Success StoriesDiscover How Other Companies Are Using The Robot Automated Operations Solution

“With Robot/ALERT, I’m able to send text mes-sages to my boss 24/7 on his cell phone. Throughtext messaging, I can give him the complete infor-mation he needs without disturbing a meeting.”

Bobby DeGuzmanInternational Rectifier

“Robot/SCHEDULE saves me a lot of time andallows me to spend time on other things instead ofsending jobs. I just love your products!”

Lois Anne WarnockMills Pride

“Robot/REPORTS has taken so much of the labor-intensive coding out of our programs and made itso easy to distribute reports to associates acrossthe nation.”

Rachel FleurEcolab Pest Elimination

“I love the Robot products because once I set themup, I know they work, every time.”

Robert McEsseyBlyth HomeScents International

“It is so nice to be able to tellRobot/CONSOLE to respond to mes-sages, instead of having to answerthem myself.”

Carol HortonBoehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica

Automated OperationsCampbell Hausfeld Goes “Lights Out” WithHelp/Systems’ Automated OperationsSoftware ....................................................2

Robot/ALERTRobot/ALERT Helps The Bank Of LenaweeRun “Lights Out”.......................................4

Members United Corporate Credit UnionStays Informed With Robot/ALERT ........6

Robot/CLIENTRobot/CLIENT Gives Toshiba AmericaMedical Systems Control In A Multi-Platform Scheduling Environment ..........8

Robot/CONSOLERobot/CONSOLE Helps REI Run At PeakPerformance............................................10

Automation Brings A Season Of Change To White-Rodgers ...................................12

Robot/NETWORKRobot/NETWORK Helps Bright StarsConnect ...................................................14

Robot/REPLAYRobot/REPLAY Helps A Big Wheel In theCheese Game Automate InteractiveProcessing ..............................................16

Behind The Scenes, MacDermid, Inc.Automates With Robot/REPLAY............18

Robot/REPORTSPatrick Industries Automates Their iSeriesWorld .......................................................20

OshKosh B’Gosh Takes A Fresh Look At ItsiSeries Reports With The Robot BrowserInterface ..................................................22

Robot/SAVEPrime Therapeutics Trusts Robot/SAVEWith 7.5 Million Lives .............................24

Robot/SCHEDULEOperations Automation Allows WEHCOMedia To Keep Pace In A Fast-MovingIndustry ...................................................26

The iSeries, EnterpriseOne, And Help/Systems Come Together For ”Lights Out”At Cascade Corporation .........................28

Robot/TRANSFORMRobot/TRANSFORM Pushes The EnvelopeOut Of The Way For Thermwell ............30

Technical SupportSacred Heart Stays Healthy WithHelp/Systems ..........................................32

Contents “In today’s environ-ment, budgets are tight, everyone’sexpected to do morewith less, and if I wasn’t automated, I couldn’t keep up.”See page 16 for more.

Robot/ALERT®, Robot/AUTOTUNE®, Robot/CLIENT®, Robot/CONSOLE®, Robot/CORRAL®, Robot/CPA®, Robot/LPAR®, Robot/NETWORK®,Robot/REPLAY®, Robot/REPORTS®, Robot/SAVE®, Robot/SCHEDULE®, Robot/SPACE®, Robot/TRANSFORM®, Robot/TRAPPER®, Robot/UPS®,OPAL®, and OPerator Assistance Language® are registered trademarks of Help/Systems, Inc.

The following are trademarks of IBM Corporation: IBM®, AS400®, iSeries™, System i5™, System i™.

All trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

“Robot/SCHEDULE allows us to schedule and manage the night batch process so well we don’tneed anyone on-site during off-hours. Best of all,Robot/SCHEDULE does not take a vacation or get sick.”

David GarlandZenith Administrators

“My wife is the Automation Analyst here atFlowserve. I especially love Help/Systems becauseshe is no longer ‘stressed out’, complements ofyour fine products. When she’s happy, I’m happy!”

Bill BatemanFlowserve Corporation

“Robot is my knight in shining armor.”

Valerie WallsSysco Food Services of Philadelphia, LLC

“I was recently assigned Sarbanes-OxleyCompliance Officer at my company. WithoutRobot/SCHEDULE, I don’t know if we would have ever passed the audits.”

Jackie Rowland BriscoXomox Corporation

“The Robot products are second to none andHelp/Systems Technical Support is exemplary! I love my Robot.”

Greg WyattSouthern States Cooperative

“The first year we implemented Robot/REPORTS wecalculated that we saved 890,000 pages of paperthat we would have printed, or roughly $15,540.”

Rick MetzgerDTR Industries

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CCampbell Hausfeld started out makinghorse-drawn wagons and agriculturalequipment in 1836. Now, 170 years later,they’re still here—a recognized leader inthe home improvement and automotiveindustry. Today they offer a complete lineof air compressors, air tools and acces-sories, inflators, nailers and staplers, paintsprayers, pressure washers, tire safetyproducts, welders and, since 2005, powertools with a new line of cordless drills andaccessories.

This privately-held company of 400employees with facilities in Harrison, Ohio;Leitchfield, Kentucky; and Mount Juliet,Tennessee; and offices in Taipei, Taiwan;and Shanghai, China; currently uses threeiSeries systems. Doreen Boyle, iSeriesSystems Administrator, elaborates, “We arerunning JD Edwards World software for allour sales, accounting, and manufacturing.

Recently, we took our Web server liveusing WebSphere. Now, people can

go to our Web site and order ourproducts online.”

A company doesn’t remain successful for 170 years withoutbeing willing to explore newopportunities, and that’s exactlywhat Campbell Hausfeld did

three years ago when they beganrunning ‘lights out,’ automating the

operation of their iSeries systems.

When asked about her operations depart-ment, Doreen states that they have 350users but only one operator—the Robotproducts from Help/Systems.

As Doreen explains, “When I first came to Campbell (Hausfeld), we had a secondshift operator, and I was the day operator.If he went on vacation or was sick, I wouldhave to cover for him. There were multipleissues at the time, and I thought there hasto be a better way to do this. So I did someresearch on the Internet, read some maga-zines, and learned about this companycalled Help/Systems. Then, I read abouttheir products and I got interested.”

They installed Robot/SCHEDULE, the jobscheduler and batch management system,first. “We put all of our nightly processingjobs into Robot/SCHEDULE,” Doreenreveals. “This seemed to be working outpretty well, but we still needed an operatorbecause there were messages that neededto be answered and, if something wentwrong, we had no way of knowing.”

These problems were resolved whenCampbell Hausfeld added Robot/CONSOLE,providing message management, and Robot/ALERT, the system event notification package. Doreen points out, “Now ournight operation is totally lights out, handsoff—unless there is a problem. Then, I amalerted, and I can take care of it.”

With the addition of Robot/REPLAY, theRobot/SCHEDULE plug-in that automatesinteractive jobs, and Robot/SAVE, thebackup, recovery, and tape managementsoftware, Campbell Hausfeld is now running five Help/Systems products. Infact, according to Doreen, they have inte-grated Robot/CONSOLE, Robot/ALERT andRobot/SCHEDULE primarily around theirbackups.

“We reduced costs byeliminating a night

shift position, and thejobs actually runsmoother now.”

Campbell Hausfeld Goes “Lights Out”With Help/Systems’ AutomatedOperations Software

Larry Rude, Campbell Hausfeld’s IT director,describes his job as “making sure we canmeet all user needs, currently and in thefuture, at the best price possible.” He addsthat the management outside of IT ishappy with the direction they have gone. “I report to the CFO, vice president offinance, and he gave us a challenge toreduce costs. We did that by eliminating anight shift position, and the jobs actuallyrun smoother now. We check throughoutthe day and get the call out a lot faster toget things fixed.” Larry confirms they havehad a good return on their investment.

According to Doreen, “The Robot productshave saved me a lot of time and overtime,too. No more having to work on weekends.”Adds Larry, “Doreen is now free to do otherfunctions—she is able to help us in othersupport areas. She’s free to do more criticalthings than babysitting the operating system.”

According to Doreen, the company wasable to implement Help/Systems’ automatedoperations software with the help of justone programmer. “I think it was becausethe products were new, and I wasn’t reallycomfortable with them yet. But, once youget the feel of the Robot products, settingthings up is not that difficult. Once we set them up, we just kind of forget aboutthem because they run smoothly. They arequality products.”

Going ‘lights out’ has saved CampbellHausfeld both time and money, provingagain why they have been successful for170 years. Open to new technology, theydid their homework and chose what theyconsidered the best—Help/Systems’ RobotAutomated Operations Solution software.

“Once we set up our Robot products correctly, we just kindof forget about thembecause they runsmoothly.”

Automated Operations:

• Provides more smooth running, error-free operations.

• Can be audited easily.

