Terminal emulation software is inhabiting a progressively important role in enterprise, with more and more companies researching this trusted technology in order to acquire a competitive edge. The transactional powers of mainframes, as well as their availability and security, make them an obvious choice for business. But are there other benefits that can be unlocked using the mainframe? Leading organisations are now employing mainframe application access, collaboration and enhancement solutions to drive massive efficiency gains, with only a minimal investment.
Canada Life replaced their sixty screen iterations that users previously had to complete with only one, intuitive interface. Operators need only enter recurring data a single time and subsequent screens are populated automatically. This avoids the time-consuming re-entry that is prone to error and reduces bond policy creation time to lower than two minutes on average. They found that the new interface improved efficiency, quality and customer satisfaction.
NTL Telewest also found benefits from a similar automated mainframe solution that reduced their account creation process by a factor of over 25. They achieved this by consolidating 200 screens on multiple mainframe systems into one intuitive web page. This allowed user accounts to be created across all their systems with the same user ID and password. This new system reduced their error rate from nearly 75%, to virtually nothing.
From start to finish the NTL project was delivered in under three weeks, on time and on budget. This shows the efficiency gains that can be achieved when you have a relatively small project.
Mainframe consolidation and enhancement projects don’t just help departments that are customer facing, they have also helped ABInBev (formerly InterBrew UK) transform their stock control system. Just like Canada Life and NTL, multiple complex screens from their old systems were combined into a simple and logical data-entry interface. The screens are a lot faster to use and greatly reduce errors by using limited input ranges and drop-down menus. Users also find it much easier to reunite actual stock levels with those that are recorded in the system, which further increases productivity.
In this day and age, businesses can’t afford the kind of decreased productivity that were being experienced by both Canada Life and NTL before they implemented terminal emulation software. Time is money, as they say, and with mainframe applications costing so very little to install, the real question is can you afford NOT to purchase this software package? Find the right company to help you as it’s a really niche area and a lot of the jargon will go over most of our heads. With the right help, your new system can be up and running in no time at all – low cost, low fuss, low maintenance.
