Industry Solutions
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While all TPS® products are basically cross-industry,
there are a few that are more suited for specific industries.
The Retail/Wholesale distribution industry has been the
impetus behind the boom in e-commerce and B-to-B communications.
Two TPS® products, TPS®/NFM and TPS®/NTM, work
exceedingly well in the distribution industry. However,
they are also very functional in any organization with
file distribution and gathering requirements and/or message
switching requirements. These two TPS® products provide
an inexpensive means of moving data quickly and securely
among users, customers, vendors, and business partners. |
TPS®/NFM
(NetWork File Manager) is a multi-faceted
file distribution and file gathering system that works with multiple
protocols and gives the user extreme flexibility in scheduling
and tracking the distribution and gathering. Unlike other client/server
products, NFM allows the clients to talk to one another on a
peer-to-peer basis without returning to the server where data
must be stored on a temporary repository before being routed
to its final destination. This also gives the user the ability
to offload distribution and gathering from their mainframe to
a server thus re-claiming utilization on the host.
The second product, TPS®/NTM
(NetWork Transaction Manager),
is a real-time message switch which offers an easily manageable
solution to the problem of sending transactions or messages from
application to application between different hardware and software
systems utilizing multiple protocols. NTM interfaces with POS
applications to move credit card authorizations, real-time inventory
updates, and similar items. This client/server system provides
an easily accessible API to interface with existing POS applications.
Thus, it can be integrated into a current system to meet the
growing needs of being able to communicate with a variety of
systems and protocols.
TPS® has developed two products, TPS®/PCA, and TPS®/WSM,
that fit the needs of the Banking industry. These two TPS® solutions
fill a void for banks that have SNA or legacy protocol devices
they wish to keep in place, but have a need to go to a TCP/IP
protocol for processing. TPS®/PCA (Protocol Conversion Application)
was written specifically for the banking industry. It is a UNIX®-based
gateway and protocol converter between SNA devices and TPC/IP
networks. Because TPS®/PCA has a PU4/5 capability, it can
function as a pseudo mainframe and actually drive the ATM network.
PCA is deployed by banks to manage SNA-based ATMs connecting
to mainframes or UNIX® platforms through TCP/IP socket networks.
The second product, TPS®/WSM (WAN <-> Sockets Middleware),
provides a gateway functionality between a host system and clients
that use various protocols. This allows organizations with multi-protocol
devices/networks to communicate with a TCP/IP platform. Both
products provide the flexibility for an organization to move
to a TCP/IP protocol in an orderly fashion while continuing to
use its existing hardware and networks.
TPS® is committed to continue to provide industry-specific
solutions such as these. With our many years of connectivity
experience, TPS® is open to discuss future solutions with
companies requiring specific connectivity issues.