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ValueEdge: Value Stream Management
Align corporate investments with business strategy
Continuous quality from requirements to delivery
Scale enterprise SCCM with security and compliance
Resilient AI-powered functional test automation
Enterprise-level requirements management
Deliver continuous application performance testing
Plan, track, orchestrate, and release applications
Govern quality and implement auditable processes
Automate deployments for continuous delivery
Access all products in application delivery management
Modernize Core Business Systems to Drive Business Transformation
Build business applications using new tools & platforms
The leading solution for COBOL application modernization
Modernize mainframe applications for the Cloud
Modernize host application access
Discover the future of CORBA
Modern mainframe application delivery for IBM Z
Secure, zero-footprint access to host applications
Access host data and automate processes with RPA
Multi-factor Authentication for IBM z/OS endpoints
Access all products in Application Modernization & Connectivity
Security at the core to everything you do; Operations, Applications, Identity and Data
Build secure software fast
Augment human intelligence
Discover, analyze, and protect sensitive data
Drive IT ecosystem with identity-centric expertise
Deliver simplified, secure access to users
Scale to billions of identities with IGA platform
Gain control of privileged user activities
Track changes and activities in managed services
Get fast, accurate detection of threats
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Analytics for text, audio, video, and image data
Reduce risk, cost, and maintenance, and T2M
AI and machine learning for data analysis
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Unified traditional and mobile device management
Meet regulatory & privacy retention requirements
Email, IM, and chat-based collaboration
Mobile workforce communication & collaboration
Secure critical file storage and print services
Access all products in Information Management and Governance
Simplify Your IT Transformation
Manage IT & non-IT services with automation and AI
Discover, monitor, and remediate with AIOps
Monitor and optimize complex networks
Discover, manage, and map configurations & assets
Accelerate provisioning with governance in place
Automate and orchestrate processes end to end
Manage IT & software assets for better compliance
Automate server provisioning, patching, and compliance
Automate screen-based human actions with robots
Access all products in IT Operations Management
Give your team the power to make your business perform to its fullest
Avis Europe now uses Verastream to upload new pricing information from a local application to the central mainframe. From there, the pricing information is instantly available to all rental locations. Avis Europe also uses Verastream to verify that the mainframe information on terms and conditions related to pricing offers is correct and consistent across countries.
In recent years, competition has intensified with the entrance of brokers and intermediaries. Internet reservations have increased dramatically, and there is strong price competition, as customers can quickly and easily compare the prices of different operators online before booking.
Against this background, Avis Europe is constantly looking for ways to become more customer focused and market responsive. It wanted to improve the range of services available via its website, to make the car rental process easier for customers. It also wanted to be able to change prices faster to respond to market fluctuations and to introduce short-term, regional offers.
To achieve these goals, Avis Europe needed to provide improved access to financial and customer data in a central mainframe system that is owned and operated by its sister company, Avis Inc., in the USA. This mainframe system has served the company well for many years, but its green screens are not user-friendly and necessitated lengthy training.
After a thorough product search, Avis selected Verastream. “Attachmate (now part of Micro Focus) really stood out,” says Paul Brough, a business systems analyst at Avis Europe. “We were up and running with Verastream in less than a month – and that included all of the initial application development and training.”
The solution was initially put to use in the financial department to give users faster access to large volumes of data from its general ledger system. But this was just the beginning. “As soon as we had Verastream on board and had discovered how easy it is to use, there was significant interest from many different business areas,” says Brough. Verastream has since been used in two other departments.
The first of these projects took place in the revenue management department. Avis Europe has over 3,700 rental stations, and introducing new rates, terms, and conditions to each location often took several days because the complex mainframe systems were time-consuming to update.
To speed up the process, Avis Europe now uses Verastream to upload new pricing information from a local application to the central mainframe. From there, the pricing information is instantly available to all rental locations. Avis Europe also uses Verastream to verify that the mainframe information on terms and conditions related to pricing offers is correct and consistent across countries.
“We can now change prices across all our locations in less than one quarter of the time,” says Christian Clausen, a technical team leader in the revenue management department of Avis Europe. “This has had a huge impact on the business. We can match competitive prices and reflect changes in demand quickly and effectively.”
The second project relates to the new UK web site. Avis Europe wanted to give customers the ability to update their Preferred profiles online. It therefore used Verastream to create a link between its UK website and the central mainframe system, where global customer information is held. When customers access the website, Verastream retrieves information about Preferred cardholders in real time and then manages subsequent updates back to the mainframe.
“Customers can now view and update their own details themselves, including credit card and billing information,” explains Brough. “This wasn’t possible on our website before we introduced Verastream. Instead, customers had to telephone or visit a rental station to update their details. We can now offer a much better online service for our customers.”
In the future, the company foresees that Verastream will be able to deliver quick-win benefits in other parts of the business too. For example, it plans to use Verastream to help it access information to process parking fines more easily.
Avis Europe has been impressed by how easy it is to create new applications. After just half a day of instruction, members of the IT application teams were able to build a fairly complex set of procedures for accessing information via Verastream. “We can develop interfaces quickly and with a relatively small amount of training,” says Brough.
He concludes: “Verastream gives us access to a huge amount of data that we otherwise couldn’t get to in real time. It enables us to speed up multiple transactions and ultimately increase the value that we gain from our existing mainframe system.”
Verastream gives us access to a huge amount of data that we otherwise couldn’t get to in real time. It enables us to speed up multiple transactions and ultimately increase the value that we gain from our existing mainframe system.
Attachmate (now part of Micro Focus) really stood out. We were up and running with Verastream in less than a month – and that included all of the initial application development and training.