The Mainframe Anywhere Anytime Any Device P&V group - 11/05/2014 - Mark Scheers 1
Agenda Intro - Who is P&V Group and P&V Insurance company What was the problem? - Transformation of P&V Sales Channel - Impact on IT infrastructure Market Analysis - Selected Solution Implementation Experiences Benefits Pitfalls Some examples Contact Q&A 2
P&V group P&V group - Belgian, cooperative insurance company - Philosophy A different insurance company with personal customer contact and solidarity as its main purpose - Multichannel strategy: - Some facts & figures: : ± 1.850 FTE Ranking: 6 th largest Insurance Group (in Belgium) 2007: + ING Insurance = size x2 3
P&V Group Multichannel & Multibrand P&V Insurance - Distribution of the products through a network of exclusive insurance agents Vivium, Arces and Piette & Partners - Distribution via the brokers channel Actel - Direct Sales through Internet and partnerships with car importers (affiliate channel) Europe: Euresa-Life 4
Agenda Intro - Who is P&V Group and P&V Insurance company What was the problem? - Transformation of P&V Sales Channel - Impact on IT infrastructure Market Analysis Selected Solution Implementation Experiences Benefits Pitfalls Some examples Contact Q&A 5
Transformation of P&V Sales Channel Sales network evolving from payroll agents towards independent exclusive agents Impact of this transformatin process on the IT Infrastructure such as workstations, printers, network connectivity,... - In the beginning offered and maintained by IT department P&V, because direct access to P&V applications in the secured network - Second phase: agents have to contribute in IT cost for purchasing. Support and Maintenance still offered by P&V - Objective: All IT costs relative to the agent, should be borne by the agent itself 6
Impact on IT Infrastructure (1) All costs to be borne by the agent means - Free choice of hardware - Free choice of Operating System - Free choice of network provider - Free choice in... But still - Guaranteeing access to necessary P&V applications (CICS, mail,...) - In a secure manner - Minimal impact on agent working methods 7
Impact on IT Infrastructure (2) Solution: Provide access through a Secured Web Portal One unique requirement: - Agent disposes over an Internet Broadband connection through ISP of his choice (Belgacom, Telenet, VOO,...) One big challenge for IT - How to provide direct access to z/os based applications such as CICS transactions, TSO,... - Without a need to install an emulator (or anything else) at client side (since we don t control or support those clients) 8
Impact on IT Infrastructure (3) As such we were looking for a solution that would enable access to native mainframe applications regardless of used client infrastructure Any device, fixed or mobile, and any OS (Windows, ios, Symbian, Androïd, ) should be able to access our 3270 applications without the need to install software on the client side. This is BYOD in the z/os environment 9
Agenda Intro - Who is P&V Group and P&V Insurance company What was the problem? - Transformation of P&V Sales Channel - Impact on IT infrastructure Market Analysis - Selected Solution Implementation Experiences Benefits Pitfalls Some examples Contact Q&A 10
Market Analysis Selected Solution Since we had a solution through web portal for most of our applications (mail, intranet,...) we were only looking for an alternative for the 3270 screen emulator This alternative should meet on the tree most important requirements - No installation (software, Java applet,...) on client side - No changes on applications (revamping, screen design,...) - As transparent as possible for the insurance agent (minimal change in working methods) 11
Market Analysis Selected Solution After 2 months of search on the market, only one product was found to be in line with the 3 requirements Virtel Web Access from Syspertec - France - No installation (software, Java applet,...) on client side Virtel is installed on the z/os platform, no changes on workstations required - No changes on applications (revamping, screen design,...) Virtel converts existing 3270 screens towards HTML pages - As transparent as possible for the insurance agent (minimal change in working methods) Agent will find the same 3270 screen layout and keyboard strokes 12
Agenda Intro - Who is P&V Group and P&V Insurance company What was the problem? - Transformation of P&V Sales Channel - Impact on IT infrastructure Market Analysis - Selected Solution Implementation Experiences Benefits Pitfalls Some examples Contact Q&A 13
Implementation Easy implementation on z/os A half day installation activity - This is not a commercial slogan, it is reality A half day parameters check up, technical testing, network settings (firewall,...) Virtel Web Access up and running in one day Minimal overhead on z/os platform (no increase of MSU capacity, gain on TCP/IP stack) Formation on the fly during installation process Look and feel similar to classic 3270 emulator No end user training required 14
Agenda Intro - Who is P&V Group and P&V Insurance company What was the problem? - Transformation of P&V Sales Channel - Impact on IT infrastructure Market Analysis - Selected Solution Implementation Experiences Benefits Pitfalls Some examples Contact Q&A 15
Experience Benefits - Pitfalls Virtel works fine with most common Internet Browsers - IE8 and later, Firefox, Safari,... Some slight changes necessary for less common Browsers - Google Chrome for instance Support from Syspertec - Rapid, Qualitative, Flexible Virtel Web Access in use for ca 3,5 years now - No major issues - Very stable and reliable solution 16
Experience Benefits - Pitfalls Benefits of the solution - Central Management - Accessible everywhere (when Internet connection available) - Accessible from any Hardware/Operating System/Browser XP, Vista, Windows 7, Mac, IE, Safari, Firefox, Google Chrome,... - No client installation necessary - No application changes necessary - Rapid installation Easy to deploy - Very practical for stand-by system engineers They do no longer need to take their portable everywhere A pc with internet connection will do 17
Experience Benefits - Pitfalls Multisession possible Since web based some slower reaction time than standard emulators - Repetitive keystrokes sometimes leading to unpredictable results Eventual opportunity to extend this solution with the Modernisation package - Redesign 3270 screens to Web screens - Without need to implement changes on application level - Support for smartphones, Tablet PC s, ipad,... 18
Agenda Intro - Who is P&V Group and P&V Insurance company What was the problem? - Transformation of P&V Sales Channel - Impact on IT infrastructure Market Analysis - Selected Solution Implementation Experiences Benefits Pitfalls Some examples Contact Q&A 19
Screenshot of CICS transaction Emulator - PCOMM Virtel Web Access 20
Screenshot of TSO environment Emulator - PCOMM Virtel Web Access 21
Agenda Intro - Who is P&V Group and P&V Insurance company What was the problem? - Transformation of P&V Sales Channel - Impact on IT infrastructure Market Analysis - Selected Solution Implementation Experiences Benefits Pitfalls Some examples Contact Q&A 22
Contact Mark Scheers - Active on Management level, particularly interested in the broader picture as a business enabler - Current Role Global Vendor Management All projects, financial and contractual agreements for whole P&V Group (IT, FM, RE, Marketing,.) Supplier Relationship Manager Contact Details - mark.scheers@pvgroup.be 23