Global Reinsurer Sees Significant Mainframe Efficiencies with Ensono

A leading global reinsurance company that provides solutions to the Life & Health and Property & Casualty insurance industries. With a strong financial foundation and a commitment to client-driven strategies, it operates in over 20 countries, employing over 2,000 associates.

The client decided to transition from their existing data center to Ensono’s in order to consolidate its data centers and streamline IT operations. It had already migrated a significant portion of its non-mainframe infrastructure to the cloud, but the remaining mainframe systems were not suitable for cloud deployment. By partnering with Ensono, the client would be able to exit the remaining data center (this was a goal due to a foreseeable lack of mainframe skills), achieve cost savings, and establish a robust, SLA-based model to move away from internal mainframe management.

Due to staff shortages and upcoming retirements, the client had transitioned out of its datacenter and into Ensono’s, adopting Ensono’s hosted Mainframe as a Service solution.

Ensono was selected due to our strong relationship building skills and thorough RFP responses that demonstrated a deep understanding of the client’s business. The client noted that Ensono’s migration plan was a clear differentiator.

After the transition to Ensono’s data center, Ensono’s Service Delivery team took over the daily management and support of the mainframe. At the time, many elements of batch job processing were completed manually. This required significant time and effort to manage and introduced a very risk of human error.

Working in collaboration with the client, Ensono developed automation solutions for the following processes:

• KR process

The client’s legacy application and batch job setup required significant manual effort. The KR process, a daily routine to restart the CICS and Datacom systems on the client’s mainframe partitions, was entirely manual. Similarly, the ADABAS and CICS systems also had to be restarted daily. These manual processes were time-consuming, with significant risk of human error.

Ensono automated the entire process using a solution that automatically monitors the WTORs (Write to Operator with Reply messages), performs the necessary actions, monitors the success of those actions, and replies to WTORs. This saved 16 hours/month, eliminated the risk of manual errors, reduced the number of related support tickets raised, and improved processing times.

• Critical health check processes

The client faced significant challenges with its system-related critical health checks, which were manually performed every 30 minutes. This manual process was time-consuming, introduced a high risk of human error, led to inconsistent monitoring, and resulted in delays in detecting issues.

Ensono developed automated alerts for outstanding operator responses, dataset contention, SMF monitoring, and buffer shortage resolution. This led to efficiency savings of ~25 hours/month, as well as reduced downtime, improved system reliability, and better decision-making.

• Batch Initiator processes

The client’s batch initiator process relied on manual start and stop initiators triggered by console alerts sent via batch jobs. These prompted console messages to be sent to the operations team. The process was entirely manual and led to delays in batch processing. There was also a risk of alerts being missed by the operations team.

Ensono developed automated initiator start and stop processes using CA automation scripts (OPSMVS scripts). The new scripts not only validate initiator status but also handle errors and exceptions. As a result, manual console message responses were eliminated, ensuring accurate and timely responses and preventing batch processing delays. This led to efficiency savings of ~10 hours/month, as well as enhanced reliability and minimized risk of error.

• Standardizing batch job scheduling across business units

Several jobs required manual adjustments each month, and schedule IDs (SCHIDs) had to be turned on or off based on the month-end dates for individual applications.

Operators had to monitor and respond to messages manually in order for batch processing to complete. Multiple jobs in critical batch streams had to be monitored for their completion so they didn’t delay the startup of online systems. The manual nature of this process increased the risk of human error, potentially leading to outages or issues with critical business closing jobs and financial transactions. The client was struggling to meet required audit regulations and standards.

The lack of standardization across these jobs meant that any unexpected downtime or outages had a broader impact on business processes, affecting multiple business units like policy-related, claims-related, and aviation-related units.

Ensono implemented new 5-day calendars, including one for monthly schedules. Jobs were added to the appropriate calendars, allowing CA7 to precisely control the job schedules.

We also added a Schedule ID (SCHID) 55 for quarterly schedules. This enabled CA7 to manage the schedule without manual intervention. We also recommended and implemented a combination of SFTP and FTPS to ensure that audit regulation and standards were met.

Ensono’s combined automation efforts to date have delivered significant improvements for this client, including:

• Significant cost savings thanks to mainframe outsourcing and data center closure
• Efficiency savings of ~66 hours/month due to the automation and standardization of hundreds of jobs
• The elimination of manual errors leading to reduced operational risk
• Enhanced system reliability and reduced downtime
• Customer satisfaction scores of 10/10

By automating and standardizing these processes, Ensono significantly reduced the risk of unexpected downtimes, improved operational efficiency, and enhanced client satisfaction.

Ensono continues to identify and implement proactive solutions for this client, based on Ensono Envision Advisor insights.