• Lets you accomplish more with your existing staff.

• Frees operators from babysitting the system to do more important tasks.

• Helps you meet Service Level Agreements.

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three times, fifteen minutes apart. If thefirst person doesn’t respond, Robot/ALERTselects the next pager in line. If our nightlyprocessing needs help, a message goes outsimultaneously to three different pagers.And, if we declare a disaster recovery, wesend a pager message that everyone mustacknowledge.”

Robot/TRAPPER Monitors IPDevices For Fast ProblemResolutionThe bank uses its most recent software,Robot/TRAPPER, to monitor IP devices,including their network, firewall, Web site

(online banking), and printers. As Watsonexplains, “I watch our network devices—routers, hubs, even our Internet bankingWeb site. We monitor its IP address con-stantly to troubleshoot problems before we hear from customers. With Robot/TRAPPER, we’re proactive—by the time acustomer calls, we’re already working onthe problem and can usually give them atime estimate for the solution. That makesour management team very happy andreally helps with customer relations.” TheBank of Lenawee and Help/Systems—good people helping each other.

“Robot/ALERTkeeps you informedwithout chaining you to your desk.”

Robot/ALERT:

• Sends messages from the System i, your programs, and other Help/Systems productsto PCs, laptops, pagers, cell phones, and PDAs.

• Lets you create a problem escalation system for emergency messages to notify achain of command automatically.

• Supports more than 50 protocols and 90 paging services worldwide.

• Sends messages across the Internet, or your intranet, using the Robot BrowserInterface.

TThe name Lenawee comes from theShawnee Indian word Lenawai, meaning‘the people.’ So, friendly, personable bank-ing is what you’d expect from a bank namedLenawee, and that’s what they deliver.Located in Adrian, Michigan (about 60miles from Detroit), the Bank of Lenawee,with 120 employees and assets of $260 million, offers a multitude of friendly andinnovative commercial and personal bank-ing services. Online banking is just one ofthe more recent milestones in their 136-year history, which includes joining theFederal Reserve System in 1918, their firstdrive-up facility in 1953, automated tellermachines (ATMs) in 1967, and a 135thbirthday celebration in 2004.

Turning The Lights OutIn 1995, when the bank converted from an IBM System/36 to an AS/400 (now theSystem i), they decided to automate withHelp/Systems software. As Watson Clark,the current iSeries administrator explains,“We were looking at the Robot products to

run ‘lights out.’ We started with Robot/SCHEDULE [batch management], Robot/

CONSOLE [message management],Robot/ALERT [event notification andmessaging], and Robot/UPS [powerfailure management]. Later, weadded Robot/SAVE to automatebackups and Robot/TRAPPER tomonitor IP devices.”

Using the Robot products, the bankwent from three shifts to one. Now,as Watson describes it, “No one isactually scheduled as a computer

operator anymore. Our only computeroperator is the Robot team. We basicallyrun on autopilot, using Robot/ALERT tokeep us informed.”

The Automation Dream Team According to Watson, “We use Robot/ALERT to send both one-way and two-waymessages. Robot/ALERT works with Robot/SCHEDULE to notify us of job starts, fail-ures, terminations, and upcoming systemevents, and with Robot/SAVE for backups.”Before the bank does its restricted statebackup on weekends, Robot/ALERT sendsreminders to test the drive so everythingruns smoothly. If the bank has problemsduring the backup, Robot/SAVE pages theon-call person using Robot/ALERT. If theydon’t answer, another person is notifiedautomatically. As Watson describes, “Wedon’t want to walk in Monday morning andfind our system in restricted state.”

Robot/ALERT Keeps You Informed,AnywhereWatson likes the fact that, “Robot/ALERTkeeps you informed without chaining youto your desk. I probably get 25 to 50 pagesa day about system events. I’m notifiedduring non-banking hours anytime some-one enters a bad password, tries to dialinto my system, or sends an FTP request.With cell phones, broadband, and VPN, Ican connect to the bank from my laptop ona secure Internet connection and talk to asoftware technician at the same time. Withtwo-way messaging, we can answer aresponse-required message anywhere,without signing on. For example, whileattending a software conference in Dallas,TX, I answered messages from my iSeries.”

Bank of Lenawee also uses Robot/ALERT’sunique broadcast list feature to send amessage to multiple people simultaneously,or to escalate a single message through agroup. “For most messages, we have threepeople on call and we send the notice out

“No one is actuallyscheduled as a

computer operatoranymore. Our only

computer operator isthe Robot team.”

Robot/ALERT Helps The Bank OfLenawee Run “Lights Out’’

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WWe all know what a credit union is—acooperative financial institution, ownedand controlled by the people who use itsservices: its members. But, what is a corpo-rate credit union? That’s a credit unionwhose members are actually other creditunions. A corporate credit union providesservices such as Automated ClearingHouse (ACH), check collection, wire transfer, fraud detection and preventionservices, share draft (check) processing,and asset liability management to its mem-ber credit unions. And, with total assetsexceeding 5.6 billion dollars, MembersUnited Corporate Federal Credit Union isone of the biggest and best.

Being one of the biggest and best means bigdata processing needs. Needs often handledby iSeries hardware, iSeries automationsoftware from Help/Systems, and the dataprocessing and iSeries expertise of peoplelike Tammy Whited, manager of the

Product Operations and ApplicationsSupport Team, and Darlene Kimbler,

iSeries specialist.

As Tammy explains, “As a corporatecredit union we help our credit unionmembers provide savings and bene-fits to their individual members.Operationally, we offer ACH transac-tions so our credit unions don’t haveto pay for that service directly fromthe Federal Reserve. We also processshare drafts (checks) through ourclearing system and provide online

imaging of those drafts for our memberunions via the Internet. Internet bankingallows our members’ customers to con-nect, perform transactions, and view ordownload image copies. Our image soft-

ware is available 24/7 because customersneed to link to it all hours of the day.”

Darlene adds, “We also provide recordretention and research for our memberunions. Overall, we are kind of an out-sourcer of credit union services—our members place their assets with us and we manage them.”

Members United has been using the iSeriesplatform for more than ten years to handle processing for their major financial applica-tions. Darlene explains their setup. “At ourcorporate headquarters in Warrenville,Illinois, we have an 820 system as our pro-duction server. We run back office software,accounting software, an in-house applica-tion, and our Robot products: Robot/SCHEDULE [automated job scheduling],Robot/ALERT [automated notification],Robot/CONSOLE [automated message man-agement], Robot/SAVE [automated backupand recovery], and Robot/NETWORK [automated network management]. InIndianapolis we have a second iSeries, a720, as our backup server. We’re also usingDataMirror high availability (HA) softwareto maintain stability.”

The Robot products were there from the beginning. Tammy says, “We boughtRobot/SCHEDULE in the early nineties,when we got the iSeries, because we neededthe reactive job feature. We added Robot/ALERT and Robot/CONSOLE to reduceour staffing needs. Because the jobs run-ning at night were reactive, there was noneed to have an operator watching tapes,so we decided to use Robot/CONSOLEwith Robot/ALERT to monitor for errorsand alert the staff. We were able to com-

“We were able to completely automate

the third shift—it’sbasically lights out.”

Members United Corporate FederalCredit Union Stays Informed WithRobot/ALERT

pletely automate the third shift—it’s basically lights out.”

Members United uses Robot/ALERT tomonitor the iSeries. If a job fails, Robot/ALERT sends a text message to their cellphones. If a backup has an error, Robot/ALERT pages their cell phones for after-hours support. And, after their weekly, full-system, restricted state backup, Robot/ALERT notifies them when the system isavailable.

Darlene explains how well Robot/ALERTfits with their high availability (HA) scheme.“We use Robot/ALERT with Robot/NET-WORK because of our HA solution for theback office software—it’s the only thing wereally mirror. We do a pre-save backup toour backup system so that if somethinghappens to production during nightly processing, we have a clean starting point.

Our jobs are set up as reactive in Robot/SCHEDULE, so everything is interwoven. If anything fails, we notify automaticallyusing our Robot/ALERT call list.”

To monitor the nightly back office cycle,they rely mainly on Robot/ALERT and pag-ing for fast support. Using the on-call list,they can resolve issues before they affectproduction, so the management team is happy. As Tammy describes it, “TheiSeries houses our most critical businessapplication, which contains our accountingprocesses, maintains our members’ infor-mation and assets, and provides a dailyaccounting of their accounts. Beside ourInternet application, it’s the most criticalapplication in the company. The back officecycle that runs nightly is a mission-criticalprocess, and with Robot/ALERT, we don’tneed people to monitor it.”

“If anything fails, wenotify automaticallyusing our Robot/ALERT call list.”

Robot/ALERT:

• Sends messages from the System i, your programs, and other Help/Systems productsto PCs, laptops, pagers, cell phones, and PDAs.

