August 2006 Newsletter

HARP Energized by HP-UX

By: Vice President

The migration of Quadax’s HARP billing software to the HP-UX operating system is in full swing. The move, necessitated by Hewlett Packard’s discontinuance of the HPe3000 line of servers running the MPE operating system, has been a success.

In March, an HP-UX server with four Itanium2 processors was purchased and was immediately put into use hosting our Patient Advocacy system. Shortly thereafter, we began moving clients for whom Quadax performs billing internally to this new server. We are currently moving 3–5 customers each week. Beginning in October, we will begin migrating those of you who use HARP using our ASP (Application Service Provider) model.

How did Quadax go about the migration process?

HARP was developed using a development tool called Speedware 4GL, which runs on both MPE and HP-UX. One set of source code has been maintained and is compiled on both systems. Thus, all enhancements and bug fixes are only done once, and users are running the same version of HARP without regard to the operating system. Our Quality Assurance department thoroughly tested the online portions of HARP. Batch processing was put through rigorous testing in which results from both operating systems were analyzed in great detail.

What results have we seen as a result of the migration?

The performance of batch processing has been outstanding, to say the least. Processing times have been cut to as little as 1/6 of the times they previously took. HP-UX requires more processing power than did MPE, but the processors being built for HP-UX today more than make up the difference.

How does the migration affect you?

If you are a user of HARP on Quadax hardware, you will be given a new logon procedure. Once logged on, you are running the same application with which you are familiar. No retraining is necessary. Demand reports as well as monthend reporting will be available more quickly than in the past.

The improved performance of our HARP servers will undoubtedly improve the service Quadax provides to you. We have overcome the challenge of porting HARP to HP-UX, and hope to improve the software using some of the many technologies now available to us. Quadax remains committed to making HARP your medical billing solution.