Improved customer on-ramping
Pervasive increases the speed in which new customers can be on-ramped, which facilitates new-customer opportunities.
Efficiency gains and high ROI
Pervasive allows more predictable, reliable project completion times that have led to better client services and high ROI.
Short learning curve
Pervasive Data Integrator’s usability makes for quick accessibility of the product.
Printable Format
Leading printer chooses Pervasive to migrate data from mainframe to distributed client/server architecture
Direct mail, financial reports, and just about any written business material needing mass printing and fulfillment pass through this company’s printing plants. Its facilities can easily have a print and mail run of 200,000 direct mail pieces or more, and usually such a project will be only one of many at a given facility. The transfer of print job-related files between customers and the printer is of considerable importance to ensuring success.
The company began an initiative to improve its growing client services operations by moving from a mainframe to distributed client/server architecture for better efficiencies. The first stage of the changeover would take place between two printing plants in the U.S. If successful, additional facilities would be added to the network. The IT team leading the effort sought data migration and new data on-ramping expertise that could facilitate a highly reliable, time-sensitive transition of files from a mainframe to databases at each plant. To conduct the crucial changeover, the company partnered with Pervasive Software, which provided extract, transformation and load (ETL) capabilities to assist the printer.
Volume of data requires reliable migration provider
The IT Director is straightforward about the challenge the organization faced. "We had to replace our PL1 programs on the mainframe and move toward distributed processing and more automated processes. Important customer information for some of the largest companies in the world had to be migrated without a problem.
The team wanted a data migration and integration provider that could tackle the challenge, and add more value and automation to the process. The sheer volume of data involved–hundreds of thousands of vital customer information records contained in myriad flat files–required a tool that provided reliability, easy usability and fast ramp-up."
Pervasive Data Integrator rapidly transforms legacy mainframe data to updated formats
The printer needed an error-proof, timely solution to handle the enormous customer data volumes slated for migration to the new system. Data from a number of complex applications would be migrated from a mainframe. After assessing options, the IT Director decided Pervasive® Data Integrator™ would be the best option to power the ETL initiative. Pervasive’s ability to rapidly transform legacy mainframe data types to updated formats was an important factor that influenced the decision.
"I contacted Pervasive in early February, and they had my team trained and tackling the work in March. All the training was quickly completed within days. After establishing in-house standards and getting familiar with Pervasive’s software, we started live programming in the summer and cut over in the fall. All told, around 95% of our legacy data was migrated over by October," stated the IT Director.
The Pervasive solution has allowed the business to move to more automated processes for client services, as opposed to manual ones that were hurting efficiencies. "Pervasive can meet the on-ramping challenges of any flat file, any language. They really assisted us in making the leap to a network model. We’re even more productive as a result," asserts the IT Director.
He adds, "In the first year alone, up to 600 million records were processed using Pervasive. Considering that the company processed more than one billion records that year, Pervasive has become a workhorse of choice for the company." The move from mainframe programming to a system that requires less specialized programming skills eases hiring and reduces costs associated with recruiting and retaining programmers. Mainframe capacity also has been freed up for use in other processes.
Significant ROI
The IT Director confirmed, "Our use is going to be doubled and will include three more plants. We’ve had a significant year, the new platform is easier to program and the company has achieved significant ROI."
A big part of the success equation for the team has been the good technical support the team received from Pervasive. "They’ve been very professional, from my sales contact to the trainers they brought here to our facilities. They knew this was a major project with a pressing timeline and they helped us get it done. I have high regard for Pervasive," he said.
Pervasive Data Profiler offers proactive auditing of customer data
The company will next implement Pervasive Data Profiler™ to better assess quality and audit the data and files it works with from clients. Pervasive Data Profiler will enable the company’s IT group to proactively audit all types of customer data and even automate data testing before initiating the ETL process, further improving internal controls and proactively identifying potential problem areas before runtime processes kick off.
Pervasive Data Profiler is the logical next-step tool for the organization as it works to improve its list management and to increase the accuracy of direct mail lists. The IT Director stated, "Pervasive Data Profiler will be a part of our front-end operations moving forward. We expect it will really help us get a better handle on list management activities. The company believes it will be another tool in the arsenal to drive customer success."
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