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You can register to receive regular copies of the Centreline 2000 News Letter.
They always contain a mixture of product news, technical information, trade gossip - some of which you will not
hear anywhere else!
Centreline 2000 - keeping you informed.
This issue:
- HMSO with Office 2000
- Netscape Tricks and Tips
Centreline in Action
HMSO opens for business with Office 2000
When HMSO decided to enhance their email system. Centreline 2000 was on-hand to help
with a new client-server approach - based on traditional values.
With over 2,800 staff, HMSO is responsible for providing a wide array of printing, publishing
and office support services to government departments. From publishing Hansard to ordering
desks and chairs, HMSO services every conceivable office need.
'We have steadily been evolving an enterprise-culture,' explains Mike Page from the HMSO
Application Services team. 'The organisation moved away from a central command and control
philosophy many years ago. Now, with privatisation imminent, we are looking to exploit new
opportunities and market our expertise. That is one reason why we decided to pilot
Office 2000.'
Traditionally, it has been HMSO's role to service every kind of office requirement within
central government. Post-privatisation, certain residual regulatory functions will be
retained in the public sector. The remaining units, including HMSO's Business Systems
operation, are set to be privatised this summer.
Re-engineering for maximum efficiency
'For some time now, we have been re-engineering ourselves for the rigours of competition
in the open market,' explains Page. 'Nowhere is this more evident than in our approach to IT.'
Historically, HMSO was one of the first government departments to have its own computing
team. Originally an ICL mainframe house, the organisation took the
decision to move to open systems and UNIX in the late 1980's. Uniplex Business Software
was a natural choice and combined with relational database management systems it formed
the basis of HMSO's office automation platform throughout the early 1990's. By 1995 HMSO
had over 1,500 Uniplex users.
'However, we saw the potential benefits of distributed client-server systems early on,'
comments Page. 'Although Uniplex was designed for character terminals, we deployed a
network and personal computers on the desktop. With that infrastructure in place we were
confident our in-house systems could cope with future changes and expansion.'
New products - traditional values
In 1995, HMSO decided to evaluate the options for enhancing their mail network.
Page again, 'We looked at a number of options. For example, we could have chosen to
replace Uniplex Mail with MS-Mail, but that just wasn't cost-effective. Besides we had
a perfectly good corporate mail system in Uniplex Mail. It was reliable and scaleable.
But we needed a good, graphical Windows client to work with it, together with the ability
to exchange and convert documents.'
The organisation also evaluated, and rejected, Uniplex onGO. 'There were a number of
reasons but primarily we needed a Windows client that would run on 386 personal computers,'
explains Page. 'onGO didn't run on a 386 PC. Also, it would have meant deploying a new mail
server (OpenMail). We wanted to squeeze the maximum benefit out of the rich function-ality
we had on the existing Uniplex mail server. So we had to find another solution.'
Office 2000 Mail
After an evaluation within the IT department, Page selected Office 2000 Mail from Centreline
2000 for an extensive user pilot.
The solution comprises a Windows-based mail client into Uniplex Business Software, together
with an add-on (server based) document converter pack so that users without the new mail
client can still read attached documents in for example, Microsoft Word format.
Currently, the pilot is being deployed with 50 key users - with the intention to extend
this across the Uniplex user base over the coming 18 months.
Centreline pilots the journey
'We chose Office 2000 Mail for several reasons. It works with a server that is proven,
reliable and secure,' commented Page. 'Basically, the Uniplex mail server is cleverly
and efficiently written. We wanted a Windows client to front-end it, together with the
appropriate converters and migration tools. Office 2000 offered us exactly that, and
they knew the technical architecture inside out.'
'It is the ideal combination,' continues Page. 'The existing Uniplex mail server gives
us central control, reliability and security. Office 2000 provides the graphical PC client
our users want. It is also extremely cost-effective.'
HMSO - seeking new clients
Page hopes the solution will be taken up by users - not only within HMSO - but also in
other central government departments.
'We would like to market the product to our clients in other government departments
and on the open market. One of the main reasons we chose Centreline 2000, is that they
were willing to work with us and offer an option for us to sell the product on, as an
HMSO solution. That's important for the future. We want the option to sell this type
of system. With a successful pilot and rollout, we can demonstrate the viability of
the approach to our customers by showing it in action in our own offices.'
About Office 2000 Mail
If you have PC's running Windows and you use Unix as your e/mail backbone then
Office 2000 Mail is the solution for tight
integrating between the two.
The Office 2000 Mail client is a fully windows compliant front-end to the Uniplex
Mail Unix system. In this way you gain all the benefits of a graphical interface
for your users with full point-and-click.
For administrators you have all the benefits of managing a mail system on a single,
proven and reliable server.
Whether you already have Uniplex or not, this is the solution to corporate e/mail.
Netscape Tricks
Many of you are already fully committed internet users, and if the hit-count
on our web site is correct you are likely (4 out of 5) to be using Netscape in some
form or another as your web browser.
With that in mind we thought we would present some useful Netscape Tricks and Tips.
Colour Schemes
Netscape by default colours links to other pages in blue, and when you have visited
the page the link is coloured purple. If you are wandering around a single web site
you often find that some pages are accessed from several points, to avoid returning
to already seen pages just don't click purple links.
You can also change the colour scheme that Netscape uses by selecting Preferences, Colors.
Why is the Web going black?
You may have noticed recently that many Web pages have gone black. This is in "mourning"
at the loss of free speech following the US Congress bill to restrict freedom of speech
over the Internet by instituting regulations which are far more restrictive than those
that apply to any other media.
You may also see a blue ribbon logo on many sites, this is also supporting the principle
of free speech.
Opening a new window
You can click File, New to open a new window allowing you to browse or transfer files from
two different locations. The shortcut is CTRL-N
Saving and viewing bookmarks
You can quickly add a bookmark by pressing CTRL-A - this adds your current page to the
bookmark list. To view the list, press CTRL-B.
What's happening?
You can press CTRL-ALT-T to see the status of pages being downloaded. There are some other
obscure features too: CTRL-ALT-F will take you to a page viewing a fish tank in the office
of the president of Netscape - I kid you not!
Netscape Shortcut Keys:
CTRL-A Add to bookmarks
CTRL-B View bookmarks
CTRL-F Find text this page
CTRL-H View history list
CTRL-M Send mail
CTRL-N New window
CTRL-O Open a file locally
CTRL-R Reload this page
CTRL-S Save current page to disk
ALT-Left Arrow Back
ALT-Right Arrow Forward
ESCAPE Stop loading this page
CTRL-ALT-F Fish tank!
CTRL-ALT-T Connection Statistics
CTRL-ALT-S Remove the Status bar
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