Announcing the elimination of your Agency Database Server!
As we wind down the deployment of agile Quotes at the end of August, we are happy to announce that your agency will no longer be required to maintain a local agency database server!
For over a decade, this server was used to host an IBM DB2 database (OLA) required by AQS, ACE 6.0 and a host of other legacy applications. With the full implementation of agile, and subsequent retirement of AQS and ACE, all ABL business applications now run over the internet on a centralized agile database, hosted corporately in Conyers and replicated to our disaster recovery site in Atlanta.
In addition to the cost savings associated with purchasing and maintaining your database server, there are a number of other major benefits to your agency including:
- the elimination of a tremendous amount of network traffic (i.e. data syncing between your agency and ABL corporate databases) aiding in faster application performance
- the ability to view a single-source of the data (i.e. see what corporate users see) in real-time (ex. order status, inventory status and documents such as invoices, credits, packing slips, BOLs etc.).
Decommissioning of other applications
In addition to the elimination of your local database server, we are also announcing the decommissioning of the Agency Business Analyzer (ABA) and Agency Reporting Extract Tool (ARET) applications. These legacy applications were built to retrieve and report upon AQS and ACE 6.0 data from your agency’s local OLA database. To replace these applications and reports, we have delivered a robust reporting platform in agile under the Reports tab where all of your quote and order reports are now available on-line. While mass exports of quote and order information are no longer supported, agile Quotes and agile Order Management do have export functionality built in.
Assistance with removal of your local server and legacy ABL software
One final note, later this fall, Frontline Support will be in contact with your agency to assist in the removal of your server OLA database and legacy ABL business system software (including ACE and AQS). This will free up valuable disk space for both your client workstations and your agency server. For any concerns or questions, please contact the Acuity Brands Support Center.