More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call  +61 3 9521-8070

More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call +61 3 9521-8070

More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call +61 3 9521-8070

More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call +61 3 9521-8070

More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call +61 3 9521-8070

More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call +61 3 9521-8070

More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call +61 3 9521-8070

More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call +61 3 9521-8070

More information at ...

http://www.atac.com.au/barr.htm

http://www.atac.com.au/emtex.htm

Email David Kirk
or call +61 3 9521-8070

Emtex drives AXA Europe Printshop

AXA, the global insurance organisation, needed to rationalize and consolidate their UK print operations.  Emtex VIP provided a cost effective method of merging their many systems across two production facilities.

Emtex VIP offered AXA some very unique features and benefits.  AXA now have the print and output technology in place to develop a highly innovative document production environment.  At the heart of this operation lies VIP, their print manager of choice.

AXA, the bigger picture

The diversity of the AXA group led to the formation of a new shared services organisation called AXA Tech, a centrally managed function to handle all IT Service Delivery elements for the group in the UK.  Along with other key objectives AXA Tech would develop a standard set of service delivery processes including those for production printing.  Vic Baines, Document Services Manager at AXA Tech, headed up the 'Document Services Output and Print Management System' project, which led him to Emtex.

In the beginning AXA print operations were spread over about 12 UK sites, with legacy systems spooling output to a variety of production printers using a variety of protocols.  Additionally, the existing channel based set-up made operations inhibiting and more expensive, whilst printers were often caught underperforming.

The division into two sites has further opened up bandwidth for Disaster Recovery.  VIP now provides full GUI job queue management for all datastreams as well as centralised resource management for improved output integrity.

The flexibility and industrial strength of VIP has empowered AXA Tech with added dynamism, as Vic explains: "With VIP we have created an almost 'plug and go' environment whereby we can migrate to and from datastreams or add any production printer.  This architecture, coupled with VIP's modularity, provides the scalability we need to meet future business changes.  VIP has additionally optimised our production printers for rated speed performance."

Customer service and reducing costs with Emtex

Vic and the AXA Tech team are continually striving to improve their quality of output whilst minimising costs.  The move to a PC based environment, over channel, has already generated cost savings, but there are additional features to VIP that can leverage further gains.  VIP's reprint capability enables the easy re-printing of documents within a print job to any printer, without re-processing the job.  This is a crucial factor in delivering high levels of service quality.  Commenting on AXA Tech's success with Emtex: "From the outset at AXA Tech we sought a print management solution that underlined our corporate mission of rationalisation, consolidation, quality and cost optimisation.  Emtex and VIP have excelled in delivering tactical changes along with strategic direction towards the ADF; whilst simultaneously providing a service which translates into increased end user productivity and customer service levels.  We have formed a strong working relationship with the Emtex team and look forward to the many years of joint innovation and achievement ahead."

Barr Backup and Restore

Barr Enterprise Print Server 3.2.x and above now includes a utility to backup and restore the Barr configuration settings.  Typically the backup fits on a floppy disk, and is around 1 Megabyte.  To run the utility, choose TOOLS | BACKUP CONFIGURATION.  Choose a location, select BACKUP or RESTORE and click the corresponding button.  The whole process takes about 10 seconds, and can be performed even while the system is running flat out!

It is strongly suggested that a current backup is taken and moved OFF the machine, either to a LAN location or removable media.  This should always be done before any major changes to your BEPS system, to allow roll-back if the changes fail.

The Backup Utility saves XML files containing details for REGISTRY, PRINTERS, FOLDERS, CODE PAGES etc. - everything required to rebuild the machine in a few seconds.  If the machine loses its hard disk for example, you could install a new disk, reload Windows and Barr, then perform a RESTORE to put BEPS back the way it was.  You can also take a backup, play around with settings, then put them all back afterwards.

Previously, Barr had advised customers to GHOST or CLONE the whole machine, as settings were sprinkled throughout registry, dirs, files etc. and were hard to isolate.

Clearly this utility is a huge step forward and allows all BEPS customers to backup (and restore) their BEPS systems in seconds.

Have you backed up today?

Barr Diagnostics

Although we would all like things to always run smoothly, problems crop up with any system from time to time.  Collecting diagnostics is a most important task which, if performed properly, should allow rapid problem resolution.

