IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - (Page 23) Insurance company Swiss Mobiliar uses BMC Software’s APPTUNE to ensure its applications perform well A LL TH E Right Notes BY JIM UTSLER I magine a Carnegie Hall-level virtuoso pianist working without a professional piano tuner. One wrong note during Mozart’s “Allegro” is likely to draw derisive sneers from discerning classical music lovers. The same holds true for application developers. Without proper application and database tuning, end users are sure to have a similar—if not worse—response. This is especially true when it comes to mission-critical, database-dependent applications. Any software hiccup, no matter how seemingly inconsequential, is sure to prompt calls to the help desk or complaints slung around the water cooler. That’s why when insurance provider Swiss Mobiliar developed an IBM DB2* software-based application to give its sales teams real-time access to and upload of customer data, it made every effort—including using BMC Software’s APPTUNE—to ensure the application was as well tuned as possible. If it hadn’t, it was sure to hit a wrong note, and those nose-in-the-air sneers would likely have become loud jeers. Completing the Cycle PHOTOGRAPHY BY JUSTIN HESSION Based in Bern, Switzerland, Swiss Mobiliar was founded in 1826 as the first private insurance company in Switzerland. Today it’s one of the country’s leading insurance providers. In fact, Swiss Mobiliar insures one of every three households in the country, totaling approximately 1.3 million policy holders. Additionally, Swiss Mobiliar has clients in Liechtenstein and collaborates with many insurance companies outside of Switzerland, such as Eurapco, International Network of Insurance and ING Employee Benefits. Its insurance offerings include multi-risk household insurance, multi-risk business insurance, multi-risk vehicle insurance, multi-risk travel insurance, term insurance, pension reinsurance, accident and health insurance and legal insurance. One of Swiss Mobiliar’s hallmarks is its commitment to customers, which is in part why it has so many. It has some 80 general agencies in both Switzerland and Liechtenstein and a dedicated sales team comprised of about 1,200 salespeople who meet with customers to discuss individual insurance needs. (The company has a total of around 3,400 fulltime-equivalent employees.) When signing up new customers or working with existing customers, the salespeople enter any pertinent information into the company’s homegrown Smart Produkt Verkaufs System, or product sales system, (Smart PVS). This software, as well as the company’s database, runs on an IBM System z* server hosted by T-Systems Enterprise Services. As Thomas Baumann, Swiss Mobiliar data-management team leader, explains, “We install and customize DB2 and the applications that use it, but the boxes themselves belong to T-Systems. I can’t tell you what System z models those are because they belong to T-Systems and there are a lot of other customers running within the same environment.” The company currently uses a recently modified version of the Smart PVS system. It’s a client/server-type application that includes the primary software running on the hosted 2009 ibmsystemsmag.com/mainframe 23 J U LY/A U G U S T http://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/mainframe Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - May/June 2009 Table of Contents Editor’s Desk: Cooking Up a Data Solution Trends: IBM’s Scorpion Team Provides an Updated Method for Analyzing and Optimizing IT Infrastructures Focus on Storage: Tivoli Storage Manager 6 Accommodates Surging Data Case Study: Insurance Company Swiss Mobiliar Uses BMC Software’s APPTUNE to Ensure its Applications Perform Well Cover Story: An Integrated Data-Management Approach Supports Data Throughout its Lifecycle Feature: InfoSphere Warehouse Expands Data-Warehouse Tooling to the System z for Operational BI Functionality Technical Corner: Planning for a z/OS V1.9 Migration Product News Advertiser’s Index Stop Run IBM Jams Tap Into the Power of the Crowd IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - May/June 2009 (Page Cover1) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - May/June 2009 (Page Cover2) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - May/June 2009 (Page 1) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Table of Contents (Page 2) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Table of Contents (Page 3) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Table of Contents (Page 4) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Table of Contents (Page 5) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Table of Contents (Page 6) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Table of Contents (Page 7) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Editor’s Desk: Cooking Up a Data Solution (Page 8) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Editor’s Desk: Cooking Up a Data Solution (Page 9) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Trends: IBM’s Scorpion Team Provides an Updated Method for Analyzing and Optimizing IT Infrastructures (Page 10) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Trends: IBM’s Scorpion Team Provides an Updated Method for Analyzing and Optimizing IT Infrastructures (Page 11) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Trends: IBM’s Scorpion Team Provides an Updated Method for Analyzing and Optimizing IT Infrastructures (Page 12) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Trends: IBM’s Scorpion Team Provides an Updated Method for Analyzing and Optimizing IT Infrastructures (Page 13) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Trends: IBM’s Scorpion Team Provides an Updated Method for Analyzing and Optimizing IT Infrastructures (Page 14) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Trends: IBM’s Scorpion Team Provides an Updated Method for Analyzing and Optimizing IT Infrastructures (Page 15) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Trends: IBM’s Scorpion Team Provides an Updated Method for Analyzing and Optimizing IT Infrastructures (Page 16) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Trends: IBM’s Scorpion Team Provides an Updated Method for Analyzing and Optimizing IT Infrastructures (Page 17) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Focus on Storage: Tivoli Storage Manager 6 Accommodates Surging Data (Page 18) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Focus on Storage: Tivoli Storage Manager 6 Accommodates Surging Data (Page 19) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Focus on Storage: Tivoli Storage Manager 6 Accommodates Surging Data (Page 20) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Focus on Storage: Tivoli Storage Manager 6 Accommodates Surging Data (Page 20a) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Focus on Storage: Tivoli Storage Manager 6 Accommodates Surging Data (Page 20b) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Focus on Storage: Tivoli Storage Manager 6 Accommodates Surging Data (Page 20c) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Focus on Storage: Tivoli Storage Manager 6 Accommodates Surging Data (Page 20d) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Focus on Storage: Tivoli Storage Manager 6 Accommodates Surging Data (Page 21) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Case Study: Insurance Company Swiss Mobiliar Uses BMC Software’s APPTUNE to Ensure its Applications Perform Well (Page 22) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Case Study: Insurance Company Swiss Mobiliar Uses BMC Software’s APPTUNE to Ensure its Applications Perform Well (Page 23) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Case Study: Insurance Company Swiss Mobiliar Uses BMC Software’s APPTUNE to Ensure its Applications Perform Well (Page 24) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Case Study: Insurance Company Swiss Mobiliar Uses BMC Software’s APPTUNE to Ensure its Applications Perform Well (Page 25) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Case Study: Insurance Company Swiss Mobiliar Uses BMC Software’s APPTUNE to Ensure its Applications Perform Well (Page 26) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Case Study: Insurance Company Swiss Mobiliar Uses BMC Software’s APPTUNE to Ensure its Applications Perform Well (Page 27) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Cover Story: An Integrated Data-Management Approach Supports Data Throughout its Lifecycle (Page 28) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Cover Story: An Integrated Data-Management Approach Supports Data Throughout its Lifecycle (Page 29) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Cover Story: An Integrated Data-Management Approach Supports Data Throughout its Lifecycle (Page 30) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Cover Story: An Integrated Data-Management Approach Supports Data Throughout its Lifecycle (Page 31) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Cover Story: An Integrated Data-Management Approach Supports Data Throughout its Lifecycle (Page 32) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Cover Story: An Integrated Data-Management Approach Supports Data Throughout its Lifecycle (Page 33) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Cover Story: An Integrated Data-Management Approach Supports Data Throughout its Lifecycle (Page 34) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Cover Story: An Integrated Data-Management Approach Supports Data Throughout its Lifecycle (Page 35) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Feature: InfoSphere Warehouse Expands Data-Warehouse Tooling to the System z for Operational BI Functionality (Page 36) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Feature: InfoSphere Warehouse Expands Data-Warehouse Tooling to the System z for Operational BI Functionality (Page 37) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Feature: InfoSphere Warehouse Expands Data-Warehouse Tooling to the System z for Operational BI Functionality (Page 38) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Feature: InfoSphere Warehouse Expands Data-Warehouse Tooling to the System z for Operational BI Functionality (Page 39) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Feature: InfoSphere Warehouse Expands Data-Warehouse Tooling to the System z for Operational BI Functionality (Page 40) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Feature: InfoSphere Warehouse Expands Data-Warehouse Tooling to the System z for Operational BI Functionality (Page 41) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Technical Corner: Planning for a z/OS V1.9 Migration (Page 42) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Technical Corner: Planning for a z/OS V1.9 Migration (Page 43) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Technical Corner: Planning for a z/OS V1.9 Migration (Page 44) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Technical Corner: Planning for a z/OS V1.9 Migration (Page 45) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Product News (Page 46) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - Advertiser’s Index (Page 47) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - IBM Jams Tap Into the Power of the Crowd (Page 48) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - IBM Jams Tap Into the Power of the Crowd (Page Cover3) IBM Systems Magazine, Mainframe digital edition - July/August 2009 - IBM Jams Tap Into the Power of the Crowd (Page Cover4) http://www.nxtbookMEDIA.com
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