Indesca FAQs

Technical FAQs

1. What databases does Indesca support?

This is just one of the many areas that Indesca helps you keep TCO down verses other solutions. There is no requirement to purchase and support a third party database. The Indesca database is maintained automatically so there is no need for additional resources for database administration. This is a huge benefit compared to all other solutions that require additional hardware and software, driving their total cost of ownership even higher.

2. What operating systems and hardware are supported?
Indesca was designed for the enterprise so we support all of the major operating systems including legacy platforms. For a complete list of supported platforms and operating systems, click here.

3. What reporting capabilities are available out of the box?
Indesca provides a GUI to report on process activity, including attributes of the process such as success or failure, duration and security. Data can also be kept and archived for audit and history reporting.

4. What if I need a custom report?
We provide the ability to dump or archive the database to various formats such as XML so that 3rd party report writers can be utilized. Your specific business needs can be met with this kind of flexibility. You determine which information is most valuable to you.

5. Is Indesca highly available?
Yes. Indesca is designed for enterprise environments with fault tolerance in mind so that your business keeps running even through difficult circumstances.

6. Do you provide central logging and management?
Yes. Real-time and historical information is available to business stakeholders, ensuring visibility throughout the organization.

7. Can I define different access and functionality based on user roles? For instance, defining by end-user, business partner or technical support personnel?
Absolutely. Each user can be given access based on their needs. Your applications programmer does not need the same access as your business analyst. You decide and customize the access as needed. This ensures data integrity and privacy throughout your organization.

8. Can you automatically convert my existing remote processes?
 Stonebranch has done 100ʼs of successful implementations without customer or production impact. Stonebranch’s methodology and proven implementation tools mitigate risk and start delivering value upon inspection of your current environment. Typically we discover things that you weren’t even aware of. We have a proven track record in implementation services and can offer whatever level of assistance required from advice to turnkey.

9. How many parallel processes can I run at the same time?
Indesca was built for enterprise organizations, which typically operate very high-end processors running high-capacity loads to low-end mature processes with limited power. Indesca was built with this in mind. You decide based on your unique environment.

10. How much space do I need?
Space requirements are determined by platform and feature. The footprint will be as small as necessary to get you the value you need.

11. Does my staff have to be granted access to the remote servers with Indesca?
No, you decide on which system to leverage for central management avoiding the need for access to remote systems. The value in the solution is the ability to reuse technology, which lowers cost and reduces risk.

12. Do the end-users or programmers have to be granted access and be trained on the central management system to view activity?
No, visibility to stakeholders is provided through an easy to use GUI, eliminating the need for additional platform specific training.

13. Do I need to change my remote scripts to convert?
One of the major values in the Indesca solution is its ease of implementation, which in affect requires no script or program conversion.

14. My scheduler runs on the mainframe and the mainframe is going away, how does this affect the value of the solution?
Indesca is future proof. You can reuse technology on whatever platform you decide to leverage. You can leverage the mainframe while it still exists in your environment. Once it has been eliminated, you can leverage another platform without changing the independent scheduling agents on remote systems. This is a significant value of the solution.

15. Can you execute web-based processes?
Our SOA solution enables Indesca’s workload automation capabilities to include Internet and message based workloads that are part of a System Oriented Architecture (SOA) environment. Internet and message based workloads, which execute in application server environments that utilize technologies, such as SOAP, HTTP, CGI, and JMS, are often left out of enterprise workload automation solutions. This provides true business process workload automation to your enterprise, adding value to the business, not just IT.

Business FAQs

1. What makes you different than IBM, CA, or BMC who all offer scheduling agents?
In the past, these companies have been very successful at offering MVS scheduling systems. With the increased presence of distributed environments, they acquired server solutions and attempted to integrate them to provide an enterprise-wide solution. The result has proven to be inadequate for the customer yet very lucrative for the vendor raking in licensing and implementation costs. Most often, the integration is too complex to be of value and the duplication of software and hardware required increases cost.

Indesca takes a different approach. We allow you to leverage and extend your preferred scheduling engine throughout the enterprise, controlling the execution of work no matter what the scheduler or operating system. Because of this, you only need to be competent in one native platform language, eliminating the cost and redundancy of siloed teams managing distributed systems.

2. How soon can I expect a return on my investment?
Our customers typically receive return on investment within 1 year of implementation, resulting in immediate value to your organization. This fast of a return is unheard of in traditional approaches. ROI is mostly affected by the ability to eliminate duplicate licensing costs and FTEʼs that manage the redundant solutions existing in your environment today.

3. I already have a scheduling system; why not use its agents?
Some primary issues with a legacy scheduler’s agents are high cost, instability and unreliability. But, most importantly, once you implement these solutions, the vendor can now lock you into using only their solution because their solution is not independent. It cannot be used with any other vendor solution in the marketplace, limiting your ability to negotiate future contracts and to migrate from their product. We offer value no matter what scheduler you use now or in the future.

4. Conversions are risky. Why should I trust you with my environment?
Stonebranch has done 100ʼs of successful implementations without customer or production impact. Stonebranch’s methodology and proven implementation tools mitigate risk and start delivering value upon inspection of your current environment. Typically we discover things that you weren’t even aware of. We have a proven track record in  implementation services and can offer whatever level of assistance required from advice to turnkey.