Barr includes a number of tools to capture diagnostic information as follows:-

• Operator Console and Error logfiles containing operational and error info logged recently.  The Console logfile captures info from all BEPS modules continuously.  Open it (TOOLS | OPERATOR CONSOLE) to see activity happening as it occurs.  This utility may pinpoint your problem immediately; open and minimise the Operator Console, reproduce your problem, then look at the Console.  Additionally, each module can have logging enabled/disabled or ramped up to Technical Trace levels, if instructed to do so by Barr technicians.

• Any Print files with problems can be tagged for inclusion - if a particular print file demonstrates the problem you're having, right-click it and choose ADD TO DIAGNOSTICS.  It will be gathered during the next Diagnostic run.

• Any Trace files gathered since the last Diagnostics snapshop  -  if files are arriving into Barr incorrectly, you may be asked to run a TCP/IP, SNA or Channel TRACE, capturing the raw data as it is input to BEPS.  Trace files are stored in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Barr\Trace and automatically moved to ..\OldTrace after being gathered by the Diagnostic Utility.

• Event Logs from the computer, which Windows maintains itself.

• An MS Diag snapshot telling us almost everything about the computer itself and how it is configured.

• Hardware serial numbers from any Barr equipment installed in the machine.

• Program versions for all Barr modules, DLLs etc.

• Software licensing details

These items are all gathered by the Diagnostic Utility - TOOLS | DIAGNOSTICS from the SPOOL window.  Simply enter your name and contact number, as well as a brief problem description, then click START or GATHER DIAGS (depends on version).

The Diagnostics Utility assembles the preceding items and packs them into a single BarrDiag.BCT file, which is highly compressed, ready for email transmission, within a few minutes.

Did you know . . . ?

• You can now update your Barr NT software to the latest version via the Web, if your system is covered by an Annual Service Agreement (ASA).  Simply go to http://www.barrcentral.com/support/updates/sw/default.asp and enter your hardware key (dongle) serial number to choose from a list of recent software releases, and download same immediately if you choose.

• You can upgrade from DOS RJE to RJE/NT with NO CHANGES to your HOST.  Several customers have moved down this path and been very pleased with the 'no-fuss' transition.

• Barr/Print for TCP/IP can now receive LCDS and Metacode jobs from the HOST via LPR or socket.  The transmission method preserves the character set and (machine) carriage control.

• Barr's Web interface allows you to View any BEPS system within your organisation.  You can VIEW jobs as well as READY, HOLD, SORT, SCHEDULE and FILTER them remotely.  The Web Interface works through your existing IIS infrastructure, or this can run on the Barr PC itself.  The Web Interface allows multiple users to have simultaneous access to one or more BEPS units.

Q & A

Q.  The latest BEPS version 4.x software requires ACTIVATION to operate.  What is this about?

A.  When you download/receive the 4.x.x versions (or later), you will be able to run in production for 30 days after which, if you do not activate, it will stop working.  Every time you install a new 4.x.x version, you will need to activate; however once you have activated the software, it will work indefinitely.  This was added to disallow customers who are not under service from installing new software versions.  There is no way to activate a newer version (4.0.x +) unless our database shows a valid date (not expired at the time of the activation).  This also keeps a customer with multiple systems from renewing only one and using the new software to update the other out of service systems.

Q.  Emtex helped us migrate our IPDS IBM 3835 printers from our mainframe to Unix.  Emtex replaces PSF on the HOST, and we now send flat files from Unix, which Emtex converts to IPDS and sends to our two 3835 printers.  How do we make our reports come out in LANDSCAPE mode instead of PORTRAIT as they currently do?

A.  The PROFILE command HARDWAREORIGIN=xxx can accept options of 0, 90, 180 or 270.  Either 90 or 270 will rotate the paper 90 degrees left or right.  Experiment!

Q.  We've had problems with our input BIN definitions in Emtex and cannot get them to work as we expect (PCL input).  What's going on?

A.  A bug has been found in the PCL2VDD module (Release 8.4), which means the BIN calls are messed up if you are using PCLIN_MODE=IMAGE.  Use PCLIN_MODE=VECTOR to process the BIN calls correctly.  VECTOR will also process significantly faster than the IMAGE setting!

Q. Who is/are Atac?

A. Atac is the Barr and Emtex Distributor for Australia, New Zealand and South-East Asia.  With over thirteen years experience in the market, we support systems running 24x7x365 from Christchurch to Tokyo and Perth to Mumbai, in most of the largest print shops in the region.

Our customers include banks, print bureaux, financial institutions and petro-chemical companies as well as printer and mainframe vendors.  Outsourcing organisations and facilities management companies make extensive use of Atac’s expertise.

Atac is privately owned, with an extensive technical background stretching back over thirty five years of continuously profitable operation.

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