A majority of business system problems that occur, outside of manual procedural errors, involve an application system. In order to track down the problem, the following must be performed:
- * Identify the application
- * Identify the specific components (pieces of the system like programs, files, screens, etc.) involved
- * Gain an understanding of these components and their relationships to other components
- * Determine what changed that caused the problem
Ravensun's unique automation system, KeySys, can assist with all these steps. From Naming Conventions, to component cross-references, KeySys can provide a majority of the information needed to resolve most Application System problems quickly and efficiently – at a mouse-click away.
The result: less down time, higher availability, and better respect from the business users.
Help for the Help Desk
Currently, because detailed application information is commonly not available - often which requires specialized Mainframe Technical Skills - the Help Desk is typically reduced to a problem recording and dissemination function, rather than one of problem resolution.
Resulting in even more “wait time” for the User. Wait time until the actual Mainframe responsible party is identified that can begin to resolve the issue.
Wait time that KeySys eliminates. With non-technical “point-and-click” information the Help Desk can actually resolve simple problems, and do the investigative analysis “leg-work” for more complex issues - thus saving the responsible Technician a great deal of time. If one knows exactly what screen the User is objecting to, what program(s) process that screen, what activates those program(s), and what files are also involved, the problem resolution time just got reduced by more than half!
Production Support
For those in Operations and Application Support, solving any issue is a time-consuming venture, largely because:
1) One must first identify all that is involved. For example: a program abends: does this match the program source name? Where does it get Data from? How is it activated? What are its relationships? – all of this and more – Before the “what’s wrong” can even be approached.
2) Creating a test environment to either duplicate the problem or test out a “fix” is next to impossible to do without knowing all the specifics outlined above along with the real file names the data is to come from, how configured as well as the system flow.
Not easy. Not quick. Especially if the staff involved has little to no understanding of the application(s) in question, and technologies involved.
With KeySys, solving Problems has just gotten magnitudes easier. And 50% more efficient.
.