SCP Solutions

SCP solutions are designed with you in mind. We do this by working with you to design the best solution for your requirements and by including our current business partner relationships, where specific expertise is needed.

• Large Australian Insurance Company – SCP has been involved in various IBM Z software consolidation opportunities. This has required detailed function and features comparison to ensure total value swap out’s can be achieved.
• Australian Insurance Company – SCP has been asked to provide Assembler programming back up and support to a core business application. The current internal support is about to retire and there are no other internally trained skills available. Another assignment with the same company involves replacing another complex core application with a simpler software solution and a more manageable business process.
• IBM has asked SCP to assist with another IBM Z software swap out solution. This will involve SCP consulting services and another partner providing ISV software solution and expertise. With SCP’s long term skills and experience this particular swap out is complex will need detailed planning and preparation, including in-depth testing and cut-over to production (DevOps).
• This project required an SCP partner to provide the IBM Z infrastructure to demonstrate the proposed solution. IBM’s Business Continuity and Recovery Services assisted with data transfers. SCP provided the knowledge, a number of different options, z/OS restore utilities and Db2 expertise to make this project a complete success coming in under budget, as well.
• Bespoke Software Development – with SCP’s unique skills and in-depth IBM Z expertise, SCP is providing a number of software developers for z/OS advice and guidance. One of these is building a unique solution which requires an SCP partner to provide the development platform in a Sysplex infrastructure.

SCP is also well known for its ability to provide highly qualified, multi-disciplined professionals. These experts come in the form of consultants, developers and project managers.

Having carefully selected its partners, SCP invests time and effort in hands-on training and certification to ensure you receive maximum return on investment in the quickest possible time. SCP’s services are tailored to suit your budget and time frame. We will work with you in the early stages of the project to help you establish your requirements and then continue to work with you throughout the full life-cycle.

SCP specialises in integrating complex hardware and software with services.

• Customer was unsure about the recent growth of their CPU usage and needed to quickly identify if they had enough current capacity:
  • SCP immediately asked for recent RMF and SMF reports. This proved difficult as the staff member had retired over a year ago and the reports were no longer available or usable
  • SCP then rewrote the SMF reporting and managed to provide trend analysis within 2 days, which proved that their CPU usage was growing and was currently at 98%
  • This headroom was not enough for the next phase of a large application upgrade, which was estimated to require 5% more CPU.
• SCP recommended an immediate hardware CPU upgrade and install some ISV software sitting on a shelf for the past 18 months!

• Customer was being questioned by management about the total cost of running their mainframe system:
  • Once again, SCP asked for recent system usage reports. This proved impossible as the basic SAS reporting had been ‘broken’ for over 2 years. SCP sent in a Systems Specialist and a SAS consultant and over 3 days managed to fix and create accurate reports
  • A full budget analysis was built for the next 4 years with various options including systems upgrade options.
• SCP recommended an upgrade to more modern and efficient hardware. This would reduce monthly z/OS license charges and other recommendations included rationalizing ISV software, would give a 3 year ROI for hardware purchase.

SCP recently successfully completed a project management role of a complex consolidation/fit out/move over 3 existing data centres. This also, included a brand new location with an external provider, who had recently built the data centre from the ground up. This was for an enterprise outsourcer with clients they provide services to including co-location, managed services, cloud and hybrid. Our Senior Consultant, with many previous years’ similar experience with a large global outsourcer, led the team that created the plans and then documented this for the outsourcer. These detailed plans were then used for in-depth discussions with their clients.

The plan was then successfully signed off by all their clients and was implemented ahead of schedule.