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CUSTOMER
SUCCESS STORY: Synergy/DE enables robot technology for pharmaceutical company
WP Malone, Inc., the parent company of the Arkansas based chain, Allcare Pharmacy, is concerned with accuracy. With a clear goal of decreasing errors while increasing productivity, they recently incorporated control for an automated prescription filling machine into their existing Synergy/DE based application, Exact Med, and are now en route to a new level of pharmaceutical accuracy and efficiency.
For the past 25 years, WP Malone, Inc. has been developing Exact Med, updating it and adding new features as the pharmacy business changes and new requirements arise. Exact Med is used for both retail and institutional operations, maximizing productivity and reducing human error through the system's Synergy/DE based technology. Exact Med generates bar codes, directly interfaces with ScriptPro's SP Central pharmacy dispensing management system, automatically faxes doctors for refill authorization, e-mails customers statements in PDF format, includes customer charge accounts, and reduces data entry by linking family members' information such as address and phone number records.
“We are constantly working to further improve our software,” states Carl Mecum, senior software developer at WP Malone. “Synergy/DE helps us stay ahead of the curve.”
The semi-automated system is the most recent addition to Allcare Pharmacy’s efficiency arsenal, and it has been seamlessly incorporated into their existing Synergy/DE application.
The updated system includes two computers, each carefully tracking the inventory of medications and ordered prescriptions and printing the proper labels for the packages. It uses a robotic arm with two claws that work independently to dispense the appropriate medications.
"This machine moves us up a level to get higher productivity without increasing errors," said Percy Malone, president and owner of WP Malone. “That helps us meet our goals and enables us to better serve our customers. It’s truly a win-win situation.”
Read more about Allcare Pharmacy’s new technology.
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Synergy/DE 8.3.1c is now available on Windows and SCO OpenServer and includes support for MySQL
Version 8.3.1c includes performance-related enhancements for the Synergy XML API and SQL Connection, as well as corrections to Synergy Language, Professional Series Workbench, UI Toolkit, xfServer, xfServerPlus, xfNetLink .NET, xfNetLink Synergy, and Connectivity Series. There are several SCO OpenServer-specific corrections in version 8.3.1c, so we strongly recommend that you upgrade if you are currently running SCO OpenServer 6. Version 8.3.1c includes the following new features:
XML API
- We have significantly improved the performance of the XML parser when processing large XML documents.
SQL Connection
- Support for MySQL on Windows
SQL Connection includes a new database driver (VTX14) that enables you to access data from MySQL databases. MySQL is an increasingly popular database alternative that is noted for its speed, reliability, and flexibility. Version 8.3.1c supports MySQL version 5.0.24. Future plans include Synergy/DE support for MySQL on Linux.
- Connection caching within programs and across program chains
Version 8.3.1c includes options that improve performance by enabling your SQL Connection program to cache database connections. When one of these options is in force the %SSC_RELEASE function caches database connections rather than releasing them, and the %SSC_CONNECT function checks cached connections when called and uses one if possible.
- New database driver for SQL Server Native Client
We also made it possible for you to use shared memory when accessing a SQL Server 2005 database by adding a database driver for SQL Server Native Client.
- To download 8.3.1c and/or review the release notes, see the Synergy/DE 8.3 downloads page on our Web site.
Attention HelpDesk Support customers: After clicking on the above link, log into the Resource Center. You'll then be redirected to the appropriate Web page. Not on HelpDesk Support? Contact your Synergy/DE account manager today to learn how you can access all of the information-packed areas of the Resource Center.
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SUPPORT TECH TIP: Increasing concurrent users for SQL Connection
With the Synergy 8.3.1c patch, there are now two ways to increase the number of concurrent users for SQL Connection. Aside from the limit imposed by licensing, concurrent users are limited by available memory on the server and, when using vtxnetd on Windows, by the number of threads that the server can accommodate.
The first method, which predates Synergy 8.3.1c, is to reduce the memory used on the server for a database connection by lowering the values passed to %SSC_INIT for the maxcur and maxcol arguments. These arguments set the maximum number of cursors to be allocated to a channel (maxcur) and the maximum number of columns
that can be returned for a query (maxcol), values that are multiplied when determining how much memory to allocate for the connection.
The second method, introduced with Synergy 8.3.1c, is to use the -s n option for vtxnetd, which reduces the vtxnetd thread size on Windows. Reducing thread size enables more threads to fit in virtual memory and the page file, which means more concurrent users. The n part of the option is a kilobyte value, so the following, for example, sets the thread size for vtxnetd to 256K.
vtxnetd -s256
Note that you will want to set -s to a number smaller than 512. In addition to adding this option, we reduced the default thread stack size for vtxnetd in Synergy 8.3.1c to 512K. So with this version, SQL OpenNet already supports more concurrent users by default than it has in previous versions.
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Important Microsoft fix for Synergy clients on terminal servers
When using the Winsock Select function on a Windows Server 2003-based multiprocessor computer, Synergy clients may experience the following error: WSAENOBUFS (10055). Microsoft documents this as follows: “An operation on a socket cannot be performed because the system lacks sufficient buffer space or because a queue is full.” This issue will be resolved in Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2). Until then, Synergex recommends that you install the associated hotfix from Microsoft. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917114/
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PLATFORM
NEWS
AMD
HP/Open VMS
Microsoft
Sun
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SYNERGEX
EDUCATION
- Workbench
Highlights: October 1, 2006, 8AM PST, at your desk
- Synergy
Language Essentials: October 16 - 20, 2006, Gold
River, CA
- Synergy/DE
UI Toolkit Essentials: October 23 - 27, 2006,
Gold River, CA
- Synergy/DE
Integration Essentials for Advanced Developers: December
4 - 8, 2006, Gold River, CA
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HP
WORKSHOPS
HP
and Intel® Developer Workshops
According
to HP's Web site, “HP and Intel have created a special
training program to support software development on HP
Integrity
servers.”Visit HP's
Web site for more details.
HP-UX
Port-A-Thon Workshops 2006
If you
have an application that runs on HP-UX 11i on PA-RISC
and
you need to provide this application to customers using the
HP OpenVMS Integrity platform running HP-UX 11iV2, the
HP-UX
Port-a-thon workshops are for you. According to HP's Web
site,
“participants MUST bring their own application source
code to work on; the objective of this program is to produce
clean compiled application code.” Go to HP's
Web site for more information.
If you
are interested in obtaining Synergy/DE for HP-UX OpenVMS Integrity,
contact your Synergy/DE
account manager today.
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Trademarks:
Synergex, Synergy, Synergy Development Environment, Synergy/DE,
and all other Synergy/DE product names are trademarks of Synergex.
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trademarks of their respective holders.
Synergex
International · 2330 Gold Meadow Way · Gold
River, CA 95670
+1 916.635.7300 | 800.366.3472 (North America) | 0800.898.368
(United Kingdom)
Copyright © 2006 Synergex International Corporation.
All rights reserved.
Synerg-E-News
09072006
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News
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