CPI Moves into New Office

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1 COMPUTER PROJECTS OF ILLINOIS, INC. Volume 2 Issue 2 SPRING 2003 Special Interest Articles: CPI moves into new offices Projects is our middle name? NLETS activities Users Group Meeting Summary 6416 S. Cass Avenue Westmont, IL (630) CPI Moves into New Office If you have ever had the opportunity to visit our Westmont office, you know that we have been working out of three separate buildings. Well, in an attempt to have better communication between the personnel in the company (and to avoid running between buildings in inclement weather!), CPI has acquired two additional units that conjoin with one of our original units. This will allow us to have all of our software engineers in close communication with each other. After several long weeks of renovations, we made the official move on April 25 th. We invite everyone to visit us in our new location whenever you happen to be in the area. We know that Westmont, Illinois is tops on everyone s vacation list! Projects is our Middle Name OpenFox installed in Indiana OpenFox installed in Ohio For more information on the topics above, contact: Thom Mitney tmitney@openfox.com (630) Although many of you know us as CPI, our complete name is Computer Projects of Illinois, Inc., with a heavy emphasis on PROJECTS. Just as a quick review, lets count the projects since the last NLETS conference. CPI has added four new States to its list of customers: Maryland, Wyoming, Ohio and Indiana! All of these installations are complex and each system represents a major accomplishment. Several major software enhancements were needed to support all of the requirements. Although some of these projects were underway during last year s NLETS conference, all of them have been placed into production since then. Maryland is a transition system supporting all of the standard interfaces, such as NLETS, NCIC, BMV, Omnixx Force and Omnixx Repository. In addition, MQ Series support was provided and the system supports six major interfaces with the IBM MILES mainframe using MQ Series software. The system also supports several Oracle databases and has been in production since November of Page 1

2 Wyoming is a traditional message switching system. This system has been in production since December of 2002 and supports all the likely interfaces, such as NLETS, NCIC, regional systems, the mainframe for access to Hot Files, BMV records, protective orders and sex offender data. Of course, the system supports the Omnixx Force clients, as well as interfaces with the Omnixx repository. All system interfaces, except weather, utilize TCP/IP. Ohio is also a transition system. This system processes large traffic volumes and requires several interfaces, such as the standards, NLETS, NCIC, and Omnixx, as well as the Bridge to the Unisys mainframe and interfaces to JBM protocol converters. All of the interfaces in this system utilize TCP/IP. The Ohio system represents the second installation of OpenFox in a Windows environment and was placed into production in early April Yet to be accomplished are the Hot Files conversion to Oracle, however, this is well underway. We are very excited to welcome Ohio to our group of users. Indiana is also a transition system. The system supports all of the standard interfaces and LU 6.2 interfaces to the IBM mainframe for legacy terminal support as well as to BMV. In addition, the system supports an interface to Access Indiana. The Indiana project uses nearly all of the CPI software available: message switching, Oracle based Hot Files application containing almost all NCIC databases, as well as several Indiana specific files. In addition, CPI converted the Hot Files, as well as the CHRIS system, for Indiana and created a new interface into CHRIS. The Indiana system also includes the Oracle based Archival and Retrieval product. The system has been in production since early May In addition to the many highly visible projects briefly described above, CPI has also accomplished: An upgrade / replacement for Virginia An upgrade / replacement for Iowa An upgrade / replacement for Rhode Island Several additional interfaces and database activity in Maine, South Dakota, and Kentucky How does a small company such as CPI accomplish such a great deal of work while continuing to provide the best software maintenance and support in the industry? CPI has a very dedicated and knowledgeable staff, and the company focuses all of its energy on these types of systems in the law enforcement market space. CPI has the most robust easily customized software in the industry period. But, CPI could not accomplish this on our own. A big thanks goes to our partners, Datamaxx Applied Technologies for being the prime vendor, supplying all of the project management and workstation software, as well as Ex-Cel Solutions for supplying the message switching hardware, operating system and support. And, above all, we give a big thank you and gratitude to our customers for working with us. Together we have accomplished a great deal. Page 2

