Shadowbase Support Tips

Joseph Wynn
ITL Programmer

Integration Team Leader (ITL)

The Integration Team Leader (ITL) is a relatively new team within the Shadowbase product group. The team was created to meet the needs of an expanding customer base and deliver professional services, which include the following customer services:

  1. Remote or on-site training
  2. Showcase demos of the core product or specific features
  3. Remote support to third parties installing and/or configuring Shadowbase software
  4. Write user exits
  5. Provide documentation on the professional service project

The services are requested under a proof of concept (POC) or a statement of work (SOW). POCs are often essential education for new customers on Shadowbase software through training or demos, and they provide customers with information for making important business decisions during the early stages of a project. It is common to demonstrate POCs to potential customers who are considering buying a Shadowbase solution for the first time. SOWs are requested by either customers who have just bought a Shadowbase solution after a POC phase or customers who have already used a solution. Training is sometimes requested as part of a SOW, but typically the customer understands core Shadowbase concepts. In general, SOWs are requested by customers upgrading hardware or software, adding new systems to replication, or needing programming assistance for database integration user exits.

Example ITL Project

A European steel manufacturer needed to replicate its plant’s system data from an Enscribe to Oracle database to enable customized reports for monitoring the plant’s operations. The Enscribe database was very complex, and the manufacturer wanted Shadowbase software to normalize the Oracle database so that it would be easy to query. Prior to the purchase, a POC was requested, and it lasted several months.

Initially, a user exit was developed to replicate the data into normalized tables, but the manufacturer wanted to avoid using user exits due to a lack of programming skills. After much discussion, several custom TACL scripts and a simple program were developed that would configure a complex configuration script and DDL dictionary. The configuration script was generated to configure Shadowbase DBSs, which utilized heavily modified DDL record definitions, and mapped each source Enscribe file into parent and child Oracle tables. The normalization logic was moved from the user exit to the configuration script. The POC culminated in an on-site visit intended to aid development and training on using these custom scripts.

Upon the completion of the POC, the manufacturer bought the Shadowbase solution, and a SOW was submitted. The SOW requested several items, including:

The SOW’s on-site visit occurred almost a year after the POC’s on-site visit; the new tools were delivered and the replication was configured. During this year, there were many behind the scenes tasks: several demos, many web meetings and emails, programming, and training.

This example exemplifies the work and training a customer may need to meet its specific needs. In the future, we anticipate less requests for professional services as Shadowbase knowledge increases among third parties, and as the core Shadowbase product improves. In the meantime, it is ITL’s job to guarantee the success of such projects.

As always, please contact us if you have a question related to Shadowbase Support.

Please reference our Newsletter Disclaimer.