Administration Manual - B.E.S.T. Undertaking.

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The extra load in the PCS-7800-XP System was transferred on this new
system. When the life of the system PCS-7800-XP was nearing its end, the
IBM’s RS-6000 Model 397 System with operating system AIX was installed
in the year 1998. The load on the system PCS-7800-XP was transferred to this
new system. In the year 1998-1999 it was decided to modify all the systems
for the ensuing year 2000 (Y2K) problems. Hence, it became necessary to
purchase new super mini computer system for modification, conversion and
testing of all the systems for Y2k problem as for testing, the setting of time of
the computer system for Y2k was necessary and it was not possible to change
the setting of time on existing computer system due to processing of the
regular jobs. The new IBM RS-6000 System was purchased in the year 1999
for this work.
In the year 2000, after the testing and implementation of the modified/
corrected systems, the new RS-6000 system was treated as the replacement for
the Wipro’s Synergy Pentium system which had become obsolete.
2.3 The Computer technology has been changing very fast. Every year new
models with better and advanced features are coming out. The software
technology is also changing very fast. While carrying out the future
developments, all these aspects are being taken care of.
The development carried out till then was in the batch mode of operations.
This did give the benefits of Computerisation, but now the new techniques
were available to carry out the development in “ON-LINE” mode. The batch
system gives the “history” while the On-line Systems gives the “news”. BEST
decided to start using the On-line technology since the year 1991.
Till the year 1991, processing of all the jobs for the systems, viz. Ticket
Accounting System, Daily Vehicular Return, Electricity Billing, Payroll etc.
were being done centrally at the Computer Centre at Backbay Bus Depot. In
the year 1991, the idea of decentralisation of Traffic applications initiated.
As a first step of decentralisation, one MINI Computer System PCS-AViiON-
3200 was installed in July 1991. This system was based on the UNIX
Operating System, which was the latest technology. The On-line Ticket
Accounting System was developed by the end of December 1991. This system
was tested successfully with 20 conductors at Backbay Depot in January,
1992. However, due to some administrative reasons, the On Line Ticket
Accounting System could not be implemented till December, 1997. The depot
activities of the Transportation Engineering Department was developed and
implemented in 1992.