• Lets you create a problem escalation system for emergency messages to notify achain of command automatically.

• Supports more than 50 protocols and 90 paging services worldwide.

• Sends messages across the Internet, or your intranet, using the Robot BrowserInterface.

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T serve as a data warehouse for their finan-cial database. They run their front-officesales and service applications on the UNIX Sun servers, and they have departmentapplications running on Windows servers.According to Dave Beckman, manager ofMIS Operations, “All the systems are inte-grated. Our environment is multi-platform,and we have interfaces to send databetween them. We perform enterprisescheduling using the iSeries as the focalpoint. The reliability of Robot/SCHEDULEand the flexibility of Robot/CLIENT havedelivered the right solution for us.”

Dave elaborates, “We run daily, weekly, and monthly schedules on the iSeries usingRobot/SCHEDULE as the master controlcenter. We control the order in which jobsand processes are executed, as well as thesystem where they run. Robot/CLIENTensures that non-OS/400 jobs and processesare executed.

“Together, these products guarantee thatjobs execute in the right sequence withouthuman intervention or timer programs.”

Dave estimates that the company runs atleast 100 jobs through Robot/SCHEDULEon a daily basis, and more at month-end.

“At month-end, we initiate abackup on the UNIX side from Robot/SCHEDULE using Robot/CLIENT. When

that’s done, we bring data tothe iSeries for processing.

We schedule jobs usingRobot/CLIENT’s RCLEXEC

command to runprocesses on theUNIX servers. It gives

Robot/CLIENT Gives Toshiba AmericaMedical Systems Control In A Multi-Platform Scheduling Environment

us a lot of control because you can executescripts on the UNIX system in coordinationwith OS/400 batch jobs. When a file arriveson a UNIX or Windows system from theiSeries, it can be processed immediately.”

The company realized it had to integrateits various platforms as new applicationswere implemented. “We had to gain controlof our environment so that we could runprocesses on non-OS/400 systems in con-junction with OS/400 jobs, having theiSeries dictate when to run the process.Robot/CLIENT was perfect because wecould coordinate all the processes to run in a certain order across platforms.”

TAMS also uses Robot/ALERT to page an iSeries operator if a problem arises.According to Dave, “We’ve kept it simple.We page the person who’s familiar with the

“We’re very satisfiedwith the level of support–Help/Systemsdoes a great job of supporting its products.”

Toshiba America Medical Systems (TAMS)sells and services medical imaging systemsfor the healthcare industry throughout theUnited States. Its products range from traditional X-ray, to MRI, to ultrasound systems. Located in Tustin, California, theyare one of five Toshiba America companiesin the U.S. With approximately 1,000employees at the Tustin headquarters andin the field, they maintain a call center inTustin to handle the demands of theirnationwide business.

TAMS currently uses iSeries, Windows, andUNIX Sun servers for their enterprise appli-

cations. The iSeriessystems run the company’scustom back-office financial

applications and

Robot/CLIENT:

• Monitors critical applications and Windows services on your servers.

• Helps schedule batch jobs across your entire enterprise.

• Sends a status to the System i when a server task completes.

• Manages server communications across System i, Windows, UNIX,and Linux systems.

• Coordinates FTP transactions between systems.

• Backs up Windows directories to the System i.

iSeries schedule. If they know the problemis on another platform, they call the properperson.”

Dave adds, “We’re very satisfied with thelevel of support—Help/Systems does agreat job of supporting its products. Wecall the Help Desk regularly and we use the Web site for research. We’ve also takenadvantage of the Internet education Help/Systems offers—that’s a real value to us.”

Now, TAMS runs their environments totallyunattended, using Robot/SCHEDULE asthe heart of their enterprise schedulingneeds and Robot/CLIENT to coordinate theevents across platforms. Someone is always on call, but their operations run lights out. As Dave admits, “We’re very happy—it’s a great solution for us.”

“The reliability ofRobot/SCHEDULE and

the flexibility ofRobot/CLIENT havedelivered the right

solution for us.”

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RRugged climbs up soaring mountains. Peace-ful hikes through quiet woods. Gliding gently over lakes and rivers. If your plansinclude the outdoors, REI has everythingyou’ll need to make your adventure a success. And, when REI wanted to makesure their computer operations could keepup with their business responsibilities, theyturned to Help/Systems and the Robotproducts.

REI (Recreational Equipment Incorporated)was founded as a cooperative in 1938 tosell outdoor gear and clothing to members.Members pay $15.00 for a lifetime mem-bership and receive a dividend each yearon their purchases. Today, REI operatesmore than 80 stores throughout the U.S.,and has a thriving online and direct salesbusiness. “We’ve been around a long time,and we have a lot of satisfied customersand members,” says Rod Williams, ISManager for Service Assurance, at REI head-quarters in Kent, Washington, a suburb

of Seattle.

REI began using the AS/400 as itsbusiness computer in the late 1980s,when it was first introduced. Sincethen, they’ve acquired several moreiSeries systems. Most are located atthe Kent location.

One iSeries is located at REI’s distribution center, a few miles away

in Sumner. The company first began usingthe Robot products when they purchasedthis iSeries for the distribution center.

“We were opening the new distributioncenter in about 1990 and needed to pur-chase a scheduler to run a set of batchjobs. We looked at a couple of differentproducts and chose the Help/Systems

products,” says Rod. “Prior to that time, wewere primarily a mainframe shop. This wasour first foray into automation products forthe iSeries.”

Today, the company uses Robot/CONSOLEfor message management, Robot/SCHED-ULE for job scheduling, and Robot/SAVE,for backup and recovery. Says Rod, “Wefound them very easy to install and set up.Especially in the case of the distributioncenter. We were able to do the things wewanted to straightforwardly and simplywith the Robot/SCHEDULE package.Fifteen years later, the applications havechanged, but we still have a lights-out datacenter and we rely on Help/Systems prod-ucts to maintain that.

“The other big savings came when we putRobot/CONSOLE in our Kent data center,which is staffed 24 hours a day. We reallydidn’t have a message management system,so operators were constantly having toanswer informational messages. Robot/CONSOLE allowed us to manage that. Ouroperators were doing things that the soft-ware does better and it frees them to doother things.”

REI automated their message processingby creating message sets. For example,they created device failure messages thatbreak to the operator and let them knowwhen there’s a problem. Says Rod, “We hada problem with a credit authorization thatwas going to another company. As part oftroubleshooting that problem, we createdsome message sets to monitor for thosemessages, and now we’re getting alerted (to problems) much sooner.”

Other messages are suppressed so operatorsnever have to see them. Adds Rod, “We’ve

“We really didn’t havea message manage-ment system, so operators were constantly having toanswer informationalmessages.”

Robot/CONSOLE Helps REI Run AtPeak Performance

written some in-house programs for differ-ent applications so that they create aunique message and we monitor for thatmessage ID. Then, we give the operatorspecific instructions on what to do, or justautomate a recovery action.”

REI runs the same message sets on differ-ent systems whenever it’s appropriate to doso. Other message sets are unique to eachsystem based on the applications they run.

Says Rod, “We have nine operators staffingthe data center 24/7. Not all came to REIwith extensive iSeries experience. But nomatter their level of experience, they canmonitor messages through Robot/CONSOLE.The night operators are monitoring thebatch schedule, looking for errors, and

watching the timeliness of the schedule to meet our service level agreements withREI customers.”

Adds Rod, “It’s never been a goal to elimi-nate staff through automation. Instead, it’sthe challenge of absorbing the work andresponsibility that results from businessgrowth. It would just be a lot more diffi-cult, and I probably wouldn’t sleep as well.

“These products have helped us achieveour business goals, beginning in 1991 with anew data center in a new REI distributioncenter. They continue to be an importantpart of our business strategy and achieve-ment of goals.”

“These products havehelped us achieve ourbusiness goals.”

Robot/CONSOLE:

• Suppresses useless messages so you never need to see them.

• Answers messages automatically—with the same answer, or based on the contentsof the message.

• Forwards messages to experts.

• Escalates messages requiring a response until someone replies.

• Monitors critical resources, such as devices, lines, servers, subsystems, job queues,and much, much, more.

• Monitors FTP requests, the security audit journal, and the system history log (QHST).

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MMany seasons have passed since 1937when White-Rodgers first started in thebusiness of making people more comfort-able. Today, as part of Emerson ClimateTechnologies, White-Rodgers serves theworldwide market for thermostats, ignitioncontrols, humidifiers, electronic air cleaners,and many other quality products that helppeople everywhere breathe easier.

White-Rodgers relies on two IBM i5 systems:one hosts the production PeopleSoft ERPsystem, the other serves both as a high-availability target using Data Mirror, andfor testing and IT development. Themachines used to be staffed 24/7 by a team of six operators.

