Potch city council installs ClearPathUnisys history of reliability and performance has prompted Potchefstroom city council to upgrade its A7-Series, to one of the latest systems in the ClearPath range.
Mark Patterson, business initiative manager at Unisys, says the Potchefstroom installation is a good example of how Unisys ClearPath technology can be used to upgrade existing A-Series systems while, at the same time, ensuring Y2K compliance and providing desktop systems access to legacy data.
Potchefstroom city council is a mid-sized institution that has had a long history with the Unisys A7-Series, says Patterson. It has recently taken on the financial management of additional towns in the area and were faced with the challenge of upgrading the existing system.
The Unisys ClearPath LX5220 maintains compatibility with the older A-Series while providing a number of additional benefits.
The Unisys ClearPath LX5220 is a midrange system that runs the Unisys A-Series operating system in one segment, while Windows NT runs on the other.
This symbiotic relationship between two diverse environments is made possible with the Unisys ClearPath which can run multiple operating systems and uses ODBC to exchange data.
By opting for a conversion-free solution rather than taking on the laborious task of rewriting or modifying our financial applications, we
have gained compatibility with desktop systems while retaining the familiar A-Series applications, says Danie du Plessis, IT manager at the Potchefstroom city council.
We will be using our existing A-Series applications to manage our accounting and salaries while linking to our DMS2 database which will provide us with limited querying and reporting facilities.
The Windows NT component will act as a domain controller on our LAN ,while providing desktop systems access to the A-Series data via ODBC. Users may create reports or query data in a real-time basis.? Unisys Clearpath technology can also be applied as an applications server, thus providing expansion capabilities to support future growth.
The Unisys ClearPath LX5220 has helped us address impending millennium issues, adds du Plessis. Besides the convenient small footprint of the Clearpath system, it also saves on environmental resources when compared to older machines, thus reducing the overall cost of ownership.
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