3 NLETS Conference Activities It hardly seems fair, but another year has passed and the NLETS conference is upon us again. CPI has been attending and sponsoring activities since the conference held in Burlington, Vermont. The reason I mention the location is because I can no longer remember the year. In any event, this year will be no different than what CPI has done in the past. Several staff members will be attending and CPI will participate by sponsoring the following activities: The conference T-Shirts co-sponsored by CPI and Datamaxx A hospitality suite co-sponsored by CPI, Datamaxx and Ex-Cel Solutions The BBQ and Rodeo co-sponsored by CPI and Datamaxx The Pre-Banquet Open Bar - sponsored by CPI As always, we will have several technical and marketing personnel in the hospitality suite to demonstrate various software components of the OpenFox applications. The following software will be demonstrated: The OpenFox message switching system - including Operator Aid, Configurator and High Availability The Hot Files system - including NCIC mirroring, local files and Hot Files utility The Validations process and client software The Archival and Retrieval system - including the client and reporting facilities The Criminal History Repository - including client interface So please stop by to say hello, and while you re at it, take a quick peek at our software. We ve got some pretty cool stuff.. Inaugural First Annual CPI Users Conference The Inaugural First Annual CPI users conference was held on April 8 th and 9 th at the Holiday Inn Conference Center in beautiful Willowbrook, Illinois. Willowbrook is just one town over from Westmont, the home of CPI. The weather was perfect and everyone marveled at how nice Chicago was in the springtime, when in actuality it snowed the night before the conference began and the general consensus was that the conference should be held at a time of year when the weather would be better. This is Chicago you know. The weather changes on a whim! CPI had contemplated a User Conference for some time and after listening to our customers, the Inaugural User Conference was born. Although many customers expressed a desire to participate in the conference, some were unable to attend due to the funding restrictions being experienced by many Page 3

4 of the states. Regardless, customers from Iowa, South Dakota, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Virginia, Arkansas, Homeland Security, Naval Investigation and Department of Justice were in attendance. The goal of the conference was two fold. The primary goal was to allow the customers to share among themselves and with all levels of CPI staff, their experiences and to discuss the direction upon which CPI should focus. The secondary goal was to make the customers fully aware of our products and services and to have the customers provide feedback, through a customer survey, concerning CPI product performance, service performance, extensions of the products, and finally, their interest in having a Second Annual CPI Users Conference. The following is an encapsulation of the Customer Survey and Presentations given at the conference: Customer awareness of products CPI provided presentations on Archive & Retrieval, Hot Files, On-Line Validations, XML and Encryption. We also demonstrated many of these products, including systems operating under both Unix, as well as Windows Customer rating of CPI product and services CPI provided Questionnaires that were filled out by each customer present. On a scale of 1 7, with 7 being the highest, the results were as follows: Category Average Score Rate Product Satisfaction 6.54 Rate Product Reliability 6.94 Rate Product Support 6.85 Rate Personnel as being Courteous and 6.86 Professional Rate Training 6.09 Customer Experiences and Exchange Jan Visser from Iowa Department of Public Safety gave a presentation on the AMBER Implementation in the State of Iowa. Derek Sylvester from the Department of Homeland Security, formerly INS, provided a presentation on the organization and functions of the new Homeland Security/INS. Both presentations were received enthusiastically. Customer Awareness of our Partner products and Services Datamaxx Applied Technologies Inc., Ex-Cel Solutions Inc., IBM and Oracle all provided presentations. Interest in formalizing the User Group Customers overwhelmingly agreed that a group should be established. It was decided that the conference should be held once a year, preferably in the fall when the weather is better. CPI should continue to coordinate the conference with the conference being held in the Chicago area, as it is central and easy to get to. The users will elect a User Group coordinator to work with CPI to establish the agenda. In order to move this process along, CPI would like to nominate Jan Visser from Iowa and Delton Tipton from South Dakota for the position of CPI coordinator. Other nominations will be accepted up until the beginning of the NLETS conference, if communicated to Thom Mitney by phone, mail or . All nominations will be posted at the hospitality suite. Please find a ballot to mark your choice at the end of this newsletter. The NLETS representative from your agency must bring the ballot to Thom Mitney at Page 4

