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Largest Installation Ever

One of the UK’s largest computer print bureaus has adopted SpoolQ to allow it to manage its growing workload.

London-based MBA carries out production printing for some of the UK’s leading companies, including Cap Gemini and Sainsburys. But when ICL asked MBA to take over the printing side of its facilities management business in Salford, Manchester, the company needed to create a new centre to handle the load.

The ICL site manages around 30 mainframe computers (both ICL and IBM) for a range of FM clients, and ICL needed to be reassured that outsourcing would have no adverse impact on customer service.

MBA therefore required a system that would be absolutely reliable and would enable it to manage a high volume of jobs from a range of host machines. As an already satisfied customer of IDS, MBA called in the company to provide the right solution.

"SpoolQ handles all the packaging of the data
and routes the jobs via two leased lines"

IDS created a rack-mounted system consisting of four Windows NT servers, mirrored for reliability, providing 10 direct line printer connects to the mainframes. In addition, the system simulated connections to 250 remote users.

In order to minimise time spent at the installation, IDS built the whole system at its Ilminster headquarters and ensured that all the components, cabling and connections were working properly. The whole configuration, the largest IDS has ever built, was then loaded on a lorry and transported to Salford, where the installation was completed and working within three days.

The rack-mounted system now forms the centre of all printing operations for ICL Salford. Print output from the ICL VME mainframes comes via the 10 LP system printer connections, or the 250 remote TSAP connections.

The IDS system takes all data and SpoolQ handles all the packaging of the data and routes the jobs via two leased lines to the MBA print centre in Tottenham, North London.

"This was a very complex system, but we met all our deadlines and produced a solution that is both reliable and efficient," said Mark Dowson, the IDS project leader.

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