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Intelligent
Document Handling at Belmar |
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SpaceTec
Solutions assist CCS to provide efficiency eServer
IBM System i solutions for Belmar Engineering.
Belmar Engineering Services Limited is one of Scotland's
most advanced subcontract precision engineering
workshops, servicing the oil and gas industries
in the North Sea and world-wide. An imaginative
and on-going program of reinvestment in computer
based technology has meant that Belmar Engineering
work at the very frontiers of technology.
For David Reid, Joint Managing Director of Belmar,
it was essential that a reliable and cost effective
computer system was installed to support the needs
of the business.
Email
and Fax
An initial area of concern for Belmar was the distribution
of purchase orders to suppliers. Each PO was to
be printed out individually onto pre-printed stationary
and posted to the relevant supplier. Not only was
this procedure time consuming and costly in terms
of the printed stationary, postal costs and man
time but it also meant a longer lead time to receive
the goods.
Belmar outsource all their IT to Castlehill Computer
Services (CCS) Ltd who work closely with SpaceTec
a leading supplier of print solutions for the IBM System i.
SpaceTec recommended the BlueSeries solution which
allows distribution of the print spool via either
fax or email.
Belmar are now able to distribute their PO’s
directly to the suppliers, cutting out the extra
man time, the cost of pre-printed stationary, postage
and delays. Not only does this save money, but it
also helps to make the business more responsive
and efficient. The BlueSeries installation was the
first of a series of SpaceTec products supplied
by CCS to Belmar. Having now seen that the IBM System i
could be utilised in a more efficient manner Belmar
decided to investigate further.
Forms
In order to create a form on the IBM System i Belmar
were using a combination of Word and Paintbrush.
This procedure was very time consuming and and small
changes would quite often lead to a mismatch between
the form and the overlayed text. Once again SpaceTec
were able to supply a solution in the form of a
product called InterForm400.
InterForm400 includes an easy to use, versatile
graphical design tool that provides easy handling
of graphical design elements and "drag &
drop" formatting of spool data. The Designer
interfaces directly with the InterForm400 software
on the IBM System i. InterForm400 allows Belmar to create
new, or update existing forms design very quickly,
simultaneously making forms available for production
printing or e-mailing. InterForm400 also interfaces
with BlueSeries allowing the forms created using
InterForm400 to be distributed as described earlier.
IBM System i
Belmar are committed to the IBM System i because of its
stability. David Reid the Managing Director of Belmar
said
"Our computer systems must be available
24 hrs per day, any downtime can result in significant
lost production. For us, stability, reliability
and security are the most important features of
any computer system. Firstly the AS/400 and now
the IBM System i were chosen for this task because only
these systems were capable of meeting our needs."
Web
Development
A critical issue for Belmar is back up. Off site
backup is handled by CCS and is automated on the
IBM System i. The onsite backup however is a different
matter as there are no onsite IT personnel at Belmar.
It is not the back up which causes the problem but
the lack of personnel to change tapes and the requirement
for regularly cleaning of the tape drives. To avoid
changing media the back up uses the IBM System i internal
DVD writer and the ZipSave/400 compression software.
The DVD writer does not need to be cleaned as frequently
as tape drives and the file compression of 80-90%
ensures the backup fits on to a single DVD.
Belmar work to high quality specifications, each
job or activity results in a considerable amount
of documentation. Most documents are created by
copying a pre-existing document and making the appropriate
modifications. Each document contains graphical
images and format information as well as useful
data, due to the nature of Word each time a document
is saved it must be saved in its entirety. With
up to 20 documents per job, there is a considerable
amount of duplicated information stored in each
document and a corresponding requirement for a significant
amount of space in the back up.
The challenge for Belmar and CCS was to provide
a more efficient way of storing the data. One alternative
solution was to use an external company who would
provide a file server where all the data could be
stored. Belmar were reluctant to go down this route
due to the security and access issues associated
with storing the data offsite. CCS once again approached
SpaceTec who suggested the IceBreak product.
IceBreak is an advanced, yet easy to comprehend
server technology, which enables web applications
to be easily created on the IBM IBM System i server platform.
You can even reuse your RPG coding skills and legacy
code.
By using IceBreak, Castlehill are able to develop
a web based solution that integrates InterForm400
with IceBreak. Users of the system will be presented
with a document template on a web page that will
be completed by the users in the same way as the
Word documents they used previously. However, only
the text input by the user will be saved reducing
the storage requirements considerably. All images
and page formatting requirements are built into
the template and do not require to be saved with
each document. The users will see very little difference,
the document will resemble a Word document so there
will be no need for extensive training. Not only
will this result in the backup requiring less storage
space on the DVD but also provide Belmar with the
ability to follow the progress of each job from
start to finish with an easy and instant retrieval
solution for all documentation.
Although the development of the above solution is
currently in progress there are already plans to
integrate many of Belmar’s other procedures,
an example of which is the Job Costing/Accounting
System into the Icebreak solution.
Syd Nicholson of Castlehill Computer Services said
"I have been working with SpaceTec for
many years and have watched the product range develop.
The solutions they supply are reliable, useable
and cost effective. As an IBM System i specialist it
is important to supply the client with the right
solution and as such it is necessary for me to evaluate
all relevant offerings. I have found Icebreak to
be an excellent easy to use product and its performance
far out surpasses its competition, many from very
well known large companies."
About
Belmar
Belmar Engineering Services Ltd., weld overlay specialists
and precision engineers. Belmar was incorporated
in 1975 to supply a wide range of sub-contract engineering
and complete manufacturing services primarily to
the petrochemical industry. The range of services
provided by Belmar include welding, weld overlay,
horizontal and vertical boring, and CNC turning.
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