In a previous article, we discussed when to begin the process of rightsizing existing legacy IBM Z report management software to a more advanced and efficient solution. We focused on how to overcome five critical obstacles that affect how long it takes to implement and realize outcomes demanded from batch report management capabilities in today’s hybrid z enterprise.
This article reviews why organizations should consider rightsizing their legacy report management software to a more advanced system, and the six key building blocks needed for that solution.
Rightsizing Your Report Management Solution
Older legacy ISV report management software may not contain optimized capabilities for browser access; REST API enabled enterprise application integration; opportunities to leverage non mainframe storage, PDF, Excel, and HTML downloads; elimination of printing costs; and more.
Accounting for the realities of unpredictable and escalating yearly maintenance fees demanded from current providers, organizations using legacy IBM Z report management software are likely to be:
1. Overpaying for capabilities they don’t need
2. Missing essential line of business (LOB) capabilities that they do need
Their software is wrongly sized, Z tower centric, and overpriced for their needs. It should be rightsized to provide improved ROI and operational value (covered in our previous article) and to meet LOB objectives. Rightsizing a report management solution requires swapping out an existing legacy package for a more advanced and optimized IBM Z report management solution that better meets their needs.
But what features and capabilities should be included in your rightsized solution?
6 Key Building Blocks for IBM Z Report Management
Accounting for the observations presented in the previous article, we have identified 6 key building blocks needed to provide an effective solution that meets organizational needs going forward in today’s hybrid z enterprise.
1. Report Management capabilities: A robust core set of IBM Z report management features including the ability to manage entire reports and portions of reports as needed.
2. Automatic Report Accumulation: To automatically receive catalogue reports sent to designated SYSOUT classes and WRTRs.
3. Advanced User Interfaces: To access, view, and manage Z reports from easy to use and feature rich user interfaces (UIs) and documented REST APIs.
4. Archive & Restore: The ability to archive older reports to less expensive and universally accessible mainframe and non-mainframe storage media.
5. Robust Security: Full support of Z enterprise security packages to comply with enterprise standards and quickly realize maximum data report security and protection.
6. Proven, and Cost-Effective ISV Delivery Assistance: Unexpected conversion costs, risk of comprised report integrity during the conversion, and project timeline overruns are unacceptable. Your ISV partner must instill confidence that expectations are understood and will be delivered on- time; with the highest quality.
Following is a summary of each of the Building Blocks discussed.
1. Report Management Capabilities
Rightsized tools must have a core set of report management features including the ability to manage entire reports and portions of reports as needed. They should contain robust search capabilities, including indexing within a report and indexing across many reports.
Look for solutions such as SEA’s TRMS that contain full printer function support, including AFP (IBM), DJDE (XEROX), and transformation to PDF/HTML formats for downloads or viewing within a Web interface. Report bundling features (e.g. selecting reports by department) are important. Reports should be distributed via multiple methods including email, posting directly to DASD, posting to enterprise servers, and printed copies.
2. Automatic Report Accumulation
IBM Z report management solutions must work with the JES (JES2 or JES3) spool, using a non-intrusive solution to receive reports sent to designated SYSOUT classes or WRTRs. Solutions should be well designed for efficiency to minimize system resource consumption and speed up the accumulation process. Key features might include report database compression, automated archiving and purging, user-defined report retention criteria, and multi-threaded processing for accumulation, viewing, and archiving.
3. Advanced User Interfaces
Users and developers should be able to access, view, manage, and print IBM Z reports from easy-to-use and feature rich user interfaces (UIs). The UI layer must provide several interfaces for both traditional IBM terminal access and other popular UIs, including:
- Browser access using REST Web UIs
- 3270 terminals
- TSO/ISPF
- Native VTAM
- CICS
- Vendor documented and supported REST APIs for application integration
User interfaces should be able to view and download reports in different formats, including MS Word, MS Excel, Adobe PDF, HTML, and text. PDF and HTML downloads allow viewing and printing on local workstations, enterprise servers, and Web sites. Word and Excel download capabilities enable users to access report data inside spreadsheets and documents. Also helpful is the ability to include images inside viewed reports, extract and reformat report data, and to attach notes for additional documentation and information.
4. Archive & Restore
Precise accuracy in migrating archive databases and in setting up automated report archiving going forward are “must have” requirements. Further, the ability to archive older reports to less expensive storage on mainframe and non-mainframe storage media is a key building block of any report management solution.
Traditional archive and restore media such as DASD and tape (real or virtual) should be supported. Look for solutions that provide advanced archival capabilities, including Storage Management Subsystem (SMS) support, multi-level archival, tape stacking, and interfacing with any tape management system.
TRMS from SEA also provides options to archive IBM Z reports to non-mainframe environments such as Windows and Linux servers.
Using an intuitive facility to set and maintain retention rules is critical for optimizing both DASD cost, and the user experience. A key feature of SEA’s TRMS solution is the ability to view selected archived reports WITHOUT restoring them to the online DB. This Archive Browse feature is key to providing quicker access to older reports without impacting the live DB or underlying cost of DASD.
5. Robust Security
Report data security is critical. Look for solutions that provide multiple levels of report security and align with your existing security infrastructure. Report data solutions such as TRMS are compatible with the most widely used security such as RACF, ACF2, Top Secret and the System Authorization Facility (SAF).
Solutions should be able to define security authorization profiles both for individual report recipients or for report recipient groups, allowing multiple users to share the same TRMS report security. When migrating Z report archives to a Windows server, determine whether you can use Windows Active Directory (AD) authentication for user access.
6. Proven and Cost-Effective ISV Delivery Assistance:
If you are considering conversion to alternative Batch Report Management software, your ISV partner should provide:
- Credible and proven delivery expertise
- A documented set of deliverables, milestones, timeline, and ownership for the conversion project
- A repeatable methodology designed to facilitate a high-quality accelerated transition
- Prior to project sign-off; complete knowledge transfer so that the new capabilities can be independently supported by customer staff going forward.
From Wrong Sized to Rightsized
Many organizations are overpaying for wrong sized and antiquated report management software. Legacy vendors profit from high maintenance fees while denying their customers the key building blocks needed for enterprise report management integration in today’s hybrid Z enterprise. It’s time to consider updating your capabilities and improving your ROI with a more advanced solution like TRMS from SEA.
Please Contact SEA if you’d like to learn more about rightsizing your legacy report management tooling system.
