Oxers Meter Reading Agency has bought a four-processor SCO Unix-based Promaster server from Computer Configurations to provide a platform for year 2000-compliant software, increased capacity for growing transaction numbers, and electronic communication.
Oxers provides meter-reading services to the Northern and Eastern Metropolitan substructures and to 1 200 property management agents in Gauteng, Durban and Cape Town. It reads 250 000 meters monthly. In addition, it provides assistance to emerging service providers, as a condition of the company`s securing the Eastern Metropolitan municipal contract.
The demand for metered water and electricity services is increasing in these areas, and Oxers anticipates a comparable increase in the demand for its services.
Coral Klemptner, director in charge of the new implementation, says: "We will be ready for the year 2000 and our new server will provide capacity for transaction growth and expanding communication. To keep up with the increased demand without having to invest heavily in additional resources, this business is becoming ever more automated."
The Promaster 615R, fitted with four 200MHz Pentium Pros and running SCOOpenServer 5.04, is fitted with 256MB RAM, expandable to 1GB, and four 4GB drives. This provides increased capacity as well as an 800% increase in performance on the previous machine.
"We chose this server because it provides much needed capacity and performance, but a deciding factor was the excellent support provided by the Computer Configurations team. Their assistance during our last implementation was vital, as we do not have the specialist skills."
"Oxers is a prime example of a company maximising its investment in IT by implementing systems which not only support existing systems, but provide the scalability to manage future growth," says Computer Configurations Holdings chairman Mario Pinheiro, who oversaw the previous installation.
"Oxers has been a client of ours for many years, and the relationship we have developed has seen the company grow its business, keep abreast with technology, yet maximise the efficiency of its systems in a cost-effective way."
Oxers` Gauteng office runs workstations on a TCP/IP-based LAN. IBS Radix handhelds are used by the meter-readers in all regions. In Cape Town and Durban these are updated and data downloaded via modem. The business applications are developed in-house using Powerhouse, accessing an ISAM database, and include meter and accounting applications. All software is being certified for Year 2000 compliance.
Klemptner says: "We can reduce the time taken to record, download and validate our data. Productivity of our meter-readers is monitored and this assists us in reducing costs. We are leaders in the municipal meter reading business, having done this for more than fifty years. We anticipate industry growth and this addition to our IT infrastructure means we can handle increased volumes and provide information to our clients in the form that they need it."
Oxers sends consolidated records to its clients by fax, and has initiated a new electronic information downloading process which allows clients to import the information accurately into a spreadsheet or any other software. Agents find this a timesaver as well as a flexible approach, says Klemptner, allowing them to integrate the information electronically and generate accounts and financial reports.
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