Events at OSM
State of Nevada licenses cosbatch
28th April 2010
The State of Nevada, the 36th State of the Union, came into being shortly after the Battle of Gettysburg on October 31st, 1864. Named from the Spanish word ‘nieve’, meaning snow-capped, the state is as famous for its breath-taking natural scenery as it is for its (wo)man-made casinos. Rich in natural resources, the state produces precious metals and jewels including gold, silver and opals, as well as the more prosaic copper, lead, zinc, tungsten, uranium and manganese from its mines. Famous as a destination for tourists, it includes the cities of Las Vegas and Reno, combining bright lights with some of the world’s most dramatic natural wonders.
Nevada is some 110,000 square miles in area, making it the seventh largest state, and supports a population of just under 2,000,000 people, many of whom are concentrated in the main cities.
The state government is based in the state capital, Carson City. Like most state governments operating in the current fiscal climate, there is a concentration on efficiency and getting the most out of every dollar received. Led by Controller Kim Wallin, the State of Nevada’s financial system computing environment is expected to contribute heavily to those efficiencies. This can be seen to particular effect in the Controller’s Office.
The Controller is the chief fiscal officer charged with administering the state accounting system and the state's debt collection program. The office has the mission of administering the system to permit fair, accurate, consistent financial reporting that provides current and historical financial information. In processing financial transactions, the Controller has the constitutional duty of conducting the final audit and the settling of all claims against the state, and as such must ensure compliance with the intent of the constitution, federal laws and state statutes. The Controller is also responsible for computing, withholding and accounting for all state payroll deductions and overseeing all records in connection with administration and compliance with federal revenue and income tax laws.
While the State has moved to interactive applications that provide services to the Agencies and the public they serve, there are still a number of background, or batch, processes that need to run. When the State decided that they wanted to automate those back-end processes as part of their drive towards a more efficient datacenter, they turned to Open Systems Management Inc.’s (OSM) cosbatch software.
The datacenter for the Controller’s office contains a number of mid-range IBM eServer pSeries computer systems running the AIX operating system, a variant of UNIX. The Controller’s Office runs over 300 batch jobs every night and cosbatch is relied upon to ensure they are completed by start of work next day.
Alex Echo, IT Manager at the Controller’s Office said, “By automating the background processes under cosbatch we can ensure that all such jobs are run without the need to provide staff to invoke those jobs.”
Echo went on to say, “When we looked for a software package to run these background processes there was no question at that time as to which package provided us with the best combination of functionality and value for money. That’s why we chose cosbatch. We have not had to regret that decision. Furthermore, it is essential that we can rely on the data processing and reporting that we entrust to cosbatch to carry out. Not only have we found that the software is compliant with all our technical requirements, but the support that we obtain from the OSM help desk is second to none.”
Neil Chaney, CEO of OSM responded, “It is rewarding to know that the software and the services we provide to the State are appreciated. OSM has been around for over 20 years, and I have been associated with them for the duration of that time, but I still get a kick out of a happy customer. This is particularly true of a customer that is providing wonderful services to ordinary people in an extraordinary State.”
About Open Systems Management
Open Systems Management (OSM) - a privately held company with venture capital backing, founded in 1988 and based out of Seattle, WA, USA; Wokingham, UK; and Perth in Western Australia - develops and markets low cost, high quality systems and IT operations management software for UNIX, Linux and Microsoft Windows systems. The software is supported worldwide out of offices in Seattle, WA, USA, Perth, and the UK.
Web: www.cosbatch.com
For further information, contact Neil Chaney:
Tel. +1 206 583 8721