When the IT department was challengedwith meeting a major cost reduction goal,they decided to eliminate staffing duringnights and weekends by automating theirSystem i operations. To meet their dead-line, the project had to be completed in

slightly over four weeks.

Bob Burnham, Director of ApplicationsDevelopment, and Brian Hoefener,Supervisor of Applications Development,became a two-person implementationteam. They determined they neededthree automation components:

1. A job scheduler that could start jobs based on the completion of other jobs and support other complex schedules.

2.A message manager that could manage the system operator message queue, respond to messages, and notify staff when a problem required attention.

3.A reliable way to page IT staff members when necessary.

They selected the Robot suite of productsfrom Help/Systems and began a 30-daytrial of Robot/SCHEDULE (job schedulingand batch management), Robot/CONSOLE(message management), Robot/ALERT(automated paging and e-mail), andRobot/NETWORK (network management).

Job Schedule AutomationBob started the automation process byautomating the jobs that run every day(updates, reports, and backups), sincethey yielded the quickest results. Thesewere followed by weekly, monthly, and special-request jobs.

White-Rodgers relies heavily on some keyRobot/SCHEDULE features. Group jobsallow several individual jobs to execute insequence, allowing the company to reducethe number of individual schedules thathave to be created and maintained. Theyalso rely on reactive jobs that start based ona status change on one or more other jobs.The group and reactive jobs can includejobs run on multiple systems connected byRobot/NETWORK.

Messages that requirea response are routedto a message set that

sends a pager messageusing Robot/ALERT.

Automation Brings A Season OfChanges To White-Rodgers

ResultsWhite-Rodgers completed the initial phaseof the project in time to meet their dead-line. Computer room staffing was reducedto three operators providing support 13hours a day, 5 days a week. This resulted inan initial ROI of 242 percent. Since then,the company has continued to add otherjobs to the schedule and improve schedulemanagement by ensuring that critical jobsstart on time.

For White-Rodgers, the automation projecthas been a huge success. They exceededtheir expected savings without scheduleinterruptions and without compromisingthe monitoring or control of their i5 systems.

They exceeded theirexpected savings without scheduleinterruptions andwithout compromisingthe monitoring or control of their i5systems.

Message Management And PagingBrian took on the responsibility of imple-menting Robot/CONSOLE and Robot/ALERTto provide message management and notifi-cation services. He created message setsthat contain instructions for managing messages based on their severity and otheruser-defined criteria. Some messages areignored, while others are answered auto-matically. Messages that require a responseare routed to a message set that sends apager message using Robot/ALERT.Important informational messages alsoresult in a page.

White-Rodgers used Robot/NETWORK toconfigure a central monitoring facility forboth i5 systems. This allows them to use onecopy of Robot/ALERT to handle pages forproblems on both systems.

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Robot/CONSOLE:

• Suppresses useless messages so you never need to see them.

• Answers messages automatically—with the same answer, or based on the contentsof the message.

• Forwards messages to experts.

• Escalates messages requiring a response until someone replies.

• Monitors critical resources, such as devices, lines, servers, subsystems, job queues,and much, much, more.

• Monitors FTP requests, the security audit journal, and the system history log (QHST).

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AAntares, the brightest star in the constella-tion Scorpius, symbolizes the scorpion’sbeating heart. For centuries, its ruddy huehas been a critical navigation guide formariners. In 1997, a new Antares—AntaresManagement Solutions—was founded tohelp companies expand their informationtechnology (IT) resources and capacity by steering them through the maze of ITfunctions and services.

Based in Westlake, OH, Antares ManagementSolutions is a wholly owned subsidiary ofMedical Mutual of Ohio. They capitalize onthe resources, IT infrastructure, andexpertise of the oldest and largest Ohio-

based health insurance company to offerbusiness process and technology outsourc-ing services throughout the United States.Currently, with 700 employees at four service locations and annual revenues ofnearly $80 million, Antares provides ITservices to every type of business. Theymanage, schedule, administer, and handlechange management for data on all majorcomputer platforms, including IBM—mainframe and partitioned iSeries—UNIX,Windows, and SQL with Oracle databases.

Help/Systems, the brightest star in the constellation of iSeries automation prod-ucts, has been with Antares ManagementSolutions from the beginning. The company

uses a mix of Help/Systems products—Robot/ALERT, Robot/CLIENT, Robot/AUTOTUNE, Robot/CONSOLE,Robot/NETWORK, Robot/REPORTS,Robot/SCHEDULE, and Robot/SAVE—to run their iSeries environment

unattended.

Manuel Aguiar, a SeniorSystem Programmer,

describes their setup.“We have a 24/7Operations staff moni-toring the iSeries and

the other systems wecover. We can’t be totally

lights out because of all thesystems we coordinate. But, we

wanted to automate the iSeriesportion as much as possible,which is why we chose theRobot products.”

One of the key pieces in thisiSeries automation is Robot/NETWORK, the single-point

“We wanted to automate the iSeries

portion as much aspossible, which is why we chose theRobot products.”

Robot/NETWORK Helps Bright Stars Connect

network control package. Manuel explains,“We use Robot/NETWORK and Robot/CON-SOLE to monitor iSeries messages central-ly. Our Robot products send statuses toRobot/NETWORK, which sends them to ourmain partition. We use the Robot/CON-SOLE Product Master to send master mes-sage sets via Robot/NETWORK to our parti-tions. We also use the Robot/NETWORKProduct Master feature to move jobs fromone partition to another.”

Doug Powell, an Advisory SystemsProgrammer, adds some details. “Recently,we fine-tuned our automation by setting upjobs in Robot/SCHEDULE using the Robot/NETWORK Product Masters. If somethinggoes wrong, we can just re-send the jobbecause we always have a master copy ofthe latest version.

“Our Robot/NETWORK Status Centerresponds to events to help our operator

staff. We use Robot/ALERT to notify ourTech Support group and Operations. Ourconsole room looks like NORAD [NorthAmerican Aerospace Defense Command]headquarters—screens everywhere, and a dedicated monitor with red and yellowflags to alert someone when a system has a problem.”

Doug and Manuel take advantage of Robot/NETWORK’s ability to span partitions (orsystems). “We use cross-system reactivitybetween Robot/NETWORK and Robot/SCHEDULE to share a tape drive betweentwo partitions for backups. We also usecross-system reactivity to update files—save,restore, or transfer—on other partitions.

Antares Management Solutions, Robot/NETWORK, and Help/Systems—a powerfulsynergy of people, processes, and products,and a great example of what can happenwhen bright stars connect!

“Our Robot/NETWORKStatus Center respondsto events to help ouroperator staff. We useRobot/ALERT to notifyour Tech Support groupand Operations.”

Robot/NETWORK:

• Manages multiple partitions on the same system.

• Manages multiple System i, iSeries, and AS/400 systems.

• Distributes operational instructions for many of the Robot products from Hosts toNodes, assuring consistency across systems.

• Provides a Status Center that lets you monitor everything from a single PC display.

• Integrates with popular enterprise monitoring packages.

14

17

all of that—45 interactive screens. We do it automatically for each plant and thereports are in their hands by seven everyMonday morning.”

John stresses the importance of automa-tion for productivity, cost-savings, and animproved workplace. “In today’s environ-ment, budgets are tight, everyone’s expectedto do more with less, and if I wasn’t auto-mated, I couldn’t keep up. In essence, with

lights-out automation, I’ve been able to addthe resources of three people to my staffand spread our workload 24/7. As for thehuman side of automation, I’ve automatedhundreds of processes with the Robot toolsand you don’t lose jobs when you auto-mate. My operators are now system admin-istrators who really appreciate workingdays and going home nights and week-ends.” After all, it gives them more time to eat some great cheese.

“In today’s environ-ment, budgets are tight, everyone’sexpected to do morewith less, and if I wasn’t automated, I couldn’t keep up.”

Robot/REPLAY:

• Records interactive job submission processes, including FTP and TCP/IP operations.

• Uses playback and editing features to create a reusable object.

• Uses Reserve Command Variables to submit the job correctly each time.

• Schedules these jobs using Robot/SCHEDULE.

• Automates the unautomatable.

AAbout 4,000 years ago marks the humblebeginning of cheese as people startedbreeding animals and processing milk. Afew thousand years later, 1947 marksanother humble beginning. Louis Russoarrives in the United States from his home-town of Sorrento, Italy, to start the SorrentoCheese Company using authentic, old-worldrecipes. After 45 years of growth, GroupeLactalis of Laval, France, one of the world’spremier dairy companies, buys Sorrento in1992. Today, Sorrento is the leading brandof Italian cheeses—including Mozzarella,Ricotta, Provolone, Gorgonzola, Fontina,Asiago, Romano, and Parmesan—in theeastern United States.

