Corporate Information

Levi, Ray & Shoup, Inc.
2401 West Monroe St. Springfield, IL 62704

www.vpsx.com

Contact Information

Justin Ward
Justin.Ward@lrs.com
+1-217-793-3800 x1699

John Runions
John.Runions@lrs.com
Main: +1 217-793-3800 x1797

LRS pioneered mainframe output distribution in 1981 and the company has been the industry leader in Enterprise Output Management (EOM) products ever since. The VPS® product runs on more than 5,000 IBM mainframes worldwide. Today, LRS offers innovative EOM solutions to manage printing and document storage in distributed environments. Solutions securely manage and deliver documents to a wide range of printers and other output devices.

From a printing and document management perspective, a variety of issues can occur when migrating legacy environments to another operating system. An Enterprise Output Management Solution (EOM) from LRS can manage and deliver PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, Oracle, and other critical output generated on all of your applications and platforms. Using an LRS solution, print-reliant processes are protected from delays and unnecessary cost increases.

Avoiding Administrative and Support Costs Related to Printing
Unlike with the mainframe environment, print management for a distributed environment lacks a native way to centrally manage printers and assure delivery of application output. LRS software, such as the VPSX solution, establishes a central point of control, supporting capture and delivery of documents without need for costly printer cards or converters. LRS can help organizations safeguard investments in AFP-based forms, converting those forms and resources to use with VPSX software in an Oracle environment.
LRS software eliminates all need to maintain printer information across multiple applications and print server queues. It provides users with rich status information about their print job, drastically reducing print-related helpdesk calls. Organizations can move to a paperless ‘green’ reporting environment by using LRS web-based viewing as well alternative delivery methods such as email.

Managing Risk and Compliance
In today’s highly regulated business environment, a company’s agility can be hampered with requirements to find, collect, and preserve files potentially serving as evidence in a legal action. In addition to data privacy and new e-discovery rules, enterprises are subject to regulations mandating specific retention periods for documents and files.
Without printing, LRS EOM solutions provide options for capturing and storing documents produced by legacy applications, distributed applications, or both. Integrated document storage capabilities help customers automate their governance and privacy needs while increasing their service levels. The software organizes documents, as well as enabling users to search and view documents as they would appear in printed form.
When a document must be printed, LRS EOM solutions reduce risk by applying encryption to safeguard sensitive information when printing. The VPSX solution also supports “Pull Printing” environments to ensure users do not loose sensitive information at the printer.

Retail
One of the world's largest retailers of office products needed to manage delivery of new Oracle and Peoplesoft documents, as well as legacy forms and output. With the hiring of a new CEO, a directive was mandated to streamline IT operations. One decision involved consolidation of platforms, including the mainframe within three years. A project was begun to consolidate applications and processes within supply chain, warehouse, transportation, etc. The large retailer wanted to centrally manage all printers in the Open Systems environment, similar to using the LRS VPS solution on the mainframe. They planned to standardize on Oracle and Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise applications to replace existing mainframe systems.

The customer began moving primary applications to Linux, Oracle, Windows, and Sun Solaris. They identified the additional need to convert AFP-based forms and output into PCL (invoices, POS receipts, checks) without rewriting applications or redesigning the forms.

Using the LRS VPSX solution, the customer had gained a single point of control over their output and printers. The software runs on their preferred Linux platform. The solution was tested and put in place well before they unleashed their new Oracle applications. The solution reduces interruptions to print-reliant processes include producing Pick Tickets, Insurance documents, some payroll documents, HR output, and reports from the X/Porter application. The solution supports AFP conversion and eliminates the need for IPDS cards in thousands of network laser printers. Over time, the new output management solution will also manage output from Oracle's PeopleSoft Financials (HR and AP), Sales, and Warehouse applications.

Retail/Fashion Manufacturing
An international fashion manufacturer/ retailer customer was having difficulties printing after converting a critical AS/400 application to an Oracle application on a Sun Solaris platform. The migration had left them unable to print documents produced using their new system. The customer’s production and logistics operations were both slowed to a standstill. The financial impact was enormous as they could no longer print invoices, delivery notes, reports, and so on.

Besides printing, the customer was interested in simplifying print administration for their Oracle applications. The customer supports applications from Oracle, CSC (Stealth 3000), and SAP, and is currently implementing Oracle’s Peoplesoft applications. As they learned more about VPSX management and control capabilities, the customer decided to test the software’s ability to manage all application output and the majority of their printers.

Government
The U.S. Government customer had re-hosted mainframe applications onto an AIX platform with the help of Micro Focus; Micro Focus is also an Oracle Modernization Alliance partner. The customer utilizes mobile trailer warehouses and manages their inventories using custom applications. They needed to deliver print data to mobile warehouse computers using locally attached printers. Specifically, the customer needed the ability to authorize users and permit them to print labels, 2D bar codes, forms, etc. (security rule allows only locally attached printers).

Micro Focus recommended LRS to the customer’s project leader. He learned about how the LRS VPSX Windows Print Client delivers output to authorized users with a locally attached printer. The team was impressed with how the VPSX solution can centrally manage their mobile printing operation while assuring delivery of critical documents. They learned about the LRSQ protocol for additional security. Micro Focus implemented the LRSQ client for the re-hosted applications, providing document encryption and compression.

Authorized users can receive output from VPSX servers and print output on locally attached printers. The VPSX server maintains a complete status log of all printing. The entire operation is encrypted and authentication-based, securely delivering output to mobile users with parallel port-attached printing devices. The customer’s project leader stated, “VPSX delivers all mission critical output from the re-hosting platform. This includes shipping labels, 2D bar codes, reports, forms, etc.” The also met the critical requirement to manage output to local attached printers.