In fact, Dudley MBC has over four thousand computer users. Traditionally working with ICL mainframes, the Council has now implemented UNIX-based ICL DRS6000 systems and Teamservers. These run a variety of "Officepower" applications, which as well as the standard office packages also include time management software and systems for incident management. According to Stuart Baddams, IT Office at Dudley: "Towards the end of last year on a certain UNIX systems, users started to complain about poor response times. Before deciding on the type of upgrade which might help solve the problem, we took the decision to install a scientific method of analyzing various ‘what if’ scenarios. Until then, we had worked without Capacity Planning software."

The Council selected Athene/Unix Version 4 from Metron Technology Limited, which was installed in December 1994.

Structured Capacity Planning has now become part of the life of the Metropolitan Borough Council. One analysis and capacity plan is carried out each month on one UNIX system. The target machines were initially selected on the basis of those with performance problems and Athene has been used to diagnose the causes. In addition, some of the Council’s more elderly UNIX machines have also been tested to gain a better understanding of how they are performing, whether their performance can be improved, how much resource is being used and how much spare capacity remains.

Stuart Baddams concluded: "Athene is proving very useful. It gives us the ability to manage UNIX servers, which would have been impossible without Athene, and recommendations regarding upgrades are made based on the software predictions."