RTV Increases Availability of Norwegian Social Security System Using B

HOUSTON and OSLO, Norway, April 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- BMC Software, Inc. , a leading provider of enterprise management solutions, today announced that Rikstrygdeverket (RTV) is increasing the availability of the Norwegian social security system using integrated data management solutions from BMC Software. RTV is the Norwegian Government's social welfare provider and is using BMC Software's next-generation backup and recovery solution for IMS to enhance the recoverability of its IMS environment. By automating multiple backup and recovery tasks, RTV is ensuring around-the-clock provision of welfare payments to Norway's nearly five million citizens.

As part of the same agreement, RTV is also extending its relationship with BMC Software in the DB2 environment. RTV will deploy Database Administration for DB2 and BMC Software's APPTUNE for DB2 to increase administration productivity and accelerate the performance of its end-to-end DB2 environment. RTV is utilizing BMC Software's innovative Mainframe Advantage Pack software leasing agreement which gives them complete flexibility to switch mainframe solutions as their needs change.

"This will enable RTV to deliver an even higher quality of service to the citizens of Norway," said Ragnhild Irene Meijer, Group Leader, RTV. "More than four million citizens rely on RTV to pay their social security allowance, child benefit, pension and other welfare-related items. By implementing this best practice IMS and DB2 management toolset from BMC Software, our data will be continuously available. It will also save us time and money by automating the recovery process and eliminating manual procedures. This breakthrough announcement will help RTV move closer to Business Services Management (BSM), by aligning our technology more closely with the needs of our business -- our citizens."

More than 6,500 employees in government offices throughout Norway need social security information to be available continually in order to process and finance the welfare needs of the population. RTV had reached a point where it could no longer guarantee the 24x7 availability of this critical information. The routines it was relying on to recover its IMS environment were no longer able to deliver the service levels RTV required. Building on the success of previous BMC Software deployments within the government agency, RTV has deployed BMC Software's best-of-breed backup and recovery solution for IMS to perform image copies and recoveries in a fraction of the time required by standard IMS utilities. DBAs are notified of exposures before they occur, automating recovery, eliminating manual procedures and reducing the overall cost of owning a large scale IMS environment. The solution also minimizes the learning curve traditionally encountered by IT staff as well as installation and maintenance requirements.

RTV will use BMC Software's Database Administration for DB2 solution to streamline the management of its IBM mainframe environment. Automation at all levels will increase the efficiency of DB2 administrators, simplify management, reduce costs and create a comprehensive change management system for application development and production maintenance.

About BMC Software

BMC Software, Inc. is a leading provider of enterprise management solutions that empower companies to manage their IT infrastructure from a business perspective. Delivering Business Service Management, BMC Software solutions span enterprise systems, applications, databases and service management. Founded in 1980, BMC Software has offices worldwide and fiscal 2004 revenues of more than $1.4 billion. For more information about BMC Software, visit http://www.bmc.com/ .

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