Transforming Mainframe Challenges into Success with FNTS

In the rapidly evolving world of managed IT services, staying ahead of technology’s demands is crucial. At SVA Software, we pride ourselves on turning complex mainframe challenges into success stories. Our journey with FNTS, a leading hybrid cloud service provider specializing in Mainframe-as-a-Service (MFaaS) for IBM Z, showcases our commitment to excellence and innovation.

Understanding the Challenge

FNTS was at a pivotal juncture. They had just onboarded a large MFaaS client experiencing explosive growth in their customer base. This growth, while a positive indicator of success, brought with it a series of challenges that threatened to disrupt the client’s operations. The primary issues faced were:

• Increased customer transactions through mobile and web channels led to system resource strains, impacting batch and month-end processes.
• Overlapping of overnight batch workloads with next-day online transactions degraded transaction response times.
• Enforced capping by PR/SM limited the dispatching capacity for the Production Logical Partition (LPAR), hindering performance.
• The imperative to optimize the IBM Sub-Capacity Software Pricing Model without sacrificing performance was clear.

FNTS needed a strategic partner capable of navigating these challenges without compromising service quality.

Crafting a Solution

Our approach was multifaceted, tailored to address each challenge head-on:

1. zWorkload Reporter Implementation: We deployed our cloud-based zWorkload Reporter (zWR), which provided FNTS with a comprehensive view of their performance bottlenecks. The reports generated by zWR were instrumental in identifying the root causes of the issues faced.
   
2. Optimization of Workloads: Our mainframe experts conducted a thorough analysis of FNTS’s workloads. By identifying primary bottlenecks and affected resources, we were able to optimize performance concerning the IBM Sub-Capacity Software Pricing Model.
   
3. zOptimization Services Engagement: Our team provided detailed, data-driven recommendations for restructuring online and batch environments. This collaborative effort led to a balanced workload and fine-tuned capacity settings for the production environment, ensuring that FNTS’s operations ran smoothly and efficiently.
   

Reaping the Benefits

Our partnership with FNTS yielded significant benefits, highlighting the effectiveness of our solution:

• We achieved a reduction in month-end batch processing times by several hours, ensuring FNTS met its SLAs for daily and month-end processing.
  
• The balanced utilization of processing resources increased availability during peak online transaction periods, enhancing the overall customer experience.
  

Client Testimonial

Ken Marr, CTO at FNTS, praised the collaboration: “zWorkload Reporter and the talented team from SVA supported us in quickly and effectively analyzing the daily batch and month-end flows to identify areas that could be optimized. Over the next few months, we provided additional insights and recommended changes to our client that resulted in significant reductions in batch and month-end processing durations. In addition, the client reduced its abends and consistently met SLA goals. The team at SVA has been a pleasure to work with, and we felt SVA was a part of our team from day one.”

A Partnership for the Future

Our journey with FNTS underscores our commitment to solving complex mainframe problems. At SVA Software, we are more than just service providers; we are partners in innovation, dedicated to ensuring our clients can navigate the challenges of today’s IT landscape confidently. Our expertise in mainframe technology, particularly with tools like zWorkload Reporter and our zOptimization Services, stands as a testament to our ability to turn challenges into opportunities for growth and success.