02
Sat, Nov
2 New Articles

Case Study: Robot Automation Solutions

Typography
  • Smaller Small Medium Big Bigger
  • Default Helvetica Segoe Georgia Times

Built-in schedulers are temperamental. It's a pain scheduling extracts from third-party applications. Digging through job logs to get information for audits is a chore. Does this sound familiar?

 

Our friends at Heartland Financial, a multi-bank holding company based out of Dubuque, Iowa, found fun ways to use Robot products to solve their operations frustrations. Here are their top five.

 

Charles Bertsch and Paul Duval are part of the operations team at Heartland Financial. They were excited to share how Robot job scheduling and monitoring software helped them manage their processes across platforms from their iSeries. With a goal of doubling in size every five to seven years, the processing window was a concern. They needed tools that could grow with their business and came up with some creative solutions using Robot.

#1: Centralize Scheduling on the iSeries

Prior to Robot, operations at Heartland Financial involved a lot of manual processes and problems with temperamental built-in task schedulers. Their third shift would run nightly processing until 1:00 a.m. and then run manual jobs afterward. They started using native schedulers for some of those jobs, but the challenge was that their nightly workflow never ended at exactly the same time. Due to the amount of guesswork in timing, managing nightly processes and 400 separate month-end jobs on the IBM scheduler and Windows scheduler was tough.

 

With Robot products, Heartland was able to have iSeries applications control all their jobs, not only on the iSeries but on the Windows scheduler as well, using Robot/SCHEDULE and Robot/SCHEDULE Enterprise. Following an update to their Fiserv Signature software, they used the Schedule Activity Monitor (SAM) in Robot/SCHEDULE to spot jobs that didn't run, see what queries they were calling, step through them, and kick off the jobs again, all from a single dashboard.

#2: Establish Fiserv Message Archive for Auditors

The Fiserv Signature application does not provide a canned report confirming that all jobs completed, and that's really what auditors expect to see. Paul used the global programming in Robot/CONSOLE to look for specific message IDs from each bank. The messages confirm when backups and batch jobs are complete. Robot catches these messages from Fiserv and emails them to the operations team, who archive them for auditors to prove that any given job or backup finished without digging through job logs. All they need is the message from Robot/ALERT, which says exactly what auditors need to hear.

#3: Track Disk Space Usage for Cost Allocation

Before Robot, Heartland lacked disk accounting services across their 10 independently chartered banks and 81 banking locations. Changes in library size for their many banks needed to be tracked so they could allocate costs. Using Robot/SPACE, they can monitor library growth and analyze existing trends to make space for new data. They also use the size of their data libraries to do allocations. After jobs run the first of the month, for example, Charles can go back and graph out their status, how big the libraries are each month, how they change and fluctuate.

#4: Optimize Existing Staff

When they were smaller, Heartland had more time to deal with the eccentricities of native schedulers. But with upcoming acquisitions, their growth strategy demanded a scalable solution, and reliable processing was even more mission-critical. As they add banks and processing, their goal is to handle the rapid growth and to fold in additional banks, while maintaining the same processing window without adding staff.

 

Automation was huge for them to maintain that window so they would have time to run their extracts on a consistent basis. Without Robot, Heartland would have had to add staff to monitor jobs overnight. Robot jobs run unattended and do what they're intended to do. When the operations team arrives in the morning and checks the dashboard, the jobs are consistent.

#5: Leverage Robot Tech Support

When they first began using Robot products, Heartland was coming away from manual processes and built-in schedulers on the iSeries and Windows. They had a lot of entries to move over and, on the enterprise side, they had to make sure the services were running on specific servers.

 

The migration tool in Robot was helpful, and they did some training for their core group to get them familiar with the products. They also spent a lot of time working with Roxanne Callan, a technical consultant at Help/Systems. In comparison to their other software vendors, Charles ranked Robot support services "definitely above average." Heartland is comfortable calling or using the online chat option to get the answers or assistance they need.

 

Read the full case study for more ways Robot helped Heartland Financial streamline their job schedule and maximize their banking software. Discover the many (sometimes surprising) ways that Robot will improve your processes by trying it free for 30 days.

 

Chuck Losinski

Chuck Losinski is Director of Automation Technology for the Robot product line. He has more than 25 years of experience with IBM i systems. Chuck¹s background includes system implementation, programming, operations, and support. He is certified as an IBM System Administrator and has helped customers automate business applications from InFor, JDE Enterprise One, HBOC, RxClaim, Infinium, Jack Henry, and more.

