gen-i Web Enables Access To Landonline Project

gen-i Web Enables External Access To $140 Million Landonline Project

AUCKLAND- Friday, December 15, 2000- The external launch this week of Landonline, the largest IT project ever undertaken by the New Zealand government, has seen gen-i limited play a key role in delivering the enormous project to customers via the internet.

Landonline integrates millions of survey and land title records with the Geodetic 2000 survey and Electoral mapping information. The huge undertaking is the first time spatial and legal information have ever been integrated into a single digital environment. It is also a unique project, so the programme designers have had no overseas models to draw from.

Landonline information will be available to registered users who, thanks to gen-i Internet integration expertise, will connect with the Landonline database via the web. As a result, users will have greater access to information at any time, and from anywhere, in New Zealand.

gen-i’s role in the project was to design an Internet delivery system that provided for around 1000 users, supported a very large application and allowed up to six upgrades a year.

“The Citrix Nfuse architecture as proposed by gen-i, offered significant advantages in the areas of performance, usability, security and maintainability when compared to the alternative of running the application using a 2-tier “fat client” architecture” said gen-i enterprise architects Quentin Smart and Simon Sparrow.

“We delivered the solution using Citrix Nfuse and in the process created a secure web-based environment,” Mr Smart said. gen-i recently achieved Citrix Platinum Partner status in New Zealand.

“With the huge volume of spatial data accessed, locating the application on a high speed network close to the data makes good sense, and with all communications delivered encrypted to clients over the Internet we achieved an high degree of security,” he said.

“One of the challenges we faced was making the application available to users with a variety of different Internet browsers and printers. In the area of print, the team came up with a solution that, instead of having to support all types of printers, print files are turned into .pdf versions and sent to users. In this way anyone can print Landonline material using any printer by downloading a .pdf file,” Mr Sparrow said.

Landonline programme director Terry Jackson said gen-i had provided the Citrix expertise that had enabled the project to be delivered via the web. “We were very pleased with the level of Citrix understanding gen-i brought to the project,” Mr Jackson said.

gen-i has also designed and implemented thin client solutions for the NZ Fire Service. For NZI, gen-i provided a thin client model that significantly reduced the total cost of ownership and reduced reliance on desktop hardware.

About gen-i
gen-i limited is the first and largest New Zealand-based e-business Internet integrator, focussing on designing, building, implementing and supporting e-business solutions and systems for large corporate customers. With more than 400 people at offices in major centres in New Zealand, gen-i extends customer support worldwide – both online and through a network of service partners.
gen-i has four major areas of focus and expertise: Infrastructure, Ventures, Field Force and Procurement.
gen-i Infrastructure is geared to providing and supporting all the hardware, software and networks required for today’s e-business – and to achieve that in a number of new ways. gen-i Ventures is an Internet innovation operation geared to providing knowledge and experience, including building e-commerce sites, Intranets, extranets and implementing and supporting a wide range of e-business and traditional applications. gen-i field Force is New Zealand’s leading technology engineering onsite capability, expertly trained and ready to deploy or maintain the country’s leading technology networks. gen-i Procurement provides a fast, easy and cost-effective way to select, purchase, install and maintain office technologies.
Prior to its name change in 2000, gen-i traded successfully for more than 20 years as Wang New Zealand.

About Landonline
Land Information New Zealand is making history by creating Landonline, New Zealand's first online automated survey and title service.
Landonline is integrating over one hundred years of historical survey and title information and putting it online. This means geographic impediments will become a thing of the past with access possible from almost anywhere in New Zealand.

The service will be available on a secure subscriber network, and by utilising, the latest in digital technology will deliver a full 'e-commerce' capability.

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