Gas Pipeline Giant Scales Critical Business Systems by 750 Percent Using COOL:Gen(TM) .
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PLANO, Texas, July 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Sterling Software, Inc.'s (NYSE: SSW - news) Applications International Division today announced that its COOL:Gen application development environment has been used by Transco to successfully build and scale its business-critical IT systems. Transco is the independent company, which owns, operates and administers the 265,000 km gas pipeline network in Great Britain. Set up as part of the recent deregulation of the industry, Transco provides the infrastructure for the more than forty ''shippers'' who now compete to supply gas to domestic customers throughout the country.
In order to administer the supply infrastructure, which underpins deregulation, Transco developed an integrated set of computer systems. The integrated systems will also ensure a level playing field for all shippers in accordance with the industry's regulatory framework, The Network Code. Collectively known as UK Link, these systems track and store information including how much gas is supplied to each customer, and by which shipper.
Transco selected Sterling Software's COOL:Gen as the development environment within which to build UK Link. COOL:Gen provided a powerful modeling tool that allowed the necessary models to be built up and represented in the detail needed to automatically generate application code that performs well and handles the high processing load.
This code is not set in stone -- COOL:Gen's built-in flexibility means that the models can be quickly modified in accordance with any changes to the legislation and market conditions reflected in the Network Code, and the appropriate portions of application code regenerated.
Competition in the domestic gas market began with the pilot area of Southwest England in April 1996. Since then it has been introduced in regional stages, culminating in full competition in June 1998. The UK Link project was developed along similar lines -- beginning with a pilot, then scaling by 750 percent to cover the entire country. Had the project not been completed on time, Transco would have incurred severe financial penalties under the terms of its contract.
According to Les Dawson, UK Link Programme Manager at Transco, ''Moving from an IT system capable of holding 2.5 million meter points to a system that can hold 19 million meter points has involved a technical solution of huge complexity, unproven anywhere in the world, and implemented to an extremely demanding time-scale, with very volatile requirements. The actual sign-off of the requirement was almost concurrent with the go-live date. The product team believes that this would not have been achievable using conventional tools and techniques.''
Dawson continued, ''The key advantages of using COOL:Gen have been the shortening of the development life cycle and the production of performance error-free code. This has allowed very rapid realization of production applications from business requirements. The use of COOL:Gen templates has also allowed the rapid assimilation of standards and 'house' style by newstaff to the project, which, given the high proportion of contractors used in
UK Link, is very important in maintaining high productivity."
The UK Link project required a team of 550 staff, drawn from a variety of
sources. Project management staff and some developers came from Transco and
specialist consultancies. A large percentage of developers were provided by
software agencies.
''Without the close relationships and the skilled consultants from the key vendors like Sterling Software, Oracle, HP and SEMA we wouldn't have been able to achieve the project deadlines,'' concluded Dawson. ''The support offered by Sterling Software consultants has been tremendous. The flexibility of the people, and their willingness to form a key part of the team has been fundamental to the success of the project.''
Dan French, Managing Director of Sterling Software's UK Applications Management Group said, ''Transco's UK Link has been an exciting project to work on. In addition to massive scalability, it requires the ongoing flexibility to accommodate any changes to the regulatory framework and the robustness necessary to ensure that gas supply, and its monitoring, cannot be threatened by system failure. UK Link stands as testimony not only to COOL:Gen's capabilities, but also to what can be achieved when vendors work together.''
Sterling Software Applications International Division
Sterling Software Applications International Division is responsible for the sales, marketing and support of the Sterling Software's application management and information management products and services outside the US and Canada. Sales are conducted through direct sales offices in 17 countries and through agents and distributors in 23 additional countries.
Sterling Software
Sterling Software is a leading provider of software and services for the applications management, systems management and federal systems markets. Sterling Software, with its headquarters in Dallas, Texas, has a Worldwide installed base of more than 20,000 customer sites and has 3,100 employees in 85 offices worldwide. For more information on Sterling Software, visit the Company's Web site at sterling.com.
COOL:Gen is a trademark of Sterling Software, Inc.
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