Overview

Challenge

Need to manage 400,000 weekly processes using multiple workload tools which were unsupported, manually intensive and limited in scope and feature.

Solution Results:

• Combined six processing steps into one
• Reduced weekly execution volume by 40%
• Exposed errors that could have led to problems with online content
• Enterprise-wide license with no limits on the number, type or location of servers

Challenge:
This information solutions vendor faced a major operational challenge. They needed to manage hundreds of thousands of weekly processes using four different workload tools that were unreliable, manually intensive and limited in scope and features. For almost two decades, these unsupported tools were integrated into business and product workflows. “Some of the tools did not support key distributed platforms such as Linux or Windows, or meet the regulatory compliance demands,” stated the project leader. In an effort to improve workload automation practices, vendor solutions from IBM, Computer Associates, Cybermation and Stonebranch were evaluated.

Solution
This leading content and solutions provider chose Stonebranch’s Indesca to fulfill their corporate requirements for reduced complexity, reuse and recovery as well as compliance, support and flexibility. Their decision was based upon Indesca having the largest platform scope, the ability to run on any operating system, and the interoperability to work with any scheduling product in their infrastructure. Ease of use and a cost-friendly price point were also key contributing factors.

Results
With Indesca, they now have the ability to automate mainframe and distributed workloads regardless of the automation tool or platform, and provide a secure, Sarbanes Oxley compliant scheduling environment with a centralized audit trail. “It lessens cost, effort and complexity no matter where the workload was initiated,” stated the project leader. Indesca was also able to remove artificial barriers between departments and applications allowing standardization of process scheduling.

Customer Background
One of the largest tasks facing a worldwide leading provider of professional information solutions is ensuring the timely delivery of authoritative content and innovative solutions embedded in customers’ workflows. Emerging technologies and requirements created a new set of expectations as corporate stakeholders demanded visualization of IT processes at the business level. Their technology group was tasked with providing internal IT support across all business units to address the dynamic and real-time demands of new and disparate workloads.

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