End of week processing is of continuous concern to W H Smith. Figures from a mid-range store were used to evaluate the effect of processing at larger stores when a greater number of transactions would be processed. The results from Athene/Unix showed that the maximum allowable time period would be significantly breached on the standard UNIX processor based configuration indicating that an upgrade would be required. Subsequent real time processing showed that Athene/Unix had predicted the end of week processing time to within 7%.

According to Mark Robbins, Capacity Planning Manager at W H Smith: "Athene/Unix was the only product on the market which would enable us to manage the performance of the UNIX computers. The software has performed superbly, as has Metron. We now have access to information which we never had before and are able to take decisions based on hard facts rather than gut feelings. The software is in use every day, monitoring the UNIX-based applications, which primarily handle data from the tills into the back office systems. Data is collected from every store and then passed back via an X25 network into a DRS 6000 at Swindon and from there into the Athene control Center PC for processing."