IMS Version to Version Migrations and Installations
There are many sound reasons why a customer will move from the old version of a software product to the next version or the current version of the product. Enhancements and new functions get added to the new version or the old versions support gets dropped. GSC will plan the migration phases with the customer, the new product will be migrated or installed into a test environment, and all of the current maintenance will be installed on that test system. All of the jobs will be created automatically and some manually through an installation program. These jobs will be customized accordingly to the customer’s specifications, to reflect the library names and dataset names that the customer would like to use. The output from that execution will be input to stage2 system definition, this step will create a lot of your libraries and link-edits the load modules and control block modules. Your system is built at this point. Customization of your startup JCL, and identifying what applications will be tested will now start. Once the testing phase has been completed to the customer’s satisfaction, the current production system will be moved onto the newly installed test system, this will now become the production system.
Technical Support
GSC will provide onsite technical support if a problem occurs in one of our customer accounts. With the shortage of expertise in the mainframe arena, we will dispatch our consultants to the customer’s site at their request to diagnose problems and resolve systems and application problems via, traces, traps and dump analysis. This support can also be available by phone and internet via a secure internet connection.
Maintenance Installation
The customer may have several IBM or other Vendor products in their shop, most of the time they do not have the personnel or the expertise to keep the products current, consequently if a problem does occur, the down time is longer due to the back level of maintenance. GSC will execute SMP/E to install the current level of maintenance that has been sent to the customer by the product owner. These fixes will go onto the test system first. The new fixes will be tested for a period of time, 10 to 30 days, and then they will be moved to the production system, this process will occur usually on a quarterly basis.
Quality Assurance
This is especially a critical time for our clients, with all of the transition going on it is important to have a focal point to test the new release of a product that will be introduced into their production system. We will design, present, and implement comprehensive test plans to the operating environment team members. We will test the new functions and document our findings. We will setup methodologies that will help validate the software that is installed on their system.
Project Management
GSC can provide management and technical leadership over large or small IT operations. We will be the liaison between the various data center groups to plan, advise, prepare and deliver their software implementation project on schedule.
