The Office of Revenue Commissioners (Ireland) Commits to Actian Ingres Database

The Office of the Revenue Commissioners in Ireland, responsible for the assessment and collection of taxes and duties, required high availability and high performance for its mission-critical computer systems. It had adopted the Ingres database and the OpenROAD application development toolset in 1993 and had constantly upgraded to the latest versions to ensure a stable, manageable, and economical platform. However, the organization faced challenges in improving transaction processing as well as better batch and checkpoint performance. It was essential to move mission-critical systems to Actian Ingres database without any impact on live services. The organization had many databases in multiple Ingres installations, all of which support mission-critical applications either in production or at various stages of development. It was essential to have minimal downtime during the upgrade and to ensure that all applications, especially its large-scale batch applications, continued to run smoothly.

The Office of the Revenue Commissioners (“Revenue”) is responsible for the assessment and collection of taxes and duties in the Republic of Ireland. It plays a broad and vital role in the Irish economy. In addition to collecting and administering almost all government-imposed taxes and duties (Exchequer Returns were c. €33 billion in 2009), Revenue is also responsible for the enforcement of import and export controls and the national administration of various European Union schemes, such as the exchange of VAT information between member states. It also carries out collection work for a number of other Irish government departments. As a public facing government institution, administering all personal and business taxes in the country, Revenue requires high availability and high performance for its mission-critical computer systems.