As Director of Information Technology (IT)for Sorrento Lactalis, Inc., John Cirocco isin charge of computer operations that use

an extensive mixture of software and hard-ware, including iSeries servers.

When John started at SorrentoLactalis, operations were totallymanual—the operator used alarge checklist to keep track. Itwas tough, as John explains.“Basically, one person had to

support operations manu-ally for a 24/7 manufac-turing plant environment,including bursting anddistributing 2,500 pages

of printed reports each day. Itwas easy to overlook jobs. Our busi-ness is time-critical and missing a jobcan be very time-consuming to fix.”

Since then, John and his staff havecompletely automated computeroperations at Sorrento Lactalisusing some of the Help/Systems

Robot products—Robot/SCHEDULE,Robot/REPLAY, Robot/CLIENT, Robot/REPORTS, and Robot/NETWORK. Now,the products perform the operations, thepeople administer the system, and dailyoperations finish at four-thirty in the after-noon instead of nine at night. John describesthe changes and how they began usingRobot/SCHEDULE and Robot/REPLAY.“Before, we had a regular shift plus fivepeople rotated on call. After nine eachnight, the on-call person had to run theevening’s jobs and handle problems. Theoperator on call used to dial in, but nowthey can sleep because they just manageexceptions. They are contacted whenthere’s an issue, but that’s very rare.

“When we started to automate, we had nobatch version for most of the reports wecount on. We had to sign on, select options,fill in fields, submit the job, and wait. Eachmonth we’d repeat the process, just chang-ing date ranges. We needed to automatethe unautomatable. Robot/REPLAY is per-fect for anyone who has interactive jobssubmitted manually. You just fill in screensand modify the process where you need touse variables for values. We use reservedcommand variables to plug in values (likethe first and last days of the fiscal month),so we don’t have to change our job sched-ule each month.”

Another satisfying achievement wasautomating their Kronos timekeeping system using Robot/REPLAY. Beforeautomation, each Monday morning, at eachof their 40 departments, each supervisorhad to manually enter values for eachKronos report he or she wanted to run. AsJohn proudly explains, “We’ve automated

“Robot/REPLAY is perfect for anyone

who has interactivejobs submitted

manually.”

Robot/REPLAY Helps A Big Wheel In The Cheese Game AutomateInteractive Processing

16

19

SSometimes what’s behind the scenes canbe even more impressive than what’s upfront. Take MacDermid, Incorporated, amassive international business thatresearches, develops, manufactures, mar-kets, and services specialty chemicals andsystems for metal and plastic finishing,electronics, graphic arts, and offshore oilindustries. Founded in 1922 in Waterbury,Connecticut, their Advanced SurfaceFinishing division has become one of theleading specialty chemical manufacturersin the world. And, since the early 1960s,they have been an integral part of the rapidly changing electronics industry bydeveloping numerous products used tomanufacture sophisticated electronicdevices. All behind the scenes, but stillvery impressive.

A company like this needs fast, reliable,processing power, so they turned to the

iSeries. Karen Tablan, a Financial SystemsBusiness Analyst for MacDermid,

Inc. explains, “At our main headquarters in Waterbury,Connecticut, we have threeiSeries: one for our EnterpriseResource Planning (ERP) sys-tem, one for sales informa-

tion, and one as our LotusNotes server. On the soft-ware side, we use JBAfor our ERP system,GBA as our Fixed Asset

System, and Infinium for HR and payroll. The ERP system iSerieshouses all of our Help/Systemsproducts—Robot/SCHEDULE,

Robot/ALERT, Robot/REPORTS, Robot/REPLAY, and Robot/SAVE. In 1995, webought Robot/SCHEDULE and Robot/REPORTS as our first Help/Systems products. We automated our report processing, using Robot/SCHEDULE toschedule our reports and Robot/REPORTSto archive them. In 1998, we addedRobot/REPLAY.”

Karen found that Robot/REPLAY, “...couldsave us lots of time because many of ourscheduled jobs were interactive. Just bringup a screen, fill in the parameters, andyou’re done. With Robot/REPLAY, you don’tneed programming for an interactive appli-cation. At that time, the schedule wasentirely reactive (event-driven) jobs. It washard to figure out what ran when becauseeach job depended on another. I convertedit to fewer, larger, group jobs, and usedRobot/REPLAY to automate the interactiveones. Now, about 80% of our jobs arescheduled through Robot/REPLAY.”

“We had over 200 jobs running in Robot/SCHEDULE during the month. We use acombination of Robot/REPLAY jobs andnormal batch processing—a group job withreactive jobs, some interactive processing,and some batch processing. We use reservedcommand variables with Robot/REPLAY foran accurate date range, so Robot/REPLAYcan learn a query and run it after highusage daytime hours.”

Karen was so relentless about increasing efficiency, she earned the title of ‘CPUPolice’. “Monday mornings, lots of report

“With Robot/REPLAY,you don’t need

programming for an interactive

application.”

Behind The Scenes, MacDermid, Inc.Automates With Robot/REPLAY

18

runs made the system crawl. I told users,‘Tell me what you’re running and I’ll sched-ule them so everything will be ready foryou Monday morning.’ Scheduling lets yourun things in the proper order, with nomajor impact on your daytime machineusage.”

MacDermid, Inc. found that with Robot/REPLAY and Robot/SCHEDULE, automa-tion was easy, efficient, and profitable.Karen summarizes: “First, we didn’t need

a programmer. Second, we reduced theamount of Operations overhead. Third, weimproved our system performance becausewe schedule and run jobs more effectivelyand efficiently—after hours, or during peri-ods of low resource consumption.” A nicetribute to the automation experts behindthe scenes—Help/Systems, its people, andits products.

“I used Robot/REPLAYto automate the interactive jobs. Now, about 80% of our jobs are scheduled throughRobot/REPLAY.”

Robot/REPLAY:

• Records interactive job submission processes, including FTP and TCP/IP operations.

• Uses playback and editing features to create a reusable object.

• Uses Reserve Command Variables to submit the job correctly each time.

• Schedules these jobs using Robot/SCHEDULE.

• Automates the unautomatable.

2120

WWhen a company grows and expands, sodoes its view of the world. As this happens,the trick is to stay focused and remainorganized. A classic example is PatrickIndustries, which started out in 1959 supplying paneling to the manufacturedhousing industry in Elkhart, Indiana as theMerv Lung Building Company. Over theyears, the company expanded into othermarkets, including recreational vehicles,furniture, and cabinet manufacturing.Today, Patrick Industries is a $300 millioncompany, located across 13 states, with 27manufacturing and distribution centers.The recreational vehicle and manufacturedhousing industries represent more than70% of their volume, but they also manu-facture and distribute aluminum products,

high-pressure laminates,drawers, doors, adhe-sives, and more.

To handle their ever-expanding manufacturing

and distribution needs, PatrickIndustries relies on the

iSeries model i825 andWorld software from

Oracle (formerly JDEdwards World) for

enterprise-levelcontrol and monitoring oftheir systems.

To automatetheir iSeries

operations, they useRobot/SCHEDULE and

Robot/REPORTS.

Patrick Industries combinedWorld, Robot/SCHEDULE, and Robot/REPORTS to automate the printing and

distribution of iSeries reports. They useRobot/REPORTS to process hundreds ofuser-submitted reports daily and scheduledreports nightly, as well as weekly andmonthly reports.

Deborah Richardson, Operations Supervisorin charge of day-to-day operations,explains the evolution of iSeries reportmanagement. “Before Robot/REPORTS, weused primitive bursting software with noviewing capabilities or banners for distribu-tion. Now, we segment reports by a loca-tion on a report page. And, we have reallysaved money using online viewing. Duringa typical month, we used to print morethan 230,000 report pages. Now, we viewmore than 175,000 pages a month online asview-only reports.” Deborah admits thatonline viewing was a hard sell. But, afterthe initial adjustment, most people pre-ferred an online report to paper clutteringup their desk.

Another big piece of report management is distribution. It’s common for PatrickIndustries to process 5,000-page reports,using Robot/REPORTS to burst thesereports so each division receives their cor-rect pages. As Deborah explains, “If wehad to run a separate job for every divi-sion, we’d run thousands of jobs a night.Trying to maintain that schedule wouldn’tbe fun.”

Patrick Industries uses OPAL code, userdata from World, report segments, andidentifiers to process reports to multiplelocations. For division reports, Robot/SCHEDULE runs a job that submits areport to a monitored output queue.Information specified in World identifieshow the report should be burst, distrib-uted, and printed. When a new division

“We have really savedmoney using onlineviewing...Now, we

view more than175,000 pages amonth online as

view-only reports.”

