Division Operations
Customer
Our customer is a US–based global IT service provider, one of the most recognized companies in the IT community
Industry
Information technologies, electronics, and finance
Project Overview
This project covers three separate but closely related areas:
- Planning of microelectronic parts manufacturing drive load
- Financial planning, billing and cost accounting functions
- Collection, management, transformation, and operational reporting of the customer microelectronics division.
The project was primarily mainframe MVS–based but eventually expanded to include AIX applications using C/C++ and Java. IBA Minsk works in close cooperation with the customer to provide support, maintenance, enhancement, and development of computing applications for the three areas.
Project Execution
The IBA team for the project was created in 1999. Initially, the customer had fears of working with a team that is many miles and time zones away. However, insightful questions and suggestions, as well as first work results alleviated the fears. The customer expressed the desire to have this work done by one team because of a fair amount of interfacing between application sets and databases that support these applications. Each IBA team member was assigned to a specific area but maintained flexibility to perform tasks for the other two areas.
IBA responsibilities include real time support for scheduled applications and immediate resolution of problems that affect the successful completion of scheduled jobs (Severity 1 problems). The seven–hour difference between Minsk and the US where the mainframe jobs are executed has become very attractive for the customer support team that can now sleep quietly while all problems are addressed to the IBA team.
The customer's policy of expense reduction includes moving more and more applications from mainframe to AIX platform. The transfer of applications to another platform involves conversion from PL1 to C/C++, a modern multiplatform programming language. The team was able to provide this conversion. Now all new programs are coded only in C/C++.
Enhancement, maintenance and development activity includes adding new functions to existing applications and development of new applications according to the customer evolutionary plan and specifications. If development starts with incomplete specifications, IBA creates in short time a prototype that prompts the customer a better understanding of a business process. In all cases, the team follows appropriate guidelines and standards.
The IBA's excellent problem solving skills complemented by good teamwork, communication, and interpersonal skills contribute to the team's ability to enhance the RAS (reliability, availability, serviceability) of the customer system.
Project Results
End users expressed ultimate satisfaction with the work of the joint IBA–customer team. The survey conducted among end users showed 97.9% satisfaction (the target being 90:). IBA became an integral part of the customer team. The customer provided good comments about IBA saying that they are “responsive and flexible to change”, “have a great deal of knowledge of the process and provide excellent recommendation as necessary”, “complete all assignments on–time and in a quality manner”, “take initiative as necessary but still follow appropriate guidelines and standards.” The customer concluded that the quality and cost of function delivered by IBA is excellent. Each year, the customer expresses a strong desire to continue working on this project with all of the current IBA team members. The customer attributes the overall success of the project to the commitment, dynamism, and excellent teamwork among the project members.
