Success with SA`s first Novell Account Manager 2.1 implementation

The Paarl Municipality has recently gone through a structural change. The government service centre now incorporates the regions of Paarl, Wellington, Saron and Gouda, and has renamed itself the Drakenstein Municipality. Novell`s competitive Account Manager 2.1 was installed prior to the merger to seamlessly manage the municipality`s networking demands - the implementation is the first of its kind in the country.

Novell Account Manager 2.1 is a powerful, directory-enabled solution engineered to manage mixed-platform networks as a unified whole. The newly branded Drakenstein Municipality hails the Novell product as the perfect solution to meet the challenge of centrally managing a heterogeneous networking environment.

"Novell Account Manager 2.1 is the only product on the market that allows cross platform directory services management and authentication, and facilitates central network administration," says Marc'el Rose, network and PC services manager at Drakenstein Municipality.

"It is also very competitively priced and we have a good relationship with Novell," adds Frans Theron, information technology manager. The directory service was successfully installed in February this year and its benefits are becoming obvious to the municipality.

In today`s networking environment, users are building network infrastructures from a diverse range of vendor products harnessing the strengths of each. But supporting heterogeneous networks can often work against productivity. Incompatibilities between computing platforms and operating systems can create an administrative nightmare for network supervisors, and employees find that password administration for several separate systems can be very tedious.

Theron believes that Novell recognised this fact and been the first vendor to market with a product that unifies multi-platform systems effectively. According to the Drakenstein Municipality, Novell Account Manager 2.1 is the answer in complex networking environments. "The vendor amalgamates a diversity of products in one centralised management tool."

Before the regional amalgamation, the Paarl Municipality recognised the need to upgrade its network and streamline its efficiency. The municipality was running six Novell NetWare 5.1 servers with NT 2000 and Sun Solaris servers. All e-mail functionality was handled by Novell and the financial functions by Sun Solaris. But as the Municipality`s needs grew so did the demands of its network. With the help of Novell Account Manager 2.1, which integrates Windows NT, Sun Solaris, and Linux user management functions into NDS eDirectory, the group can easily and inexpensively manage its extended network.

"From an administrative point of view, the Novell product makes it possible for one user to administer all of the accounts on the various platforms from a centralised interface - other systems are far more complex. Further to this, the Graphical User Interface (GUI) offers an extension to the already familiar screens, which greatly facilitates creation of new users with Account Manager 2.1," says Rose. "Moreover, end users need only one password to span several operating systems."

The decision to run with Novell Account Manager 2.1 was therefore a simple one to make. Aside the apparent benefit, the municipality has a wealth of Novell skills in its technical department. The installation also marks the way forward to e-commerce - by leveraging the power of NDS eDirectory, Novell Account Manager helps lay the foundation for online commerce ventures. Clients can extend infrastructures across intranets, extranets and the Internet to manage processes between customers, employees, and supply-chain partners.

The impending Internet site will ease the now tardy process of the account payments and allow the general public to communicate on e-mail with the organisation. Links with libraries, clinics, fire, traffic and health departments will further streamline communication and transactions with the Drakenstein Municipality, says Theron.

The benefits of Novell Account Manager 2.1

• .         Enjoy all the benefits of NDS eDirectory

• .         Reduce the cost of network computing

• .         Protect your current investment in hardware and software

• .         Eliminate directory-management headaches

• .         Enhance Windows NT performance

• .         Enhance Solaris performance

• .         Enhance Linux performance

• .         Use NDS applications to consolidate administrative tasks

• .         Deploy software more quickly