September 11, 1995
Issue 544, page 54
When an inspector from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration drops in for a surprise visit at the New England Electric System (NEES), employees had better have easy access to the files that track the chemicals they use. Also, federal law requires the $2.2 billion, Westboro, Mass., utility to have data available to refer injured workers for proper medical treatment.
NEES uses client-server-based Hewlett-Packard ScanJet IIc/80F scanners to digitize data sheets into 70 NetWare 3.11 servers running Borland Paradox for Windows databases. The servers make the information accessible to 3,000 486 Micro- soft Windows client PCs that can search the sheets for specific information related to the chemical, vendor, and active agents.
The scanners are linked to the network and can be accessed by users through the NetWare LAN. The scanners have an address on the LAN, so they're accessed the same way as PC users access laser printers or other peripherals. The images are stored on a central file server.
Finding the right information was an administrative nightmare prior to installing the scanners in 1993. "We had file cabinets full of paperwork to wade through," says Jeff Geltz, manager of wholesale information services. "If someone misplaced a data sheet and an OSHA inspector was on site, we'd get a citation for having no sheet in the filing cabinet."
Still, network performance suffers when as many as 200 users call up images from any one server. To boost performance, Geltz will move the application from Paradox and NetWare to a Computer Associates CA-Ingres database on a Digital Equipment Alpha server.
NEES also favors networked HP printers over fax machines to produce corporate presentations, checks with electronic signatures, and company newsletters. With locations throughout New England, Geltz finds it simple to click an icon on his PC and zip a document to a user's HP 3D LaserJet printer in another location, then click another to transmit a presentation to a different HP 1200C color printer. "If a printer is down," he says, "I choose another."
Geltz can remotely administer print queues and configure printers. Color print drivers let him match colors on a computer screen to the right printer instead of configuring color on a printer panel.
Cost savings are substantial. Besides eliminating phone charges for fax transmissions, NEES saves service bureau costs of some $5 per color transparency. Users from across the company can create their own columns, font headings, embed logos, and total their own print-accounting records. Geltz notes, "It gives users a lot more flexibility in a client-server environment."
Copyright 1995 by CMP Publications. All rights reserved.