Low-Risk Natural Batch for zIIP™ Lowers Costs for CalSTRS
Company Size
1,000+
Region
- America
Country
- United States
Product
- Natural Batch for zIIP
- Adabas Database Management System
- Natural Application Development
- webMethods EntireX
Tech Stack
- IBM zIIP processor
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Cost Savings
Technology Category
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Database Management & Storage
Applicable Industries
- Education
- Finance & Insurance
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
Use Cases
- Asset Lifecycle Management
- Process Control & Optimization
Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) is America’s second largest public pension fund and the largest educator-only pension fund in the world. Headquartered in West Sacramento, CalSTRS is both a world-class financial services institution and a state agency, serving 868,000 members. Assets were $189 billion as of June 30, 2014. For years, CalSTRS has reliably run its core mission-critical application on Adabas & Natural. The CalSTRS START system manages teachers’ retirement programs so that disability, retirement and survivor benefits can be provided to 868,000 public school educators and their families.
The Challenge
California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) is America’s second largest public pension fund and the largest educator-only pension fund in the world. The organization was facing the challenge of reducing operating costs by moving Natural batch to the less-expensive IBM zIIP™ processor. The organization was looking for a solution that would not require any changes to the existing code or modification to batch jobs for the START application. The organization was also concerned that a new product would require more testing and more validation, which would mean more time to realize savings.
The Solution
CalSTRS implemented Natural Batch for zIIP, an add-on product, and realized immediate cost savings at the same reliable performance. This Natural addon moves the work of non-I/O batch Natural on an IBM Central Processor (CP) to cheaper zIIP processors for execution, saving on mainframe costs and lowering TCO. There were no Natural code changes or modification to batch jobs for the START application to use Natural Batch for zIIP. The agency expected to recoup the investment cost over the first year but achieved this savings in the first five months. In eight months, CalSTRS saved a total of $623,768—$77,971 a month. CalSTRS is saving on both batch processing as well as online processing costs.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
Case Study missing?
Start adding your own!
Register with your work email and create a new case study profile for your business.
Related Case Studies.
Case Study
Real-time In-vehicle Monitoring
The telematic solution provides this vital premium-adjusting information. The solution also helps detect and deter vehicle or trailer theft – as soon as a theft occurs, monitoring personnel can alert the appropriate authorities, providing an exact location.“With more and more insurance companies and major fleet operators interested in monitoring driver behaviour on the grounds of road safety, efficient logistics and costs, the market for this type of device and associated e-business services is growing rapidly within Italy and the rest of Europe,” says Franco.“The insurance companies are especially interested in the pay-per-use and pay-as-you-drive applications while other organisations employ the technology for road user charging.”“One million vehicles in Italy currently carry such devices and forecasts indicate that the European market will increase tenfold by 2014.However, for our technology to work effectively, we needed a highly reliable wireless data network to carry the information between the vehicles and monitoring stations.”
Case Study
Safety First with Folksam
The competitiveness of the car insurance market is driving UBI growth as a means for insurance companies to differentiate their customer propositions as well as improving operational efficiency. An insurance model - usage-based insurance ("UBI") - offers possibilities for insurers to do more efficient market segmentation and accurate risk assessment and pricing. Insurers require an IoT solution for the purpose of data collection and performance analysis
Case Study
Smooth Transition to Energy Savings
The building was equipped with four end-of-life Trane water cooled chillers, located in the basement. Johnson Controls installed four York water cooled centrifugal chillers with unit mounted variable speed drives and a total installed cooling capacity of 6,8 MW. Each chiller has a capacity of 1,6 MW (variable to 1.9MW depending upon condenser water temperatures). Johnson Controls needed to design the equipment in such way that it would fit the dimensional constraints of the existing plant area and plant access route but also the specific performance requirements of the client. Morgan Stanley required the chiller plant to match the building load profile, turn down to match the low load requirement when needed and provide an improvement in the Energy Efficiency Ratio across the entire operating range. Other requirements were a reduction in the chiller noise level to improve the working environment in the plant room and a wide operating envelope coupled with intelligent controls to allow possible variation in both flow rate and temperature. The latter was needed to leverage increased capacity from a reduced number of machines during the different installation phases and allow future enhancement to a variable primary flow system.
Case Study
IoT platform Enables Safety Solutions for U.S. School Districts
Designed to alert drivers when schoolchildren are present, especially in low-visibility conditions, school-zone flasher signals are typically updated manually at each school. The switching is based on the school calendar and manually changed when an unexpected early dismissal occurs, as in the case of a weather-event altering the normal schedule. The process to reprogram the flashers requires a significant effort by school district personnel to implement due to the large number of warning flashers installed across an entire school district.
Case Study
Automated Pallet Labeling Solution for SPR Packaging
SPR Packaging, an American supplier of packaging solutions, was in search of an automated pallet labeling solution that could meet their immediate and future needs. They aimed to equip their lines with automatic printer applicators, but also required a solution that could interface with their accounting software. The challenge was to find a system that could read a 2D code on pallets at the stretch wrapper, track the pallet, and flag any pallets with unread barcodes for inspection. The pallets could be single or double stacked, and the system needed to be able to differentiate between the two. SPR Packaging sought a system integrator with extensive experience in advanced printing and tracking solutions to provide a complete traceability system.
Case Study
Transforming insurance pricing while improving driver safety
The Internet of Things (IoT) is revolutionizing the car insurance industry on a scale not seen since the introduction of the car itself. For decades, premiums have been calculated using proxy-based risk assessment models and historical data. Today, a growing number of innovative companies such as Quebec-based Industrielle Alliance are moving to usage-based insurance (UBI) models, driven by the advancement of telematics technologies and smart tracking devices.
