iCAN
Audit, analysis, and reverse documentation
In today’s rapid, data-centric world the ability to access required information right when you need it is of the utmost importance. Wasting time is among the things a business can least afford to do, especially when it comes to such business critical topics as information systems.
IT departments face ever more complex requirements. These make it increasingly difficult to maintain a clear overview over all your systems. Time is wasted because it is often unclear how adaptations will affect systems, because relationships between objects within processes aren’t well understood, or because of a lack of up-to-date documentation. Businesses need to find a fast and effective way to gain comprehensive insights into their IT systems.
Advantages
The solution
iCAN removes guesswork from IT operations. Our software gives you a detailed overview of your entire production – regardless of whether you use mainframe or multiplatform systems with one or multiple schedulers. This solution enables everyone, including colleagues with less IT knowledge, to quickly and efficiently test, analyse, and reverse document your processes. It automatically identifies every cross reference between parameters and allows your team to quickly spot significant problems or trends. iCAN effectively saves time, builds understanding, and improves IT systems’ speed and performance.
How does iCAN work?
A safe and central repository unlocks understanding of all information within your IT production. The iCAN repository collects basic data and its high-performance query engine then identifies all cross-references and relationships quickly and automatically. Our solution allows your staff to easily conduct detailed searches and to display search results through graphs, diagrams, structured or flat text, or 3270-screens. Every display mode includes hyperlinks, enabling easy navigation and collection of as much information as necessary about any sequence, entity, relationships, or data flow. iCAN displays precise information about scripts, JCL, schedulers, files, calendars, data transfers – anything you want to include. You can also include your search results within the repository as new objects to create new queries. The software can be installed on z/OS, Linux, or Windows operating systems. In each case, the installation uses pre-existing components from within your infrastructure. Files can be exported in XLS, XML, HTML, or text formats. Our solution quickly translates even the most complex operating information into a format that can easily be used and understood by your end users, including staff without programming knowledge.
iCAN's functions
Run Books – user defined, with hyperlinks.
Tools & queries – extended query engine executes detailed searches.
Audit & errors – analyses source and target parameters, and how systems interact.
Norming – controls for norms and standards.
Graphical navigation – results are displayed in graphs, diagrams, tables, and more.
Cross References – data modelling highlights relations between objects. Cross references are made available for every repository object and in every display mode.
Impact analysis – shows how changes impact other objects.
Most important advantages
- Audit and analysis
Our software was built to quickly find information needed for comprehensive technical analyses and audits. Upon entry of your search criteria, iCAN’s query engine uses data modelling to complete your query. With just one click all links and relationships between collected objects are displayed. Analysis and audit reports can be formatted in HTML or in Word. iCAN shows links between objects and/or schedulers, resources used, time elapsed, planning definitions, task structures, interactions between systems, and many other aspects of your processes. It is highly valuable for checking source and target paramaters and for controlling norms and standards in your operating environment.
- Developed for your whole team
iCAN helps every member of your team. Developers use our solution to understand the impacts of changes on IT operations. Production staff can quickly identify missing files and see them, they can understand who should create them, and immediately know why specific tasks are not executed or were delayed. iCAN allows you to create user-defined user profiles, including specific roles and responsibilities – from administrators over programmers to working groups and others.
- Solid documentation
iCAN offers you a quick and practical way to update your entire technical documentation. Our software generates everything – from runbooks to RFCs. It offers everyone from administrators to new team members an exact overview of your information systems. Our solutions creates technical documentation following your requirements. The software archives information you need in the format you need. For instance, runbooks can be created in such a way that they include technical grouping and/or functional grouping. Documents are created in PDF, HTML, or Word format and can be accessed through any web server. Archiving takes place under external control or from external repositories.
- User friendly interface
Our software includes highly developed functions without reducing user friendliness. Your end users can execute precise, targeted searches and create reports, diagrams, flow charts, and much more – without any SQL or programming knowledge. Anyone who knows MS Office will be at home using iCAN. Users can chose between multiple display options for their search results, including graphs, diagrams, or sequential files. iCAN shows all cross references for every object in any display mode. Each element name is a hyperlink through which you can navigate onwards. You can export results in Office.
Advantages – an overview
- Reliability and efficiency on any operating system: UNIX, Linux, Windows, and z/OS.
- Easy import of up-to-date operating information using components that already exist in your environment (TWS, Control-M, CA-7, JCL, CFT, CICS, and others).
- Stay focused on your business by using iCAN to graphically display your application domains. Our software executes precise searches which can be displayed as diagrams, tables, texts (structured or flat), or as 3270-screens. Files can be exported in XLS, XML, HTML, or text formats.
- One-click navigation between elements in your repository.
- Script parsing in one go.
- Integrated analysis tools allow for easy reviews of your repository. Search results can be added into the repository as new objects, enabling new searches.
- Installation only requires a few hours.
- Defined roles and responsibilities for user profiles (administrators, programmers, working groups, and others).
Implementiation
You can integrate our software into your IT system without any problems, no matter whether you work on a mainframe or on a multi-platform system. iCAN has been built to be compatible with any available scheduler. It can describe the relationships between different scheduling environments. Your business starts the iCAN implementation by defining the scope of its coverage. Logging takes place a s batch process and targets objects you want to include. Once this step is completed, your end users can immediately benefit from our software. Our solution can be used instantly – installation takes less than a day and you do not need an extensive project before you can start using it.
Implementation steps
- iCAN server installation (on z/OS, UNIX, Linux, or Windows).
- Defining the scope or scopes for iCAN coverage
- Begin the required collection (batch process).
- iCAN can now be fully used.
Multi-platform architecture
The server operates on Linux and Unix systems. The chosen installation platform in no way limits the scope of coverage. For instance you can analyse your z/OS assets on a distributed machine without additional CPU usage. Client interfaces are available via a thin and a thick client, for easy adaptation to your architecture and your ways of working.
Inventory data
Even if your inventory data includes specific information iCAN is an effective solution. Our engineers can develop a collector which makes all components compatible – or you can decide to create your own collector.
Audit and analysis