wfn.org | New ELCA Computer Online

[ELCANEWS@ELCASCO.ELCA.ORG]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

NEWSBRIEF

July 30, 1996

NEW ELCA COMPUTER ONLINE

A more efficient and less costly computer system will assume all
duties of the eight-year-old "mainframe" of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America on Aug. 1, according to Ken F. Aicher,
ELCA director for information technology services.  The new "mid-
range server" was installed at the Lutheran Center in Chicago
during August 1995 and is now ready to take over.  "The change
will 'right-size' the churchwide computer operation using current
technologies at less cost, with more reliability and more speed,"
said Aicher.  "The church will save nearly $1 million by
selecting mid-range system servers rather than by simply
replacing the mainframe," he said.  "Using current computer
technologies also lets the ELCA tap the Internet as a method for
rapidly disseminating and collecting data."  The IBM 4381
mainframe has maintained all the church's financial,
congregational, personnel and real estate data.  The Hewlett
Packard T-500 Business Server will do that plus house the
accounting systems of the ELCA Mission Investment Fund.  The new
system is a triple processor with 512 megabytes of memory --
compared to the old system with a single processor and eight
megabytes of memory.  In 1988 the mainframe's hardware and
software cost $1,398,000.  The new system cost $745,000.  In the
past eight years the ELCA Department for Information Technology
has decreased from a staff of 32 to one of 23.

For information contact: Ann Hafften, Dir., ELCA News Service,
(312) 380-2958; Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Dir., (312) 380-2955; Lia
Christiansen, Asst. Dir., (312) 380-2956