IBM Rational HATS Overview 2013

1
A customer overview of
Host Access Transformation Services

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About Us: Strongback Consulting
• IBM Advanced Business Partner
– Rational, WebSphere, Lotus, Information Management certified
– Strongly focused on Enterprise Modernization and application lifecycle
management
– Key Industries Served: Finance, Insurance, Healthcare, Manufacturing,
Travel & Leisure
– Rational Design Partner for HATS and other Rational enterprise
modernization technologies

Why modernize my green screen?
• “If it ain’t broke…”
• “Only our call center uses it. … “
• “It’s a 3rd party app”
• “I’ve used it for 20 years.. Nothing wrong with it!”
• “We don’t need to integrate it”
• “Too much invested in it to throw it away”
• “But it has all our business rules!”
• “We’re going to all .NET …..next month”
• “We spent too much training everyone on this
system”
• “Joey retired and we lost his member files”
• “I’m retiring next year, what do I care?”

Business Challenge: Data Entry Errors
• Terminal Apps offer poor data entry controls
• Garbage in – garbage out
• Poor data entry results in:
– Inaccurate business intelligence
– Giving the customer or patient the wrong order
– Longer call times
– Loss of productivity due to data re-entry, or data correction
– Having to purchase additional software to correct errors (i.e. Infosphere
QualityStage, Optim, etc)

Business Challenge: Longer Training Time
• Non-intuitive interface
– No tool tips, context sensitive help, coded fields, abbreviations, etc.
• Current generation knows the web
– Does NOT understand „field exit‟, „clear‟, etc.
– “Where is the PF3 key?”
• Training is often a neglected item in IT budgets
– “Isn‟t that what consultants are for?”
• Average annual turn over in a call center is 33%*
– Longer training required == less productivity, greater cost per resource
*http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/globalcallcenter/research/unitedStates.html

Business Challenge: User Frustration
• Poor field labels
• No ‘hints’ on field controls
• Lack of access to documentation
• Complex navigation
• User workflow that does not make sense
• Post-it notes around the monitor as
‘documentation’
• Multiple windows
• Poor printing capability

Business Challenge: Lack of Access to Source Code
Columns . . . .: Edit
SEU ___________________________________________________________
-----------------------------------------------------------------
• Common with COTS applications
• Legacy apps from acquisitions
• Required use of a partner, vendor, or parent company application
• Developer lock out
– You fired the guy who had the code, he deleted it as he walked out
• Changes to source may involve costly risks
– “Everything is tied to our ERP!!”
==================================================================
_______________________________________________________________
02/009

Business Challenge: Need a modern experience NOW!!!
• Rip and replace requires prohibitive or catastrophic spending
• Low ROI on rip and replace
• Time to market is of the essence
• Can’t access new markets
• Almost like trying to pivot a battleship
• Large application audience
• Heavy load on testing
• Large cost involved in retraining

Overview of Rational HATS
• Web 2.0 features
– Dojo
• HATS Dojo widgets
• Transform for Dojo editing
• Dojo for IOs
– New templates
– RESTful web services
• JSR286 Portlet support
• iPad support
• Support for the latest runtimes
• Support for the latest development tools
• Support for Apache Geronimo 2.1.7
• Support for Android devices (default browser 2.3.4 +)

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Web 2.0: Templates
• Research, industry, and medical
• Benefit: Modern look and feel- tabs, menus, highlighting, fading, rounded corners

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Mobile Platforms
• Sample Scenarios:
– An employee on the department store floor
needs to check stock in the warehouse and
make an order
– A distributor of products to car dealers needs
to track product availability and order products
while at the dealer
– Service personnel need to order products and
mark work complete
– Many possibilities!
• Windows Mobile devices
• iPod Touch, iPhone
• iPad
• Android (Samsung Galaxy, Motorola Droid,
etc.)
Customized System z
Application
IBM i application with
compact table
support

Eclipse based development: HATS tookit plugin
•Creates Java EE artifacts
• JSP’s, CSS, Javascript, XML
• Deploys as an Enterprise Archive
•HATS toolkit plugs into
Rational Application Developer
• Benefits:
• Harness existing skills
• Simplify deployment

