Oddly enough one of my favorite clients converted from a legacy MV based Security monitoring system (ABM) to the DICE system and I hail it as perhaps the only migration in the 5-8 that I've participated in that was a marked improvement. To say it was seamless would be an understatement.
This victory came from the industry standards for alarm monitoring (UL, SCI i think) that dictate the procedures. Thus this DICE system was geared to convert many ABM companies to their system. I had spent 2.5 years enhancing the green screen ABM towards contemporary standards but the appeal of DICE and the fact that they were a VAR with periodic enhancements instead of just me as their only provider were too great an obstacle. Perhaps I helped them put off the inevitable. I drove 85 miles one way each week for this client. I really liked them. The DICE system was not SQL but run under 'Thorobred' which is a 80x24 colorized memory-mapped video system that comes across as windows. It was not GUI either but we MV programmers never got good at memory mapped video. Too bad as it's the basis for overlaying whole or partial screens with relative ease. my 1 cent. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jeff Schasny" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2004 11:04 AM Subject: RE: [U2] Companies going belly up converting from PICK/MV > The Alert Centre, Englewood CO USA, 1993 - 1996 > > The Alert Centre (yes they really spelled it that way) was an security > systems and alarm monitoring company. The had around 100 concurrent users > and ran on 2 redundant Sequoia boxes under Pick OA. Their applications > included the normal accounting functions (AP, AR, GL) some work order/ > dispatch stuff and of course the core alarm system monitoring and response > system. I was there in 1995/96 as a consultant after their entire Pick > staff (of 3) quit. > > Sometime in 1993 management decided (at the urging of some consultants or > another) to convert their existing applications to a relational database. > Informix was the chosen platform and Anderson Consulting was selected to > design the database. Note here that I phrase this very carefully. Design > the database, not the applications, not create the database, just design it. > A very impressive design document was produced in just under a year an at > the cost of just under a million dollars. A second consulting firm was then > chosen to create the database as designed and begin writing the applications > in Informix 4gl. Again note that NO changes or improvements to the existing > functionality were to be implemented, just a switch to a relational > database. During the time I was there they had managed to move the accounts > receivable and work order/dispatch modules off of Pick OA at an additional > cost of 1.5 million dollars and had completely abandoned the possibility > that they would ever convert the alarm monitoring/dispatch system. There > were at that time 10 Informix 4gl Programmers (some on staff some > consultants) and 4 Informix DBA's and 3 AIX System Administrators. The > Informix database was running on 4 IBM RS/6000 480's (one as an application > server and 3 as database servers) and the entire database was replicated > over 3 machines because of ongoing data integrity problems and an inability > to get good tape backups on any single database instance. > > Shortly after I left in 1996 the company folded and its assets and customer > base were sold to SecurityLink. > > I cant say specificly that the company folded due to an attempt to switch > from Pick to Informix because they did alot of other goofy things too, but > he drain of capital associated with the meaningless vanity switch of > environments certainly contributed to their downfall. > ------- > u2-users mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www.u2ug.org/listinfo/u2-users ------- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.u2ug.org/listinfo/u2-users
