly faster, and will be speeded up even further in the medium term thanks to new functions provided by Adabas.
Following this, Imprimerie Nationale made a final decision to migrate fully to Unix. The shift forward began with practical applications aimed to give Imprimerie Nationale a competitive advantage: the possibility of connecting remote laptops, making it possible to consult message services or information or to connect up with Telnet (Unix and BS 2000 screen emulation), FTP (remote data exchange), and particularly the Internet.
"The successful migration has enabled us to avoid the necessary increase in memory and power of the old equipment, which would have been much more expensive," says Imprimerie Nationale`s Maingault. "The choice we have made, of equipment and systems, has confirmed that our prediction was correct, in terms of savings, performance and technological progress."
With three centuries of experience, Imprimerie Nationale is the leading French printer for the government and business. It`s three locations - in Paris, Douai and Bondoufle - include nine rotary presses offering a wide range of printing works: yearbooks (45 million volumes per year), periodicals, administrative, and commercial documents, and art books (Imprimerie Nationale Editions).
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