Population served: 120,000
Location of headquarters: Teignbridge, Devon
Number of jBASE users: 250
Platform: IBM RS6000 F50

We’re told that the ghost of The Grey Lady haunts the headquarters of Teignbridge District Council. Is she is the ghost of inefficiency, then a migration to jBASE as ensured that she has well and truly been laid to rest.  Because, in 1999, TDC not only cut its IT costs by about £160,000 per year, but also improved user response times by a factor of up to 100, as a direct result of the move. As well as the possibility of cutting Council Tax for residents within its authority, Teignbridge DC also expects to deliver other benefits to the public, such as improved services.

Originally running Reality on an MDIS platform, Teignbridge DC recognised that this system could not deliver the performance levels or expansion options it needed to achieve their efficiency targets. A full evaluation of the available options led to jBASE, running on an IBM RS6000 F50, as the most viable alternative, and a full performance testing programme was designed. The results were conclusive. And Dave Bracey, Head of IT at TDC, is delighted with the performance of the new system. "In fact, the tests went considerably beyond the planned benchmark specification," he said, "and in all cases jBASE always outperformed the MDIS solution. For example, a count of Council Tax payers was completed in 15 seconds, rather than 1500 seconds, while a bank reconciliation took 3 minutes rather than 60 minutes. An electoral roll count took 15 minutes as opposed to 90 minutes."

Although the changeover was a significant task, it was made considerably easier through the simplicity of migration reported by all jBASE users. Today, with the performance spectre at rest, the IT staff is working with new technologies that are challenging but are paying off.

"The jBASE product provides us with a stable foundation to build on", continues Bracey, "and not least there is the issue of support - the jBASE team has proved that they can, and will, provide us with the very highest levels of service."