BLOG COMMENTS POWERED BY DISQUS

LATEST COMMENTS

Support MC Press Online

$

Book Reviews

Resource Center

  • SB Profound WC 5536 Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application. You can find Part 1 here. In Part 2 of our free Node.js Webinar Series, Brian May teaches you the different tooling options available for writing code, debugging, and using Git for version control. Brian will briefly discuss the different tools available, and demonstrate his preferred setup for Node development on IBM i or any platform. Attend this webinar to learn:

  • SB Profound WP 5539More than ever, there is a demand for IT to deliver innovation. Your IBM i has been an essential part of your business operations for years. However, your organization may struggle to maintain the current system and implement new projects. The thousands of customers we've worked with and surveyed state that expectations regarding the digital footprint and vision of the company are not aligned with the current IT environment.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT Generic IBM announced the E1080 servers using the latest Power10 processor in September 2021. The most powerful processor from IBM to date, Power10 is designed to handle the demands of doing business in today’s high-tech atmosphere, including running cloud applications, supporting big data, and managing AI workloads. But what does Power10 mean for your data center? In this recorded webinar, IBMers Dan Sundt and Dylan Boday join IBM Power Champion Tom Huntington for a discussion on why Power10 technology is the right strategic investment if you run IBM i, AIX, or Linux. In this action-packed hour, Tom will share trends from the IBM i and AIX user communities while Dan and Dylan dive into the tech specs for key hardware, including:

  • Magic MarkTRY the one package that solves all your document design and printing challenges on all your platforms. Produce bar code labels, electronic forms, ad hoc reports, and RFID tags – without programming! MarkMagic is the only document design and print solution that combines report writing, WYSIWYG label and forms design, and conditional printing in one integrated product. Make sure your data survives when catastrophe hits. Request your trial now!  Request Now.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericForms of ransomware has been around for over 30 years, and with more and more organizations suffering attacks each year, it continues to endure. What has made ransomware such a durable threat and what is the best way to combat it? In order to prevent ransomware, organizations must first understand how it works.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericIT security is a top priority for businesses around the world, but most IBM i pros don’t know where to begin—and most cybersecurity experts don’t know IBM i. In this session, Robin Tatam explores the business impact of lax IBM i security, the top vulnerabilities putting IBM i at risk, and the steps you can take to protect your organization. If you’re looking to avoid unexpected downtime or corrupted data, you don’t want to miss this session.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericCan you trust all of your users all of the time? A typical end user receives 16 malicious emails each month, but only 17 percent of these phishing campaigns are reported to IT. Once an attack is underway, most organizations won’t discover the breach until six months later. A staggering amount of damage can occur in that time. Despite these risks, 93 percent of organizations are leaving their IBM i systems vulnerable to cybercrime. In this on-demand webinar, IBM i security experts Robin Tatam and Sandi Moore will reveal:

  • FORTRA Disaster protection is vital to every business. Yet, it often consists of patched together procedures that are prone to error. From automatic backups to data encryption to media management, Robot automates the routine (yet often complex) tasks of iSeries backup and recovery, saving you time and money and making the process safer and more reliable. Automate your backups with the Robot Backup and Recovery Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAManaging messages on your IBM i can be more than a full-time job if you have to do it manually. Messages need a response and resources must be monitored—often over multiple systems and across platforms. How can you be sure you won’t miss important system events? Automate your message center with the Robot Message Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAThe thought of printing, distributing, and storing iSeries reports manually may reduce you to tears. Paper and labor costs associated with report generation can spiral out of control. Mountains of paper threaten to swamp your files. Robot automates report bursting, distribution, bundling, and archiving, and offers secure, selective online report viewing. Manage your reports with the Robot Report Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAFor over 30 years, Robot has been a leader in systems management for IBM i. With batch job creation and scheduling at its core, the Robot Job Scheduling Solution reduces the opportunity for human error and helps you maintain service levels, automating even the biggest, most complex runbooks. Manage your job schedule with the Robot Job Scheduling Solution. Key features include:

  • LANSA Business users want new applications now. Market and regulatory pressures require faster application updates and delivery into production. Your IBM i developers may be approaching retirement, and you see no sure way to fill their positions with experienced developers. In addition, you may be caught between maintaining your existing applications and the uncertainty of moving to something new.

  • LANSAWhen it comes to creating your business applications, there are hundreds of coding platforms and programming languages to choose from. These options range from very complex traditional programming languages to Low-Code platforms where sometimes no traditional coding experience is needed. Download our whitepaper, The Power of Writing Code in a Low-Code Solution, and:

  • LANSASupply Chain is becoming increasingly complex and unpredictable. From raw materials for manufacturing to food supply chains, the journey from source to production to delivery to consumers is marred with inefficiencies, manual processes, shortages, recalls, counterfeits, and scandals. In this webinar, we discuss how:

  • The MC Resource Centers bring you the widest selection of white papers, trial software, and on-demand webcasts for you to choose from. >> Review the list of White Papers, Trial Software or On-Demand Webcast at the MC Press Resource Center. >> Add the items to yru Cart and complet he checkout process and submit

  • Profound Logic Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application.

  • SB Profound WC 5536Join us for this hour-long webcast that will explore:

  • Fortra IT managers hoping to find new IBM i talent are discovering that the pool of experienced RPG programmers and operators or administrators with intimate knowledge of the operating system and the applications that run on it is small. This begs the question: How will you manage the platform that supports such a big part of your business? This guide offers strategies and software suggestions to help you plan IT staffing and resources and smooth the transition after your AS/400 talent retires. Read on to learn: