Frandsen Bank & Trust relies on several operating systems to manage its day-to-day IT operations. Before installing SMA Solutions’ OpCon, the IT staff had written several scripts and workflows that ran on multiple servers in many different scripting languages. A large number of workflows became unmanageable over time, especially when attempting to process exceptions and troubleshoot unexpected issues. David Buggeln, Director of Information Systems, said that from the very first one-hour sales call with SMA Solutions, the stakeholders at the bank, the CEO and IT staff understood what OpCon could do for them.

“It became apparent very quickly that the SMA Solutions product, through a single pane, if you will, could explain everything it’s doing across multiple operating systems, different programming languages and different departments,” Buggeln said.

The software was more than just an automation solution. For example, Buggeln said, a competing vendor’s ACH balancing tool still required a bank employee to balance fed files to those loaded onto the core system.

OpCon automated that process by providing tools to automatically check and compare balances. This had a dramatic impact on both efficiency and accuracy.

“We really felt that OpCon was going to that deeper layer to automate the things that are truly a concern to us,” he said. “We can script and schedule all day long, but we needed a proven tool that will go that extra step and actually automate those processes.” The bank has deployed the OpCon Microsoft SQL integration with the expectation that the effort will reduce its annual managed services expenses by 75 percent.

One of the bank’s largest managed services expenses in the SQL environment is back up and maintenance plan verification. The OpCon Microsoft SQL integration can automate those routine processes and only notify the bank when and where it finds exceptions, reducing the bank’s need for managed services.

For institutions considering implementing workload automation in their environments, Buggeln recommends first defining exactly what is expected from the automation solution. Frandsen Bank & Trust issued a very detailed request for proposal (RFP). Buggeln said the organization was very impressed by the detailed response it received to its RFP from SMA Solutions.

“These guys really like to get into the guts of things,” Buggeln recalled.

“If you want to do scheduling, there are many schedulers available and there are a million scripts you can write in a million different languages,” Buggeln said. “But if you want to automate and really have hands- free approach to your operation that your entire staff can get behind, you need to take a close look at what vendor can deliver the total package and verify that vendor has a track record with like-minded peers. On the backend, you really need to have a commitment to learning the capabilities of your automation software and moving as many of your operational routines into that platform as possible.”