South African Revenue Services (SARS) has slashed its database processing and file maintenance times by implementing the Adasplit and Adareorg utilities from Bateleur Software Solutions.
The decision to buy Adasplit and Adareorg was based on superior functionality - nothing else on the market could meet SARS` requirements.
Developed by Bateleur Software Solutions, Adasplit is an archive tool which splits output files by selected criteria. Adareorg, developed by Australian company CCA Software and marketed in SA by Bateleur Software Solutions, is a file restructuring utility for MVS and Unix.
SARS has a database of 225 million records containing information on all the notices it sends out to taxpayers. When a case is settled, the related record needs to be archived but remain accessible online. In addition, SARS needed to add a value in a field throughout the database, and to split the records contained in the database into two different files. It also needs to perform frequent file changes which creates difficulties with massive volumes of files containing PEs and MUs.
Although SARS wrote a program to add the value into the fields, the organisation soon realised that it would take more than 10 days to run and it couldn`t afford to shut down production. With Adasplit, the split and load was completed in just 14 hours.
SARS has also cut its nightly maintenance running time from eight hours to one hour due to Adareorg. In fact, the database environment as a whole is far more productive. SARS has 3 000 users on the New Income Tax System (NITS) countrywide. Now that they only view the live information, everything is far quicker. In addition, SARS is realising a cost saving because the users get higher throughput during the day.
Adasplit separates records from an unloaded Adabas file in ADAULD or ACACMP compressed format. This is done in two files according to user-specified criteria, and without decompressing the files. The output file matching the selection criteria is then reloaded into the database and the unwanted records are archived in either compressed or decompressed format. Files can include PEs or MUs.
Adareorg enables the physical structure of an Adabas database to be changed with minimal effort, risk and resource usage. It empowers database administrators to respond quickly and easily to database restructuring demands.
One of the main benefits SARS has achieved is that the DBA effort to achieve a successful reorganisation has been substantially reduced. Adareorg has given the organisation excellent control and flexibility, making difficult data-reformatting chores simple and efficient. Decompression and compression is performed on a record-by-record basis in a single step, eliminating the need to have large amounts of disk space for decompressed files.
Furthermore, Adasplit gives DBAs more time for strategic issues. Since it doesn`t need decompressed files at any time during the process, Adasplit also saves on disk space usage, and there are noticeable savings in CPU usage.
Share
Editorial contacts