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Bryn Bircher, VME Marketing Manager, ICL opened the meeting by welcoming everyone to ICL's Customer Centre and outlining the agenda and administrative arrangements for the day. Some 40 people gathered for this inaugural meeting of the Trimetra User Group under the chairmanship of Ian Myatt, Hyder plc. Thanks to Bryn Bircher and the staff of the Customer Centre, the day went very smoothly. Delegates were welcomed with a small delegate pack which, in addition to the usual agenda and notepaper, included a CD incorporating all the presentations in Powerpoint format and a handy mouse mat. Furthermore ICL provided a fine buffet lunch, for which AXiS is most appreciative.
Stuart Heath's presentation started the day's formal proceedings. Gresham has been traditionally associated with backup and storage systems. This session showed how the company has turned its attention to e-business, web testing, etc but is also running a personnel agency dealing mainly with contract staff but also recruiting permanent staff for clients. Casablanca, a web front-end for VME, is not exactly a new product but with a greater interest in e-business today it has become a major component in Gresham's web solutions portfolio.
John Earley, from the Patent Office, provided a case study showing Casablanca deployed as front-end to three key databases, for patents, designs, and trade marks, on a Trimetra delivering Patent information over Internet services. The Patent Office needs to exchange information world-wide. It does so through a secure Extranet with help from MIPEX. A short pilot study in 1998 led to the selection of Casablanca for the front-end. The security aspects were verified by the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA). Being able to deliver patent information online addresses the current government's requirement that Departments should be more open and accessible. For the future there are plans to enable applicants to enquire into trademark refusal and submit patent Office Form 9C online.
Further information can be found at http://www.patent.gov.uk For further information about Gresham's services go to http://www.gresham-computing.com
A copy of the Powerpoint presentation is accessible to AXiS
members at:
http://www.axis.org.uk/members/trim14
0601.ppt
Tony Waknell is National Accounts Manager at IDS, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of FunAsset Ltd, a company with significant experience within the print industry. Tony reviewed legacy print systems for VME, eg Oslan Band printers, and talked about migration to the other Trimetra environments, ie UNIX and Windows NT, referencing issues such as migrating customised solutions, and accommodating a variety of printer types. He described a host independent solution which offers print management of all output, automatic scheduling of bulk work, automatic routing to distributed devices, integrated dynamic document composition, and integrated datastream conversion. It offers a new lease of life for LP/FP Band printers and cost effective replacement of desk-top lasers.
A copy of the Powerpoint presentation is accessible to AXiS
members at:
http://www.axis.org.uk/members/trim140602.ppt
It was good to see John Quinn at an AXiS event again but this time he appeared as Director of Sales and Marketing for Sysop. The company took delivery of the second Trimetra DY to be installed in the UK. John outlined the Sysop systems and services which the system supports. He reviewed customer trends such as ring-fencing residual workloads, outsourcing workloads, sharing storage servers, consolidating storage and centralising backup. The Sysop portfolio provides software for VME systems, enterprise, network and service management solutions, as well as comprehensive training.
For further information about Sysop go to : http://www.sysop.co.uk
A copy of the Powerpoint presentation is accessible to AXiS
members at:
http://www.axis.org.uk/members/trim140603.ppt
Andy Kirkham, the recently elected Chairman of AXiS, gave a short presentation about AXiS, its membership and services. This was for the benefit of delegates who might be unfamiliar with AXiS and, hopefully, might be interested in joining he Association.
Ian Pickering is Technical Director of NDL. His presentation carried the legend "Moving to the world of e-Commerce and e-Business using existing host systems". The session looked at the Internet and the World Wide Web, cherished system integration ("cherished" is the word that Ian prefers to "legacy") and thin clients. Having a web site does not necessarily mean that you are achieving e-Business. e-Business is about extending the reach of your systems and services to your customers, partners and staff using Internet-based technologies. e-Commerce extends the reach of your commercial processes to include being able to advertise, sell, take orders and in some cases fulfil orders through Internet technologies. This session thoroughly examined the issues and the questions to be answered particularly where moving forward with 'cherished systems' in tow. What are the pros and cons of replacing the whole system? Ian described NDL products Active Host Publisher and Active Terminal Server, tools that will help the move into e-Business and e-Commerce without wasting the investment in existing systems. A short live demonstration by Trevor Simpson provided an effective conclusion to this session.
For further information about Network Designers go to: http://www.ndl.co.uk
A copy of the Powerpoint presentation is accessible to AXiS
members at:
http://www.axis.org.uk/members/trim140604.ppt
For those of us who had missed the news, John Lawton, Product Manager, for Protek Bolden James, explained how Bolden James had joined with Protek. One result of combining their skills and experience was the product Secure Impart which applies security to connectivity to VME systems. Impart is a set of ICL connectivity applications plus data transport. Secure Impart applies additional security features and provides a set of security services. It offers secure access to VME-based web pages, encrypted link from browser-based applications, secure internal connections, and a security enabled gateway. The mnemonic PAIN gives:
The security services offered include security health checks, security policy definition, vulnerability testing, and secure messaging systems.
For further information visit : http://www.boldonjames.com/products/productshc.htm
A copy of the Powerpoint presentation is accessible to AXiS
members at:
http://www.axis.org.uk/members/trim140605.ppt
Tina Quenault is another regular ICL presenter at AXiS events. Her session here brought the day's proceedings to a very successful conclusion, linking many of the threads from the earlier sessions. The session covered Enterprise Application Integration and the current requirements driving it, the ICL strategy for VME integration, and IDMSX Data Extraction. Tina discussed the pros and cons of integrating new and legacy systems looking particularly at the benefits to be derived from exploiting existing applications. A number of useful case studies supported the messages that Tina delivered. It was encouraging to hear that ICL is bringing Cochise and Dialogue Manager development back on track. Delegates were left with positive feelings that there could still be another 10 years life in VME.
For further information visit : http://www.icl.com
A copy of the Powerpoint presentation is accessible to AXiS
members at:
http://www.axis.org.uk/members/trim140606.ppt
Bryn Bircher brought the day to a close. AXiS thanks ICL and Bryn Bircher in particular for a valuable day which successfully launched the Trimetra Users Focus Group.
Ian Myatt, Chairman of the Focus Group, plans to hold the next meeting on 21st September 2000 at the Civil Service Club in London, when several of these sessions will be rerun for the benefit of delegates from the Home Counties and other southern regions.
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Don Folland |
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Fax: 08700524293 |
Trimetra User Group Secretary |
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email: dfolland@axis.org.uk |
PO Box 384 |
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Buxton, Norfolk |
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NR10 5RS |
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This page created 29th June 2000; Copyright © AXiS 2000
