Challenge: Finding expert mainframe skills
Objective: Staff the systems programmer position to match actual business requirements
Industry: Finance/Insurance
Solution: PSR’s client staff augmentation supported the gradual transfer of system programming responsibility to PSR.
Scenario:
The planned retirement of this finance and insurance company’s system programmer presented the CIO with the challenge of finding a replacement candidate. The question that he posed, however, was more fundamental: What level of systems programming support do we need?
While the company was firmly committed to the mainframe platform, the application portfolio was stable, the projected workload growth was minimal, and routine maintenance of the software stack was well-managed.
Approach:
The availability and affordability of experienced mainframe system programming skills has been an industry topic for quite some time, with good reason. But what is not often discussed is that, done correctly, the systems programming requirements of many mainframe shops may be a part-time position.
PSR proposed to initially augment the customer staff with a dedicated systems programmer to provide expertise and learn the details of the client’s environment. After seven months and upon the retirement of the company’s systems programmer, PSR confidently recommended the proper level of staffing to the CIO.
Result:
A mainframe environment that is tuned and fully supported at a fraction of prior costs.
The finance and insurance business has:
- PSR for all mainframe systems programming support for the past six years.
- A current and tuned mainframe that runs a fully supported environment.
- A dedicated PSR resource averaging nine hours per week of billable support.
- An estimated savings of $115,000 per year in the six years of working with PSR.