Elders has installed a powerful IBM computer to support its new supply chain management system from Melbourne-based Mid Comp International.
The IBM System i 570 has 16 processors, 12 of which are activated, plus 384GB of RAM, more than 30TB of disk storage and support for more than 4,500 users.
Elders CIO, Chris Ferguson, said Mid Comp International’s Odyssey solution is being rolled out to 430 locations as the backbone of the company's $1.3bn merchandise division business. He said the new machine would handle growth for the next five years.
Ferguson said that Java-rich applications such as Odyssey required a powerful processor to run but the new System i 570 was well able to handle the workload.
"We needed a decent Java-based supply chain management system to stay competitive, and happily we found a local company in Mid-Comp International over the big vendors including SAP and Movex," Ferguson said.
The new IBM server replaced an existing 750 model with five partitions to give Elders high availability and room for growth. As well as Odyssey, all other business applications for financial services, banking, HR, livestock, wool, and grain management systems will be transferred onto the new box.