Patrick Industries Automates TheiriSeries World

report arrives in the queue, Robot/REPORTS determines the bursting instruc-tions, prints a copy at the division office,and distributes a copy to each recipient.Patrick Industries also uses Robot/REPORTS to segment division reports.Each division’s segment is sent backthrough Robot/REPORTS via the moni-tored output queue. A field on the newspooled file provides new bursting instruc-tions that Robot/REPORTS uses to createthe smaller report.

Deborah likes other Robot/REPORTS fea-tures, especially usability. “With Robot/REPORTS, I can train a new operator, who doesn’t know OS/400, and have themchanging report distributions in an hour.Help/Systems products are the first appli-cations we teach new operators. Other bigbenefits we’ve seen include lower printer,paper, and labor costs; increased produc-tivity; and an increased ability to shareinformation.” A nice beginning to the storyof how Patrick Industries uses World soft-ware and the Robot products to automatetheir iSeries and help run their business.

“With Robot/REPORTS,I can train a newoperator, who doesn’tknow OS/400, andhave them changingreport distributions inan hour.”

Robot/REPORTS:

• Automates System i report bundling and distribution.

• Archives reports on the System i.

• Safeguards confidential data.

• Lets you view System i reports with a standard Web browser.

• Lets you download report data to spreadsheets.

22 23

SStep back in time to July 13, 1895, inOshkosh, Wisconsin as four men—Frank E.Grove, James G. Clark, J. Howard Jenkins,and George M. Jones—start the GroveManufacturing Company. Their plan: toproduce hickory-striped denim bib overallsfor railroad workers and farmers. They suc-ceed handsomely, and in 1911, a companyexecutive on a buying trip to New Yorkhears the phrase Oshkosh B’Gosh in avaudeville skit. He likes it, the companyadopts it as their garment brand name, and the rest, is history.

Today, OshKosh B’Gosh, Inc. has become a global marketer of children’s clothing

and accessories. Still bestknown for their overalls,they’ve extended theirline to include productsfor the entire family.

As they have grown, their data processing

requirements also havegrown, including the

need for automatediSeries report man-

agement. Threemembers of theOperationsteam—Terri

Rugg, Supervisorof Operations;

Debbie Spannbauer, Sr.Technical Support Analyst

for iSeries systems; and MarkEsslinger, Technical SupportAnalyst—recently shared somedetails of their computingenvironment.

According to Mark, “We have one iSeriesmodel 830 partitioned into three systems,and another iSeries system at our distribu-tion center in Tennessee. Besides the iSeriessystems, we have some IBM pSeries UNIXsystems for our retail system, Microsoftand Novell servers, and PCs configured ina wide area network (WAN).”

For software, they use a package designedspecifically for the apparel industry astheir primary order processing system. Tohandle all their iSeries automation needs,they rely on some of the products fromHelp/Systems: Robot/SCHEDULE, Robot/CLIENT, Robot/CONSOLE, Robot/ALERT,Robot/REPORTS, and the Robot BrowserInterface.

Terri briefly explains their history with theRobot products. “We’ve had Robot/SCHED-ULE, our first Help/Systems product, formore than ten years. During that time, weadded Robot/CLIENT, Robot/CONSOLE,Robot/ALERT, and Robot/REPORTS. I’mreally impressed with how well the Help/Systems products are integrated. Today,we use Robot/REPORTS to manage 1,100report sets and 425 recipients—includingour own employees and external vendors.We e-mail some reports to vendors andsales people—anybody who can’t accessour internal computers.”

According to Debbie, “A big issue for uswas getting information to our sales peoplefaster. Now, with Robot/REPORTS, Robot/CLIENT, and e-mail, they get their reportalmost instantly. They have critical infor-mation more quickly to make them moreproductive.”

“While people aretraveling, and get

on the network butnot at their own PC, it’s huge for

them to be able toaccess reports.”

OshKosh B’Gosh Takes A Fresh LookAt Its iSeries Reports With TheRobot Browser Interface

As Terri explains, “In the last few monthswe’ve really started focusing on cuttingdown on our printing. By using electronicmethods like e-mail for reports, I’d saywe’ve cut printing by 60% in all phases ofthe company and all departments.”

To give the print reduction program a little boost, Mark and Debbie decided totry something new. “We implemented the Robot Browser Interface with Robot/REPORTS, which lets our users view theirreports using a standard Web browser.They can view a report using this interfaceand just print the part they need.”

It’s had an impact on report distribution, asDebbie describes. “Travel is a great exam-ple. While people are traveling, and get onthe network but not at their own PC, it’shuge for them to be able to access reports.We have a link called Online Reports onour corporate intranet. They can click onthe Robot/REPORTS icon to link directly to the Robot Browser Interface.”

User profiles are a critical piece of theproduct’s security, as Terri explains. “TheRobot Browser Interface ties to the Robot/REPORTS recipient record, which ties to a user profile. There are two security lay-ers—they have to be a valid iSeries user,and they have to have an intranet login.”

Debbie noticed a big plus when using theinterface for large reports. “Our sales people connect to our network to down-load their e-mail to get their reports. Withe-mail, you may have a large attachmentthat is difficult to open. The interface isfaster and more efficient because you don’t have to download e-mail.”

Mark enjoyed installing the interface. “Theinterface was very easy to install—in fact,it was one of the most straightforwardproducts I ever installed.”

“...it was one of themost straightforwardproducts I everinstalled.”

Robot/REPORTS:

• Automates System i report bundling and distribution.

• Archives reports on the System i.

• Safeguards confidential data.

• Lets you view System i reports with a standard Web browser.

• Lets you download report data to spreadsheets.

24 25

DDrugs. We all need them; we all use them.In fact, it’s said that prescription drugs arethe most frequently used benefit of mosthealth plans. So, who manages all thosepharmacy services taking place out there?

One of the prime players in the pharmacybenefits industry is Prime Therapeutics,LLC. Based in Eagan, Minnesota, this com-pany of approximately 1,000 employeesprovides pharmacy benefits managementservices to its clients, including Blue Cross/Blue Shield plans, employers, uniongroups, and other third-party administra-tors. The company numbers its memberbase at 7.5 million covered lives, and theirclaim volume at an estimated 60 millionclaims per year.

Terrie Morgan, Manager of ProductionControl, and Leigh Richardson, SeniorComputer Operator, are responsible foriSeries computer operations on two Model825 systems: their primary production

server in Irving, Texas, and a three-wayLPAR system in Eagan. They run

SXC RXClaims software for claimsprocessing.

To manage their workload—from providing clients with a comprehensive pharmacy program to claims processing—

the company relies on severaloperations automation products, includingRobot/ALERT, Robot/CONSOLE, Robot/CORRAL, Robot/NETWORK, Robot/SAVE,and Robot/SCHEDULE.

One of the most important IT functions inany business is having a reliable backupand recovery system in place. Robot/SAVE,the automated backup, recovery, and tapemanagement package, plays a vital role at

Prime Therapeutics. They run all daily,weekly, and monthly backups using Robot/SAVE and two IBM 3494 automated medialibraries (AMLs). One 3494 is located inTexas and the other, with two drives, is inEagan. The company mirrors most of itsdata from the production system in Texasto the secondary system in Eagan. SaysTerrie, “We have 99.9% availability servicelevel agreements we need to meet, so wekeep the system up and running all thetime. Our primary business is processingclaims, so that application is replicated toour backup box.”

The majority of the data is backed up inEagan. Only non-mirrored data is backedup in Texas. They send Robot/SAVE’srestoration reports between the systems in Eagan and Texas following each backupsession. Says Terrie, “If we lost our Texasbox, we’d have the information in Eagan asfar as the tapes we’d need to restore thesystems, and vice versa.

Daily and weekly backups consist of a fullSAVLIB of all libraries. According to Terrie,“With the 3494, 3592E tapes, and compres-sion and compaction, we can hold about700 gigabytes of data. It’s to our advantagejust to do a SAVLIB across the board.” Thelibraries included in the SAVLIB aredefined to the backup.

Both daily and weekly backups have retention periods of 60 days. The main dif-ference between the two is that the tapesused for the daily backups remain on-sitein the 3494, while those used in the weeklybackups are ejected from the AML andstored off-site.

The backups are scheduled in Robot/SCHEDULE. The company uses cross-

One of the mostimportant IT functions

in any business is having a reliable

backup and recoveryplan in place.

Prime Therapeutics TrustsRobot/SAVE With 7.5 Million Lives

system reactivity to back up the partitionsto the AML. Says Terrie, “We share thetape drives in Eagan with our developmentpartitions. We start the backup at 7 p.m.That’s split into two backup sets so that itruns on both drives. When one of them finishes, the drive is deallocated on thecurrent partition and allocated on thedevelopment partition.”

The Eagan LPAR system is configured in adata center using Robot/SAVE. The tapesin the 3494 are set up in a scratch pool andthe partitions share all the tapes in the AML.According to Leigh, “We put together a

project plan when we were setting up the data center and someone from Help/Systems’ staff actually walked through ourproject plan to see if we were missing anything.”

