Title: New ELCA Computer Online ELCA NEWS SERVICE NEWSBRIEF July 30, 1996 NEW ELCA COMPUTER ONLINE A more efficient and less costly computer system will assume all duties of the eight-year-old "mainframe" of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on Aug. 1, according to Ken F. Aicher, ELCA director for information technology services. The new "mid- range server" was installed at the Lutheran Center in Chicago during August 1995 and is now ready to take over. "The change will 'right-size' the churchwide computer operation using current technologies at less cost, with more reliability and more speed," said Aicher. "The church will save nearly $1 million by selecting mid-range system servers rather than by simply replacing the mainframe," he said. "Using current computer technologies also lets the ELCA tap the Internet as a method for rapidly disseminating and collecting data." The IBM 4381 mainframe has maintained all the church's financial, congregational, personnel and real estate data. The Hewlett Packard T-500 Business Server will do that plus house the accounting systems of the ELCA Mission Investment Fund. The new system is a triple processor with 512 megabytes of memory -- compared to the old system with a single processor and eight megabytes of memory. In 1988 the mainframe's hardware and software cost $1,398,000. The new system cost $745,000. In the past eight years the ELCA Department for Information Technology has decreased from a staff of 32 to one of 23. For information contact: Ann Hafften, Dir., ELCA News Service, (312) 380-2958; Frank Imhoff, Assoc. Dir., (312) 380-2955; Lia Christiansen, Asst. Dir., (312) 380-2956