Computer Associates International, Inc (CA) today announced that the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) has implemented its acclaimed Unicenter solutions to ensure the availability and performance of its critical online services.
By deploying Unicenter, DOHMH is successfully optimising the impact of its e-government initiatives while reducing its ongoing cost of technology ownership.
DOHMH is responsible for promoting the health of nearly nine million New Yorkers citywide. Employing 6 000 staff across 50 locations, the agency delivers a wide array of services, including disease control and outbreak surveillance, poison control and prevention, environmental investigation, day care and restaurant inspection, and children`s immunisation and school health programmes. DOHMH has consistently leveraged information technologies to fulfil these diverse mandates.
In response to the events of 9/11/01 and the continued demands for more extensive and sophisticated information services, DOHMH recently significantly upgraded and re-architect its data communications infrastructure.
"The appetite for access to online services is growing unabated," said Edward Carubis, CIO, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. "To satisfy and harness the public`s interest, DOHMH must increasingly leverage the Internet and provide greater information transparency."
A prime example of DOHMH`s Internet strategy is its posting of the results of restaurant inspections. The agency`s goal was to reduce food-related illnesses by posting violations on the Web. In the first 48 hours, the site received more than one million hits. Under this public scrutiny, violations decreased by 50%. With citizens retrieving information for themselves, DOHMH reduced its administrative overhead substantially. In addition, citizens were empowered to request inspections for unregistered restaurants.
"This service made restaurant owners more accountable," said Carubis. "But with this increased visibility comes greater pressure to keep the application available."
According to Carubis, DOHMH considered several alternatives - including HP OpenView - before selecting CA`s Unicenter as its strategic e-government management solution: "Unicenter was by far the most capable of giving us holistic, end-to-end visibility into our 200 servers and diverse networking gear."
DOHMH uses Unicenter Advanced Network Operations to inventory devices, map network topology, and monitor availability. It continually correlates events and performs root-cause analysis to pinpoint problems before they adversely impact the agency`s online services. Unicenter Web Server Management measures response times, enabling DOHMH staff to proactively balance traffic loads on web servers for optimum performance. Other Unicenter solutions provide monitoring capabilities necessary to ensure that DOHMH applications stay operational.
"The proactive approach of Unicenter has clearly made our network infrastructure more reliable and flexible," said Carubis. "The citizens of New York can therefore count on the information they need from us being accessible 24 x 7." The DOHMH stipulated an aggressive set of specifications and deadlines for its Unicenter deployment, which was supported by CA Services.
"Experience has made me a sceptic. The statement of work was so demanding that I secretly expected to get only 50%-60% of our requirements," said Carubis. "But we achieved 100%. Plus, the entire project was completed on time and under budget. CA has clearly demonstrated a strong corporate culture of accountability."
"CA is proud to have Unicenter solutions selected by an e-government innovator like DOHMH, whose professional standards are extremely high and whose technical requirements are incredibly intensive," said Wai Wong, senior vice-president and general manager of Unicenter solutions, CA. "We`re especially gratified that our success in fulfilling those requirements has such a positive and direct impact on the quality of life for the citizens of the City of New York."
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The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene`s mission is to protect and promote the health and mental health of all New Yorkers, to promote the recovery of those with mental illness and chemical dependencies, and the realization of full potential of those with mental retardation and developmental disabilities. For more information, please visit the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Web site at http://nyc.gov/html/doh/.
CA
Computer Associates International, Inc (NYSE:CA), one of the world`s largest software companies, delivers software and services that enable organisations to manage their IT environments. Focus areas include network and systems management, storage and security management, portal and business intelligence, and application life cycle management. Founded in 1976, CA is headquartered in Islandia, New York, and operates in more than 100 countries. For more information on CA, please visit http://ca.com.