5 the NLETS conference. CPI will furnish other ballots, if needed, at the conference. The voting must be completed before the pre-banquet cocktail hour, at which time the winner will be announced. As you know, CPI sponsors the pre-banquet cocktail hour. The overall consensus from all that attended was that the Inaugural CPI User Conference was a success and was enjoyed by all. The most popular portion of the conference was the General Discussion session held at the end of the conference. CPI, as the sponsor, came away from the event with excellent feedback concerning our products and services, and we have a better understanding of what we need to do to make both better for our customers. CPI would like to thank all those that attended this year and we encourage all our customers to mark the Second Annual CPI User Conference on your calendars. OHIO Joins the OpenFox Family CPI welcomes the State of Ohio Department of Public Safety and the Ohio State Highway Patrol to the growing family of OpenFox users! The new LEADS application went into production on April 4, 2003 using Datamaxx Omnixx workstations as the direct connect client workstation with encrypted DMPP2020 over TCP/IP. The new system is connected to NLETS and NCIC over TCP/IP. The system is currently in the midst of a transition plan moving legacy devices to Omnixx devices while at the same time moving all remote interface agencies from the mainframe to OpenFox. The new OpenFox system currently processes approximately 1,000,000 messages per day. The entire system is comprised of approximately 6,850 ORI s, 24,000 registered users and 104 remote computer interfaces, not including 6 mainframe interfaces. This implementation also includes the OpenFox HotFiles system, as well as the OpenFox Archive & Retrieval system running under Oracle 8i as the database management system. The application resides on redundant Unisys ES7000 partitioned servers (3 each), running Windows 2000 Advanced Server in a Microsoft cluster environment. One partition is running as the Hot Files and Omnixx Repository database server. Another partition is running Microsoft IIS as the Web Server and the third partition is running the OpenFox application. Each partition has 4 Xeon 700mhz processors and 4 GB of memory. The primary and secondary servers exist in separate geographic locations. Each system is connected to the EMC Connectrix Storage Area Network (SAN) via fiber. EMC s GEOspan software is utilized to expand the Microsoft Cluster across the Wide Area Network. CPI would like to thank the Ohio LEADS staff and welcome them to the OpenFox group! Page 5

6 CPI Welcomes INDIANA to the OpenFox Family CPI welcomes the State of Indiana (Indiana State Police) to the OpenFox family! The Indiana Data Communications System (IDACS) was placed into production on May 8 th, This system is a transition system and many of the user devices are still accessing the system from the mainframe while the system also supports Omnixx user workstations. This was a massive project and it all came on-line at the same time. There were numerous changes to the mainframe software, which now behaves like a regional (Metro) system to the OpenFox over four SNA/SDLC LU6.2 lines. The system also supports another LU6.2 interface to the Bureau of Motor Vehicle. The NLETS and NCIC interfaces utilize TCP/IP. The Omnixx interface utilizes the DMPP2020 protocol with both encryption and OFML (Omnixx Force / OpenFox Markup Language). The system supports most of the NCIC databases in a mirrored fashion as well as several Indiana specific files. The existing Indiana Hot Files were converted from the mainframe. The CHRIS database was moved from an existing IBM RS/6000 system to the OpenFox platform. Along with the conversion of data, CPI also created a new CHRIS interface, as well as the conversion of many batch and reporting jobs. The CPI Archival and Retrieval system is also implemented on a separate hardware system. The entire Indiana system is housed on three systems in one rack. System nodes A and B are redundant IBM pseries 660 s each consisting of 4x450 mhz processors and 2 gb of memory. The systems each have access to external mirrored disk drives for storage of the message switch log files, the Hot Files database and the CHRIS database. System C is dedicated to the Archival and Retrieval system. It has access to external disk storage for the database. The Archival and Retrieval system is an IBM pseries 610 with a single 333 mhz processor and 512 mb of memory. The system currently processes approximately 400,000 messages on a typical day. The cut to production took place over approximately 5 hours, during which the databases were converted. After a few corrections were made, the system has settled down and is running very smoothly. Currently Datamaxx Omnixx software is being installed to replace the existing IBM 3270 devices. CPI would like to thank all of the IDACS staff, as well as Datamaxx staff, that participated in the design work, the coding on the mainframe, the hours of testing on the new system and for their overall support and enthusiasm. It is a job very well done and another installation of which we are very proud! CPI User Representative Ballot Jan Visser Iowa Delton Tipon South Dakota Other: O O Page 6