Improving data entry accuracy
• Calendar drop downs ensure date formatting
• Radio buttons eliminate non-valid values
• Drop downs give the user legible options
– Avoid post-its around the monitor to decipher field label values
• Dojo enabled widgets
– Easy to inject client side validation
– Type ahead features make it easier to find values in long lists

Improving the user experience
• Macros improve navigational flow
• Replace acronyms, & codes with real legible field labels
• Clickable buttons & links replace function keys
• The more intuitive the interface, the less demand for documentation (or
the less it gets used)
• Dojo layout widgets better organize the screen
– Tab, accordion, stacked containers organize fields appropriately
• Print directly from the browser
– Use “print” style sheet where needed

Reducing training time
• Leverage web browser familiarity
• Make labels & field options readable
• Client side validation gives instant feedback.
• Reduce training time by up to 75%
• Make it intuitive!
• Example: Has anyone ever taken 3 months to train on Facebook, Gmail, or other popular sites?
– Anyone ever seen the documentation?

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Iteratively improve the application as you go
Today Day 1 Tomorrow
Instant Value: HATS default
rendering automatically
transforms actions into
clickable links and buttons. No
changes required to the host
application.
Modern UI: All
pages share the
same theme and
style, which can be
based on an existing
Web site.
Aggregation: data from
other
screens, databases, or
other systems can be
merged and displayed
with host data.
Integration: Text can be
replaced with images, input
fields can be populated from
data on other screens or from
a database, date fields can be
converted into popup calendar
widgets, and more!

No need for access to RPG/COBOL code
• Rendering engine transforms the Data stream on the fly
– 5250 , 3270, VT100
• Does not access display files, or file members
• Multiple panes of data – not a screen scraper
– Text, Field, DBCS, Color, Extended Attributes, Grid
DBCS
Text
GRID
COLOR
TN5250 and TN 3270
Planes of information

J2EE Enterprise Application *
Web module
HATS Runtime
Browser
JSPs
Transformation
Servlet
(EntryServlet)
CSS+.JS
HATS Web Architecture
*Note:
• For Portlets, HATS runtime is included in the .war
• All possible parts of a HATS module shown for completeness
Administration
Servlet
Integration
ObjectsApplication
client
EJB Module
HTTP(S)
REST, SOAP
Web service
over HTTP
HATS EJB
(per client)
Integration
Objects
SWT Terminal
Beans (HOD)
TN3270(e)
5250 datastream
(TN5250 or 5250W)
TNVT
System z
IBM i
System p
RAS
Conn Mgr and
IO Support
WEL
HS Rendering
(Components,
Widgets)
APE, 3270
Print

Example: Customized Page
Tabbed
navigation
Calendar
popups
Combine with
database
lookups

Example: Combining with DB2 Lookups
F4 to
lookup
Selection
list from
DB2 via
AJAX

HATS Case Study: Winnebago Industries
Business need:
Their dealer management system needed to be modernized. The graphical user interface to the delivery
management system was over 12 years old and a product that is no longer supported.
Solution:
Using System Z for all manufacturing applications, HR applications. Using HATS to provide web services for
WebSphere Portal based dealer management system.
Benefits:
$13K less annual paper/communications
$65K/yr annual labor costs
Improved Employee productivity
Improved dealer satisfaction

22
Case Study: Total System Services (TSYS)

Company Background
 Ticker: TSYS
 Largest (publicly traded) Electronic Payment Processor in the World
 Based in Columbus, Georgia
 TSYS is the only company with a single platform capable of serving a
client's portfolio on more than one continent
 VERY large mainframe footprint
 At one point was the 3rd
largest in the US

Business Challenge
 Very large host based applications (TS1/TS2)
 Services the credit/debit card industry
 These are the systems service reps use when you call your bank
 Account balances, payment history, card activations, etc.
 1000's of 3270 green screens
 Highly available, secure encrypted communications to customer premises
 Very complex business logic
 > 50,000 users on these systems
 18M 3270 screens displayed per day
 TS1 in operation for decades, TS2 since 1994
 Both offer different services depending upon retail, commercial, debit, or credit customer
 Tiered service offering
 3270 Green Screens ($)
 ProphIT (.NET) – no custom workflows ($$)
 ProphIT with custom .NET, MQ/CICS workflows ($$$$)

