The Mpumalanga Gaming Board has implemented Lotus Notes and Domino to meet its need for an e-mail and workflow application that will offer enhanced control over legislation, administration and the granting of licences.
According to Jerry Bouwer, IT manager at the Gaming Board, the implementation is a relatively new one. Having only recently opened its doors for business the Board had no real IT systems in place.
"We began looking at developing an in-house system that would cater for our database requirement to record and store employee information, both in text and photographic format. In addition, all correspondence related to companies and their associated employees had to be documented," he says. Bouwer says that the Board also needed an office productivity suite and secure e-mail and Internet access for remote workers.
He reveals that a survey of existing products was conducted, but the search drew to a close following an evaluation of Lotus` collaborative messaging application. "Lotus Notes seemed capable of meeting our most demanding needs - to securely store, access and share document -orientated and forms-based information. We found all these elements in Notes," he says. Notes also has a role to play with Board staff using the collaborative messaging application for e-mail and database replication. "A number of our investigators travel overseas to investigate companies and employees in the gaming industry. The replication feature in Notes has proved to be an invaluable tool when uploading or downloading information either to their laptops or the servers hosting our databases."
ISDN lines may also find a home at the Mpumalanga Gaming Board, primarily to speed up the replication between databases located at the two regional offices in Middelburg and Secunda.
Database Web-enablement is also on the cards. According to George Thomson, MD at Lotus Premium Business Partner, Complete Software Solutions (CSS), the company involved in implementing the project, the intention is to allow licensed clients to use the Internet for all applications to modify or change games or move machines from and to pre authorised locations, as well as access up to date information on legislation. "The Web site will also be used to monitor the location and inventory of gaming machines," he says.
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