Founded in 1867, Bank of Stockton has always been at the forefront of banking technology innovation. With 17 branches in five counties across central California, Bank of Stockton is known as a community bank with a reputation for continually investing in new technology-based products and services to better serve its customers. Whether working to attract and retain customers, protect privacy, or ensure regulatory compliance, Bank of Stockton is focused on optimizing their technology systems by enhancing manageability and boosting productivity through automated systems.
Jim McDaniels is assistant vice president and computer operations manager at Bank of Stockton. Jim was recruited to assess operations, define future goals, and determine the most effective strategies for achieving those goals. When he joined the organization, Jim used his expertise to implement Fortra workload automation and job scheduling solutions, along with Fortra message and event monitoring solutions in all their core environments. The goal? Save time and money through automation and establish a flexible, adaptive IT infrastructure.
“When I started at Bank of Stockton, we used Fortra solutions in only one of our environments,” explained Jim. “After I joined the team, we expanded the products to all four environments. Since we’ve implemented them, approximately 95 percent of our runbook is automated. Within the first two months of testing, I felt really good about it. We’ve been extremely happy with the products ever since.”
What we like most about Fortra products is the complete trust we have in their accuracy and performance. The reliability is second to none.
Jim McDaniels, Assistant Vice President and Computer Operations Manager, Bank of Stockton
Accomplish More in Less Time
Once Bank of Stockton began using Fortra software to automate its job scheduling and batch job management, Jim noticed numerous benefits, including a significant reduction in the time required for batch processing and fewer errors.
As Jim described it, “Our goal is to make our computer systems run as independently and effortlessly as possible. Now we’re able to keep human hands out of processing and have Fortra software manage core applications. When our processing finishes at the end of the day, we perform a reactive function that causes every subsequent application to react and process all the way through. We still have night operators, but their sole purpose is to watch for errors and print reports or other documents. They don’t have to interact with the system because everything is event-driven from beginning to end.”
Similarly, Fortra message and event monitoring software has added consistency when it comes to managing incoming QSYSOPR messages and monitoring resources and system logs. Bank of Stockton uses Fortra software to answer recurring messages that don’t require an operator response. For example, if the system is generating a report and it exceeds a certain number of pages, the system is set up to question the length of the document. The software can automatically grant the program permission to continue, rather than make it stop and wait for a response.
“Many of these messages were handled by humans before automation,” explained Jim. “People often answered a message incorrectly, resulting in chaos the next morning when reports were blank or programs were cancelled. Before automation it was a mess—a total nightmare. Now, everything has changed.”
Jim and his team found that the software’s notification features are a critical component of message management. The software sends a message to the night operator when a problem occurs. If the night operator doesn’t respond within five minutes, it escalates the message to the people on call until someone responds to the situation.
Jim explained how things run more smoothly now. “One thing that changed for us is consistency. Now, certain messages are always answered the same way, rather than having multiple night operators who might answer questions differently. And, the people on call now get a good night’s sleep.”
Let Robot Do It
Jim and his team agree that the benefits of using solutions from Fortra—time saved, errors reduced, and productivity improved—are well worth the investment. The effectiveness and intuitiveness of the products gave them complete confidence in their operations and allow them to focus on new innovations and initiatives for increasing customer satisfaction.
“What we like most about Fortra products is the complete trust we have in their accuracy and performance,” said Jim “The reliability is second to none—it’s almost as if we can set everything up and not worry about it again. Every time we encounter a new situation we think ‘Can we schedule it?’ We are always thinking of ways to schedule something. We like to let the software do it.”
What Can You Schedule?
Automation helps improve the accuracy and consistency of your job scheduling and message management. To learn more about how we can help improve your job scheduling, contact us.