Business Challenge
• Need to replace the interface for lower tier offerings
• Gradually losing customers to competition
• Competition has Web or Rich UI
• Less expensive, more features than TSYS' low tier offering
• Top tier offerings still require 3270 for some functions
• Very high training costs
• ~90 days to bring a new CSR up
• Average turnover of 10-12 months
• 7-9 months average productive time
• Expensive and risky to replace TS1/TS2
• Strict SLA's, Sarbanes-Oxley, SEC, Financial regulations
• ProphIT originally meant to replace the UI

Technical Challenges
• 1000's of screens
– About 10% used 90% of the time
• Complex business logic
– CICS, multiple regions, highly customized RACF
• Tight real estate on the screens
– Many fields are coded results
– Many field labels are abbreviated/coded for space
• EXTREMELY tight security
– No external parties can connect to their internal network
– TSYS development teams cannot connect to external networks
• Little to no in-house expertise in Java / Java EE
– .NET one side, Cobol/Assember on the other

Screen Shot
*Data shown is authorized test data, not real / live customer data.
BEFORE

BEFORE

*Data shown is authorized test data, not real / live customer data.
AFTER

Previous Solutions – ProphIT
• Key revenue stream for top 2 tiers
– Originally intended as a UI replacement
– Serves as the top 2 tiers for credit/debit card servicing
• Microsoft .NET Based
– Custom work flows
– Headless MQ/CICS transactions
– 150+ developers
• Each customer gets their own rack space
• >$30M initial development cost
• Handles 20-25% of TS1/TS2 functionality
– 95% of CSR's time spent in ProphIT
– Remainder using green screens

Alternatives Considered
• Seagull Software
– Closest competitor to HATS
– Does not support RTL languages (i.e. Arabic, Hebrew)
– Recent change of ownership with no clear future strategy
• Pegasus Systems
– True screen scraper
– No way to combine screens
– Not mature product, poor documentation
• Microsoft Host Integration Solution
– Similar to features already used in .NET with MQ transactions
– API based

New Solution
• Initial Proof of Concept
• Pilot for single new customer
– Our consultancy trained TSYS in-house personnel and performed initial implementation
– Wildly successful
– One of the fastest deployments IT had done
– Sales and marketing group highly interested, ready to sell
– Set a precedent for all other departments to match
• Conversion to beta for group of key customers
– Some new, some old customers
• Transition to major project within IT division
– Goal to replace Tier1 offering with HATS based UI
– No more 3270 offerings except for specific security needs
– All web based, no RCP or Mobile

Implementation/Architecture
 Host Access Transformation Services
for 3270 Applications 7.1
 WebSphere Application Server ND 6.1
 IBM HTTP Server
 Cisco Load Balancers
 Rational Application Developer

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For more information on how we can help you improve your interfaces, increase
user productivity, and accelerate your SOA, contact us at
sales@strongback.us, or call us at 904.351.6658.
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Discover us at:
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Resources for Learning
Enterprise Modernization (EM) Home Page
• http://www-306.ibm.com/software/info/developer/solutions/em/index.jsp
HATS Resources:
• Product Page: http://www-306.ibm.com/software/awdtools/hats/index.html
• Demos: http://rational.demos.ibm.com/atdemo/atdemo_hats.html
• HATS HotSpot: http://www-949.ibm.com/software/rational/cafe/community/hats
• IBM Education Assistant: http://www-306.ibm.com/software/info/education/assistant/
Other HATS Case Studies and Technology Examples
• http://www.slideshare.net/strongback/how-a-tactical-hats-solution-became-a-strategic-asset-a-customer-story
• http://www.slideshare.net/strongback/innovate2012-modernize-host-applications-for-mobile-devices
• http://www.slideshare.net/strongback/build-smarter-user-interfaces-for-legacy-applications-with-ibm-rational-host-access-
transformation-services
• http://www.slideshare.net/strongback/rational-hats-and-his-v8-overview
• http://www.slideshare.net/strongback/ibm-innovate-2011-what-every-system-i-developer-needs-to-know
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