XTRA Lease Automating 1.3 Million Jobs a Year With ActiveBatch Workload Automation

MORRISTOWN, N.J., Nov. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Advanced Systems Concepts, maker of ActiveBatch Enterprise Job Scheduling and Workload Automation, is pleased to announce that XTRA Lease, one of the largest semi-trailer renting and leasing companies in North America, is using ActiveBatch to drive customer service by automating processes that span leasing, billing, vehicle maintenance and more.

When you're in the business of renting thousands of semi-trailers to customers across North America, timely scheduling is critical. Such is the mindset at XTRA Lease, and it's a conviction that pervades the company from its customer-facing initiatives straight through to its IT department.

Three years ago, a heterogeneous IT environment created silos of information that were synchronized and managed through the creation of custom scripting. "We had no way to centrally monitor the multitude of batch jobs we were running," says Bob Lambrecht, CTO of XTRA Lease. "We had no master job scheduler; no idea when certain jobs were running, when jobs failed, options that were available to us, etc."

XTRA Lease required a solution to centralize its job scheduling processes to improve service levels and streamline operations by automating processes that spanned across its broad range of processes and technologies. "We went to market for a job scheduling solution and selected ActiveBatch for its rich functionality, its cross-platform capabilities and integration points," Lambrecht says. "The value ActiveBatch offered made the investment an easy one."

ActiveBatch, from Advanced Systems Concepts, is a cross-platform Workload Automation and Job Scheduling software solution. Operating across a Windows/HP-UX environment, XTRA Lease runs 1.3 million jobs a year via ActiveBatch to the tune of a 99.1% success rate. ActiveBatch's "Operations" view provides the IT team with a centralized view from which to monitor the status of jobs across past, present and future instances, providing IT operations with a "big-picture" dashboard of all jobs running throughout the enterprise. For the myriad of batch processing jobs XTRA Lease used, ActiveBatch's Integrated Jobs Library was used to replace custom scripts with reusable job steps within the Jobs Library, allowing workflows to be constructed leveraging the seamless, drag and drop interface of the Jobs Library with the click of a button. These workflows, in turn, move data between business applications, including passing accounts payable, invoicing data and asset management information to keep systems updated and synchronized. Data now flows easily through enterprise platforms, such as the company's branch rental and lease system, Microsoft Business Intelligence solutions and PeopleSoft.

This ease-of-use, combined with Advanced Systems Concepts product support, allowed XTRA Lease to launch an initial pilot program supported only by training materials and phone support. "It speaks to the product's simplicity. The ability to use the product leveraging just the on-line documentation and knowledge base was great."

ActiveBatch also serves as the "quarterback" that coordinates a series of customer-facing activities. Like all vehicles, semi-trailers require periodic, preventive maintenance to maintain safety standards and to meet regulatory requirements. To keep customers informed of impending upkeep, XTRA Lease proactively sends monthly, preventive maintenance reports to customers currently renting a trailer. To automate the process, XTRA Lease uses ActiveBatch to draw the information via database reporting services, create PDF files and email the corresponding information to the correct customers.

Along the same lines, expiring insurance reports are issued to customers via a workflow within ActiveBatch by running a reporting service to draw those customers whose insurance will expire and distribute email notifications to those customers.  "It's a proactive approach to helping our customers maintain their equipment and keep their insurance up to date," Lambrecht says. "By automating these processes via ActiveBatch, it allows XTRA Lease to provide better customer service and streamline operations across our various branches."

For more information about ActiveBatch, visit www.advsyscon.com.

About Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc.:

Headquartered in Morristown, New Jersey, Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc. offers many software products and options for users of Windows, UNIX, Linux, HP OpenVMS and NSK systems as well as IBM z/OS, AIX, i5OS and SCO UNIX.  These products provide answers to software developers and system managers with improved system efficiency and utilization.  Advanced Systems Concepts has a worldwide base of customers in over 42 countries around the world.  Advanced Systems Concepts is a Microsoft Silver Certified Partner and a member of the Microsoft System Center Alliance.  It is also an SAP software solution partner, an Informatica Partner, a Netezza Technology Partner, an Oracle Gold Partner, an HP Business Partner, an IBM Business Partner, a member of the VMware TAP program, certified Red Hat Ready Partner, a Novell ISV Vendor.  For more information, see the company's website at http://www.advsyscon.com or call (800) 229-2724 or 1-973-539 2660.

Copyright © 2011 Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc.  ActiveBatch is a registered trademark of Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc.  Other company and/or product names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective firms.

SOURCE Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc.