Rockwell Collins is a global leader in the development and production of integrated aviation electronics systems for military and commercial aircraft. Rockwell Collins leads the aviation industry in development of communication, navigation, surveillance and situational awareness capabilities.

More than 300 airlines worldwide rely on Collins avionics and in-flight entertainment systems. Rockwell Collins provides anytime, anywhere support for its customers through a global network of service centres. One of these centres is located in Reading, England.

Rockwell Collins IT Systems are built around an AS/400 system. A TCP/IP network with NT Servers allows the users to log in to the AS/400 using terminal login and access the critical day-to-day business applications. In the office, the same network is used for standard Windows applications.

Rockwell Collins needs to print critical, just-in-time documents. Goods in notes, shipping notes, aircraft certification documents, conformity to specification documents, purchase orders and acknowledgements are examples. The old method was to program each form in PCL onto an interface box that was in turn attached to a specific printer. The problems were that the forms were difficult to maintain and the system was inflexible.

About Face Solutions, a distributor for XLPrint Software, proposed to Rockwell Collins that they should add a software solution to their document development and printing. The solution that was recommended was Paris. Paris provides a document design system so that all forms and document layouts are managed from a standard PC. Any changes to documents caused by legislation or organisational changes can be made immediately and be in production immediately.

The Paris software solution also means that any document can be sent to any printer on the network. So, even though most documents go to a printer located at the point of need, in the event of printer failure, critical documents can be printed.

Through the use of Paris, Rockwell Collins now has total control over their document design and production. Documents are produced - at the point of need - immediately after an application is run on the AS/400.

The conversion from the old system was straightforward because the Paris system is flexible and uses the existing interface instructions.

The Paris barcode module is now being used so that documents in the future will be machine readable, so improving process control even further.

Other benefits of using the Paris solutions are:

		Interactive application development
		Printer independence
		Host system independence

Paris is a powerful document design, distribution and retrieval system that enables you to effortlessly create attractive and informative documents from your existing printstream data. Integrated with complimentary products, Paris can then distribute those documents anywhere via print, fax, email and archive.

For more information about Paris and other Output Management Solutions and Services, please email us at info@outputpeople.com or click on the "request info" icon at the top of this page.