Swiss Insurer Safeguards Mainframe Future with Compuware Solutions
Company Size
1,000+
Region
- America
- Asia
- Europe
Country
- Switzerland
Product
- Compuware Topaz
- Compuware Abend-AID
- Compuware Xpediter
- Compuware File-AID
- Compuware Strobe
- Compuware Hiperstation
Tech Stack
- IBM mainframe
- Eclipse environment
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Cost Savings
- Customer Satisfaction
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Database Management & Storage
Applicable Functions
- Discrete Manufacturing
- Maintenance
Use Cases
- Predictive Maintenance
- Real-Time Location System (RTLS)
- Visual Quality Detection
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
Helvetia is an all-lines Swiss insurance company with $39+ billion in assets under management and more than five million customers across Europe, Asia, and Latin America. The company heavily relies on its IBM mainframe for all of its core applications, including those that support the company's underwriting, policy management, and financials. The company faces a two-fold challenge when it comes to these core mainframe applications. The first part of the challenge is a declining supply of skilled, experienced mainframe developers. The second part of the challenge is the relentless demand on mainframe applications. Those applications must be constantly updated and modified to provide customers with the insurance products and service experiences they demand.
The Challenge
Helvetia, a Swiss insurance company with over $39 billion in assets under management and more than five million customers across Europe, Asia, and Latin America, relies heavily on its IBM mainframe for all of its core applications. These applications support the company's underwriting, policy management, and financials. However, like many companies, Helvetia faces a two-fold challenge when it comes to these core mainframe applications. The first part of the challenge is a declining supply of skilled, experienced mainframe developers. This declining supply has not yet become a major crisis, but in five years or so, it may be. So Helvetia has to prepare now for that future shortage. The second part of the challenge is the relentless demand on mainframe applications. Those applications must be constantly updated and modified to provide customers with the insurance products and service experiences they demand. So mainframe development has to be fast, reliable, and ready to perform at scale in the production environment. This means Helvetia needs to empower fewer developers with potentially less mainframe experience to deliver more consistent, quality work faster than ever.
The Solution
Helvetia is addressing its current and long-term mainframe application development challenges using multiple Compuware solutions. Topaz was recently adopted because of its rich feature set, its powerful visualization capabilities, and its intuitive GUI. These attributes enable Helvetia's veteran mainframe developers to be more productive and provide much-needed support to developers who have far less experience with the platform. Abend-AID is used to proactively pinpoint production failures and reduce the time needed to fix problems. Its fault management capabilities are becoming more crucial as fewer and fewer developers are experienced in reading system dumps. Xpediter accelerates the development process by analyzing programs and debugging problematic code. File-AID has been in use at Helvetia for more than a decade. Helvetia's developers use File-AID to make sure their applications access the exact right data from the exact right source. Strobe enables Helvetia's mainframe Development and Operations teams to quickly and easily pinpoint any coding inefficiencies. Hiperstation provides Helvetia with the ability to continuously monitor and record end-user application sessions as well as system availability.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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