Operations

Data Control Clerks 

During the day we'd get deliverys of data from the 4 borough's by van. I remember one driver being a character, akin to Worsel Gummage.

These would have strong suitcases full of data sheets tagged together of Rent forms etc. We'd seperate into batches of managable groups with header and mark trailer forms (start/end 1 of 10 etc). These we'd pass through to the data preparation to type into one magnetic Redifon Seecheck tape, which we'd document this in a folder, fill out a run document and Job Control Language [JCL] cards for the tape number and change the variable for what week it was.

We also had Financial Management Applications [FMA] tapes, and rate paper tapes to submit validation runs. These were then taken to the Computer room for execution, where we'd return with any printouts and distribute them.

Data Preparation 

Despite the main application Rates being a real-time on-line system, there remained many batch systems including old LEO programs that continued to run under emulation until they were re-written. Users would fill in forms and the punch key staff would transcribe the data onto punch cards or magnetic tape.

Additionally, all program development was undertaken using punched cards as the cost of Visual Display Units was at that time very expensive. Programmers would handwrite their lines of code on coding sheets of 80 columns by typically 24 rows.

These would also be punched onto cards by Data Preparation and the programs stored in long narrow trays within special filing cabinets. Each card had a sequence number in the first 8? columns so that changed cards could be inserted (and in case the tray was dropped!).

Data Preparation employed upto 30 staff. As was typical for the 70s they were all female.

Job Control 

Typical daily tasks involved receiving the various data sheets delivered via courier from the 4 boroughs. We would book these in, prepare and pass over to the data-prep ladies on the other side of a hatch. They would key in and output this data onto magnetic tape which would get passed back to us.

After submitting the batch job to read and vet this data we would take the tapes and run-sheets to the computer room for the operators to run and the results would be printed for us to take back to job control.

We would also be tasked with any ancillary processing for any output which had not been completed overnight.

We were positioned at one end of the Job Control office. In the middle was the Duty Applications Control Clerk (ACC) and a couple of operators - they were responsible for submitting the batch jobs, making sure everything that was due to run before the night shift started had run. Pretty much anyone who wanted to talk to Job Control (Borough contacts or application programmers) would be speaking to the duty ACC. The tape librarian sat at the far end.

Production Analyst  

In circa 1987 the ACC role was renamed to Production Analyst (PA).

The primary function of the PA (or ACC as was) was to be the production department's (Ops/JC) representative for our assigned applications. Amongst others I was responsible for FMA, Class, and Council Tax. Graham Cook had responsibility for Payroll, Ian Brazier looked after Creditors and Housing Benefits and Mark Bevan had Rents.

We'd need to look after the JCL (and JPP - "JCL pre processor" - an in-house written system for simplifying our JCL) code, maintain the run-sheets, set up the job schedules (initially using an in-house written diary system, but in the later years this was converted to a job scheduler called JobTrac). Where pre-printed stationery was necessary this fell to the responsible PA to order when the stock was depleted.

Shift Control 

Each day there was a handover from the previous shift. Depending on what shift you were on, there were overnight batch runs to set up for the overnight staff to run. Each day there would be checks of the validation batch runs run by the Data Control Clerks. These would either need the Data Preparation to amend the data on the Seecheck tape or the Shift Control Clerks to manuallly correct the paper tapes by splicing in the corrected data. They would also do some of the work with the output the Data Control clerks did during the day.

Shifts  

Once live running commenced in April 1972, LOLA ran 2 computer operating shifts but this increased later to a 3 shift system Monday - Friday, with overtime available on most weekends. During the day shift the priority would be the on-line system with the other shifts concentrating on batch work. Weekends work included database reorganisations either for efficiency or to incorporate applications modifications.

Typical tasks included running the line printers (these were noisy things), loading tapes, running the batch jobs, and covering the job-control desks as noted above.

 

 

 

Printing and Mailing 

Each morning there was a stack of overnight batch output, which either needed decollating (removing the cardon paper), running through the guillotine, Payslip folder, or enveloping machine.

The Ancillary room also contained the horrendous Kern machine that (attempted to) put all the printed letters into envelopes and it would get stuck every two minutes which was not great when there were thousands of letters to envelope every night. A large hammer and a swift kick were often used to fix some of its foibles.

These would be put in the relevant borough's suitcase and collected at the same time as the drivers delivered new data. These suitcase got very heavy and were stacked in racking in the office.

Advanced Function Printing 

The line printers were controlled by a file called an FCB, or "Forms Control Buffer". This file would allow you to determine where each line on the page would appear, provided that is, that the line position was an exact multiple of 1/6 inch.

LOLA replaced a couple of their line printers with lasers not long before I came off shift (circa 1987) and these had the ability to print anywhere on the page (all-points addressable).

LOLA bought a PC software package called Archetype Tyform and we used this to draw out the layout for the page. Tyform would convert this into a program written in overlay generation language which we would compile and merge with the output from our batch to produce the finished page. This reduced the need for pre-printed stationary.

Some of these forms had to be designed very accurately, for example anything which included a bank credit-slip had to be printed so that, after the ancillary staff had cut the form, the OCR line could be easily read by the banks' machines.

Open Systems Team (from c1993)

This was a new team created around 1993 to set up Pyramid Technology Unix servers. The idea was to eventually move processes to these new servers. They used the Unix Operating System and Oracle database system.

Paul has written about the Ancillary Room and the Open Systems department. View here [⇗]

Operations Video Tour

In the early 1990s, operators Paul Golding and Richard Langford made 2 videos of the Operations areas. They have now been uploaded to YouTube. [click image ⇗]

References

1. As recalled in February 2024 by David Woodhams, LOLA Job Control circa 1979-81.

2. As recalled in February 2024 by Alan Cooper, LOLA Applications Support 1970-75. Alan joined LOLA at its interception working in the Applications Support groups developing and maintaining (and repairing!) the databases. Additionally he developed middle-ware software to help application programmers.

3. A Virtual LEO, Alan Cooper, LEO Newsletter, LEO Computer Society - 2pp View here [⇗]

4. As recalled in July 2024 by Andy Chase, LOLA Operator and Job Control from 1986 to 1998. Andy joined LOLA in 1986 as a Computer Trainee - a "straight out of school" position. He first worked in Job Control, then as a shift operator and finally as a Production Analyst working on the Advanced Function Printing.

5. As recalled in March 2025 by Paul Golding, at LOLA from 1985 to 1995, first as an Operator and later in the newly created Open Systems department. Paul has written about the Ancillary Room and the Open Systems department. View here [⇗]

6. As recalled in March 2025 by Paul Golding, at LOLA from 1985 to 1995, first as an Operator and later in the newly created Open Systems department. Paul has written about the Ancillary Room and the Open Systems department. View here [⇗]