The combination of Robot/SAVE and theIBM 3494 AML gives Prime Therapeuticsthe confidence that their important datawill be available whenever it’s needed. Andthat, in turn, should make 7.5 million peo-ple feel confident that when they needmedication, their claims will be processedquickly and reliably.

“We put together aproject plan when wewere setting up thedata center and some-one from Help/Systems’staff actually walkedthrough our projectplan to see if we weremissing anything.”

Robot/SAVE:

• Automates backup, recovery, and data center operations.

• Manages save media, including tapes used outside of Robot/SAVE.

• Creates a flexible object archive.

• Encrypts selected objects, libraries, object lists, IFS files, or Domino databases asthey’re saved to tape.

• Handles PC backup and recovery from the System i.

• Performs online backups of Domino servers and databases.

27

BBased in Little Rock, Arkansas, WEHCOMedia is big business—and continues togrow. WEHCO currently operates sevendaily newspapers, thirteen cable televisionsystems, and provides high-speed Internetservice to subscribers in Arkansas, Texas,Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.

Faced with an accelerated rate of operatorturnover and an increasingly complex jobschedule, Judy Nethercutt, Director of IT,began looking for a solution that wouldgive her better control of the job schedule.Specifically, she wanted to eliminate manyof WEHCO’s manual processes, minimizethe daunting six-month training curve fornew operators, and reduce recurring errorsin the job schedule.

The solution she chose was the RobotAutomated Operations Solution fromHelp/Systems. WEHCO Media uses

Robot/SCHEDULE, the job scheduler,automatic computer operator and

batch manager; Robot/REPLAY,the add-on to Robot/SCHEDULEthat automates interactiveprocesses; Robot/ALERT, the

system event notification software; andRobot/CLIENT, the client event operationsmanagement software.

WEHCO Rapidly Automates 1,200Jobs Using Robot/SCHEDULEOnce Robot/SCHEDULE was installed,Judy and Ninette Morse, OperationsManager, wasted no time. They were ableto accomplish all their scheduling goals—and much more—in a short time. “Ninette,our lead operator, and I used Robot/SCHEDULE to automate 1,200 jobs inroughly a two-month period,” explains

Judy. Ninette adds, “We’re still working onthe rest of the schedule, but that’s ninetypercent of our OS/400 jobs that no longerneed an operator to run.”

Robot/REPLAY Can “Learn” AnyManual Process Before automation, many of WEHCO’s jobsrequired an operator to reference a check-list and plug in different parameters to runthe same job for each of WEHCO’s tencable TV sites. Now, using a single Robot/REPLAY object and Robot/SCHEDULEreserved command variables, these jobsare automated; required parameters—the current date, Yes or No answers, and more—are entered automatically byRobot/REPLAY and the jobs run error-freein the correct order every time.

Robot/REPLAY is the plug-in to Robot/SCHEDULE that automates job schedulingfor interactive iSeries applications thatrequire input before batch processing canbegin. Using Robot/REPLAY, WEHCO hasautomated jobs they once thought were“unautomatable.”

Event-Driven Scheduling AcrossThree PlatformsWEHCO uses Robot/CLIENT for reporthandling across multiple platforms. Judyexplains, “Our OS/400 reports are uploadedto an IBM RS/6000 running AIX, where thereports are converted to PDFs and indexed.The reports are then loaded onto a Windowsserver. From there, our users can accesstheir reports directly from their PCs.”

Robot/CLIENT kicks off group jobs foreach of the report processes on the differ-ent platforms. If one of the iSeries, UNIX,

“Ninette, our leadoperator, and I usedRobot/SCHEDULE to

automate 1,200 jobsin roughly a two-

month period.”

Operations Automation AllowsWEHCO Media To Keep Pace In AFast-Moving Industry

or Windows applications or servers has aproblem, Robot/CLIENT uses Robot/ALERTto notify an operator, who can respondimmediately.

As WEHCO Media embarks on new ven-tures and continues to expand its currentbusiness, it has found that automating its operations—using the products of

Help/Systems’ Robot AutomatedOperations Solution—allows it to growwithout increasing its operations staff.And, the IT department knows it can han-dle and automate any new processes thatcome its way.

“We’re still working on the rest of theschedule, but that’sninety percent of ourOS/400 jobs that nolonger need an operator to run.”

Robot/SCHEDULE:

• Automates batch job scheduling.

• Accommodates virtually any job schedule.

• Allows jobs to react to the completion of other jobs.

• Manages groups of jobs that run together as a procedure.

• Watches and “learns” as you submit jobs.

• Audits job setup changes.

• Manages Domino servers and helps maintain Domino databases.

• Interfaces to EnterpriseOne.

26

29

DDuring the last sixty years, the field ofmaterials handling has developed into ahighly sophisticated and important part ofindustry. From its humble beginnings as asmall machine shop in the early 1940s, toits present role as the world’s premier man-ufacturer of lift truck attachments andrelated products, Cascade Corporation hasplayed a significant part in the growth anddevelopment of this field. Headquarteredin Portland, Oregon, they have about 2,000employees worldwide and are the premiersupplier of forklift attachments, with rev-enues of over $450 million a year.

In 1995, before the iSeries arrived on thescene, Cascade Corporation’s IS depart-ment used an IBM mainframe with opera-tions coverage 24 hours a day, five days aweek, and full system backups on week-ends. During the week, they ran batchwork at night with operators working all

three shifts. They thought there had tobe a better way.

First, they switched to theiSeries platform because of its

reputation for reliability. Next,for powerful, easy-to-use manufacturingsoftware, they selected two flavors of J.D. Edwards: EnterpriseOne (formerlyOneWorld), with its Graphical UserInterface (GUI), for sales and accounting,and World, with its green screen interface,for production. Then, they added a suite of compatible automation tools from Help/Systems—specifically, Robot/SCHEDULE,automated job scheduling software,Robot/ALERT, automated messaging software, Robot/REPORTS, the reportmanagement system, Robot/CONSOLE

for automated message management, andRobot/SAVE, the automated backup andrecovery utility.

The IS department has maintained theOS/400 platform and iSeries hardware formost of the past six years as an automatedshop. As David Hinrichs, Cascade’s iSeriesSystems Administrator explains, “About 4 p.m. batch processing starts and it’s allautomated—we only intervene if Robot/ALERT notifies us of a problem. We useRobot/SAVE to do backups, all integratedinto Robot/SCHEDULE. It’s really nice.Basically, it’s lights out.”

Even though the automated workload isn’tsmall, setup was quick. David estimates,“From the time we got Robot/SCHEDULEuntil we were running an automated batchschedule was several months. We have acouple of thousand jobs in Robot/SCHEDULE:end-of-day, end-of-week, end-of-month,and quarterly, all automated. We have jobsthat run on the first of the month, jobs thatrun on the 15th of the month, even a jobthat is delayed intentionally if the 15th is aSunday. Robot/SCHEDULE handles it all.

“We set up groups for different applica-tions, so we run our J.D.Edwards jobs as a group. We can move that [J.D. Edwards]group around, stop it, or hold it, and noth-ing else runs. We can run EnterpriseOnejobs and other types of jobs in the sameprocess. It’s easy to have a non-EnterpriseOnebatch job run after an EnterpriseOne jobusing Robot/SCHEDULE.” Cascade uses theJ.D. Edwards RUNUBE command to interfacewith Robot/SCHEDULE on the iSeries. Thecommand lets them run an EnterpriseOne

“Robot/SCHEDULE handles it all.”

The iSeries, EnterpriseOne, AndHelp/Systems Come Together For”Lights Out” At Cascade Corporation

batch job through an iSeries batch session.Robot/SAVE is the key to automated back-ups. David says, “We do an incrementalbackup every night to save anything that’schanged (including J.D. Edwards data). Weuse Robot/SAVE’s Restricted State Utility(RSU) to do an automatic, unattended,full-system backup Sunday mornings. Ittakes less than six hours to back up ourentire system [on an IBM 3570 AutomatedMedia Library]. If there are any problems,Robot/ALERT tells us. ”

David is also very positive about the tech-nical support from Help/Systems. “I loveHelp/Systems’ tech support. They’re reallygood. I’ve never had any problems getting

answers. Thankfully, I don’t have to calloften—the products work well—but if I dohave a question, I call tech support andthey’re very knowledgeable.”

So, now everything’s automated and runningsmoothly, and no one’s working weekendsor three shifts anymore. “Nobody here andno manual intervention,” says David. “TheRobot products let us do that. They’re verystable, reliable products, with good support,and they do exactly what we want them todo. Lights out with automated operations—a great reality.”

“I love Help/Systems’tech support. They’rereally good.”

Robot/SCHEDULE:

• Automates batch job scheduling.

