HP and SPL Port CIS PLUS Application from Mainframe to HP 9000 Server Environment; Customer-service Application for Utilities Companies Performs Well in Benchmarking Tests

Business Wire, June 10, 1997

PALO ALTO, Calif. and MORRISTOWN, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 10, 1997--Hewlett-Packard Company and SPL WorldGroup Industry Solutions today announced that CIS PLUS(R) has been ported from the IBM MVS mainframe environment to the HP 9000 server running HP-UX(1) and Oracle database software. In partnership with SPL, Kansas City Power & Light (KCPL) participated in the benchmarking and currently is implementing the solution.

The system was ported to the HP-UX environment using simulated, but representative, customer data. The tests achieved billing rates as high as 438.13 accounts per minute and time to process 1 million accounts as low as 1.8 hours.

CIS PLUS(R) is a customer-information and billing system designed for middle- and upper-tier utilities companies. CIS PLUS(R) supports all customer functions related to the sale and delivery of utility and non-utility services. A six-week benchmark test to gauge the ported system's performance was conducted at the HP Capacity Planning Center in Cupertino, Calif.

The benchmarking tests' objectives were to do the following:

-- confirm the ability of CIS PLUS(R) to operate on an HP-UX/Oracle platform, to accommodate a client of up to 1 million accounts, and to add accounts in large increments;

-- ensure that the application could support 100 concurrent users with an average response time of less than two seconds;

-- ensure that a batch-billing run of production size could be completed within four hours;

-- determine system behavior with various hardware/software configurations and different numbers of accounts; and

-- size the optimal hardware/software configuration.

The test team started the test with one HP 9000 Model T-520 and one Model K-460. Two more Model K-460s and two additional HP 9000 systems were later added. Software included Oracle database applications and SQL NET. The operating system was HP-UX in all cases.

The team ran roughly 200 batch-billing tests and about 20 online tests using single-box as well as client/server configurations of the hardware and software. The amount of information in the database in each test varied from 400,000 to 1 million accounts.

The various configurations yielded vastly different results. The best results came from a client/server configuration using three HP 9000 Model K-460 servers and one Model T-520. In this test, the CIS PLUS(R) processed 1 million accounts in 1.8 hours, provided billing rates of 438.13 accounts per minute and online response time of 1.92 seconds per transaction.

Generally, the results showed both the Model T-520 and the Model K-460 are viable alternatives for utilities companies such as KCPL, which has a customer base of around 500,000 accounts. However, both machines can easily scale to handle a customer base of 1 million or more.

The HP 9000 Enterprise Servers, the K-570 and the T-600, are expected to have even greater processor speed, number of processors and I/O throughput. These models are expected to increase overall system performance by more than 50 percent. Batch-billing rates can be increased by adding more application server machines, and the test team did not observe any performance degradation when moving from a 100,000-account database to a 400,000-account database.

SPL WorldGroup Industry Solutions, Inc. is a member company of SPL WorldGroup B.V., a leading international provider of information technology solutions to organizations with mission-critical information needs. Through its Utilities Practice, SPL WorldGroup Industry Solutions, Inc., SPL developed the CIS PLUS product line to integrate customer information, billing, marketing and service functions, in an easy-to-use, 24-hour real-time system. As utilities face increasing competition, the client/server based CIS PLUS package solution offers a flexible and comprehensive solution to address the dynamic marketplace of the twenty-first century.

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Hewlett-Packard Company is a leading global provider of computing, Internet and intranet solutions, services, communications products and measurement solutions, all of which are recognized for excellence in quality and support. It is the second-largest computer supplier in the United States, with computer-related revenue in excess of $31.4 billion in its 1996 fiscal year. HP has 114,600 employees and had revenue of $38.4 billion in its 1996 fiscal year.

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(1) HP-UX 9.X and 10.0 for HP 9000 Series 700 and 800 computers are X/Open(R) Company UNIX(R) 93 branded products. HP-UX 10.20 is an X/Open UNIX 95 branded product. -0-