• Accommodates virtually any job schedule.

• Allows jobs to react to the completion of other jobs.

• Manages groups of jobs that run together as a procedure.

• Watches and “learns” as you submit jobs.

• Audits job setup changes.

• Manages Domino servers and helps maintain Domino databases.

• Interfaces to EnterpriseOne.

28

30 31

WWas there anything better than getting apresent in the mail when you were a kid? A chemistry set. A new doll. Even if it was a plaid turtleneck from Grandma andGrandpa in North Dakota, it was still fun tosee your name in print and then tear openthe box.

How soon we forget. Today, waiting foranything seems ludicrous. We scoff at thethought of using snail mail unless we haveto. But, until there is an alternative, that’swhat we do. We wait. And that’s what thesales reps at Thermwell Products were

doing. They had to waitfor invoices stuck inthe mail. When repshave to wait for invoices,customer service suffers. Thermwellturned to Robot/TRANSFORM,Help/Systems’OS/400-output-to-PDF conversionpackage, to solve the waiting problem.

Thermwell sells over 2,300products, including Frost King

brand insulation and weatherstripping products, to consumers all

over the world. They have satellite officesand manufacturing and distributionfacilities throughout the United States.

The company has used Robot/SCHEDULE,Help/Systems’ job scheduler and automaticcomputer operator, since 1996. When theyheard Help/Systems was about to introduceRobot/TRANSFORM, Thermwell had itquick-shipped and was one of the firstcompanies to use it.

Thermwell uses a Robot/SCHEDULE job tomerge sales data with the EZ Print elec-tronic forms package from ACom to createtheir invoices. They used to print an extracopy of each invoice and then mail them toeach sales rep. In some cases, reps werewaiting more than two weeks for invoices.

Now, Robot/TRANSFORM automaticallyconverts the invoices into Adobe PortableDocument Format (PDF) files, natively on the iSeries. Thermwell e-mails them to the sales reps immediately after they’recreated. Jeffrey Adler, Vice President ofInformation Services at Thermwell,explains, “The job that creates the salesreps’ copies runs at 4:00 a.m. everySunday. I don’t know how many spooledfiles or invoices there are going to be thatweek. Rather than playing games, we justrun that job. Once the job ends, Robot/TRANSFORM goes out and starts lookingfor spooled files that contain certain userdata, for example, a salesperson code.Those are the invoices. It converts thosefiles to PDF and we go ahead and e-mailthem to the appropriate sales people.

“In our environment,Robot/TRANSFORMwas less expensive

and it did more.”

Robot/TRANSFORM Pushes TheEnvelope Out Of The Way ForThermwell

“We were looking at other solutions for thisproblem, and quite frankly, it was difficultto find one. We used another product toconvert spooled files to PDF but thatworked with everything but EZ Printspooled files. The cost of using the othersolution was more than Robot/TRANS-FORM. In our environment, Robot/TRANSFORM was less expensive and it did more. It has more features, functions,and it cost less.”

Jeffrey was happy to solve the waitingproblem. And what about the sales reps?Are they happy now that their invoices forthe week are sitting in their Inbox whenthey log on Monday morning? Jeffrey offersthis assessment: “Sales people are funny.They only tell us when there’s a problem.They haven’t talked to me about invoices insix months. So, that tells me there are noproblems.” We can assume the sales repsare happy, too.

“Robot/TRANSFORMwas less expensiveand it did more. It has more features,functions, and it cost less.”

Robot/TRANSFORM:

• Creates PDFs from standard OS/400 spooled files.

• Creates PDFs from IFS files.

• Creates PDFs from ASCII, PCL, and AFP files.

• Preserves embedded graphics.

• Eliminates the need for preprinted forms.

33

BBeing a customer can be a thankless, frustrating experience. Sure, you were king when you were thinking about buying the product. But, that was then. Now, thepurchase has been made, the product’s in-house, something’s not working, and you need help. You can feel invisible andignored as you deal with all the possible“gotchas” of technical support in the com-puter industry: the telephone maze; thelong wait for help; the lack of knowledge;and the ‘it’s somebody else’s problem’ phi-losophy (also known as the ‘blame game’).

Dennis Piner, the IS Operations Managerfor Sacred Heart Health System in Pensacola,Florida, didn’t want, nor could he afford,that experience. Since 1915, Sacred HeartHealth System has grown from the firsthospital in Northwest Florida into a regionalleader for high-quality, compassionatehealth care.

Today, they are a non-profit healthcareorganization with more than 4,500

employees, offering a network of primary care physicians, a 24-hour

Emergency Trauma Center, aPediatric Trauma Referral Center,and centers specializing inwomen’s health, cardiac care,cancer care, and child care. Thehub of this system is a 431-bedacute care facility located in

Pensacola, which includes SacredHeart Hospital, Sacred Heart

Children’s Hospital, and Sacred HeartWomen’s Hospital. A big part of Sacred

Heart’s mission is to care for the poor andprovide comfort and healing to those inneed spiritually, medically, or financially.They spend millions of dollars each yearreaching out to the needy with communityservices.

As you can imagine, all that loving caretranslates into some large data processingneeds for charts, forms, records, bills, andother information. Sacred Heart relies onUNIX machines, HP, Compaq and Dell fileservers, Dell PCs, and the IBM iSeries.They use the iSeries to run their financialapplications, supply orders, medical orders,patient results, and payroll. To manage theiriSeries reports, they use Robot/REPORTSfrom Help/Systems, the world’s leadingprovider of iSeries automation software.

Dennis explains, “We chose Robot/REPORTSwhen the hospital was looking at cost-cut-ting measures. We did a cost study on howmuch paper the computer operations areaproduced on a monthly basis. Between theamount of paper we were printing and thecost of associated consumables and non-consumables, the cost was astronomical.So, we looked at putting reports online forusers. I know that paper usage has been cutby at least 70%, maybe more, with compa-rable savings.”

Before he purchased Robot/REPORTS,Dennis had never worked with Help/Systems, so he was unaware that they arean ISO-9001-certified company. Thismeans that Help/Systems pays close atten-tion to the quality of each item from thecustomer’s point-of-view: the products, thesales experience, the shipping, and thesupport. In fact, Help/Systems is so con-cerned with the quality of their support,they use the nursing profession to profiletheir customer service people.

Help/Systems wants their support peopleto be available, caring, and helpful. Thethoroughness of that approach combinedwith the Help/Systems philosophy—to be ahigh-tech company, with low-tech cus-

“When I callHelp/Systems, I’m

never put on hold, Idon’t have to go

through a bunch ofoptions, and frustra-tion is non-existent.

I call and say, ‘Let mespeak to someone in

customer support,’ andboom, I’m there.”

Sacred Heart Stays Healthy WithHelp/Systems

feeling like I was not understood, or thatmy problem didn’t get resolved.”

Obviously, instantaneous feedback is not areality every time, but as Dennis explains,“Even when I’ve called and asked for a spe-cific support rep who is on the phone oraway from the desk, I leave a message andwithin 30 minutes I get a call back. And,when I placed a support call and an answerwasn’t available, they got back to me withinone working day. I know the customerservice people are trained across theboard—the quality I’ve received and theknowledge base I get when I call is fantastic.The timeliness is excellent, the friendlinessis excellent, and the expertise is excellent.As for the ‘That’s not our problem’ syndrome,I’ve never had that issue with Help/Systems.

I probably deal with 30 to 40 different ven-dors and if I had to rank them from 1 to 40,Help/Systems would be Number One.” Nice praise for a high-tech, old-fashioned,customer service company like Help/Systems.

“I probably deal with30 to 40 different vendors and if I had torank them from 1 to 40,Help/Systems wouldbe Number One.”

tomer service—means big paybacks for the customer. The customer gets a supportphilosophy that is centered around people,caring, and timeliness, versus phone mazes,frustration, and waiting. With each call for help, Dennis was more impressed.“Everything Tech Support does is right,and I mean that sincerely. When I have to call Support and ask how to do things,response time by phone is virtually instan-taneous. As for the e-mails I’ve sent, within30 to 45 minutes there is a response. Thecustomer support staff is excellent.”

Dennis continues, “Timeliness is a big issuewith me. When I call Help/Systems, I’mnever put on hold, I don’t have to gothrough a bunch of options, and frustrationis non-existent. I call and say, ‘Let mespeak to someone in customer support,’and boom, I’m there. They say, ‘Okay, tellme what you’re doing and what your prob-lem is…’ and they walk through it withyou, trying to duplicate your problem. As aresult, I have never hung up the phone

Technical Support:

• Knowledgeable, friendly people.

• 24/7 availability.

• No phone maze.

• More than 70% of calls are resolved in less than a day.

• Quick response time.

32

World's Leader in System iAutomated Operations& Business Intelligence

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