Mercon Business Partner

Application Modernization with aXes

aXes is a 100% native System i solution that assists your company in running its business applications over the internet. axes automatically transforms your current telnet, green screen application into a modern, XML based eBusiness system, while also providing you with remote access to print jobs, databases and new web developments. axes is by far the fastest and most cost effective method of opening your business to the world wide web.

zero client aXes is a System i application, not a PC or windows program. You install it once on your System i, and all of your employees, customers, partners can have immediate access to your applications through the browser. You never have to worry about what's installed on your remote users PCs again!

zero maintenance Because aXes is installed on the host, any style changes or maintenance need only be done once. Your support costs can be slashed, and your administrators won't have to assist remote users installing and maintaining clunky PC software. aXes saves your company time and money in many different ways.

zero interactive aXes relieves your system of the heavy price paid for System i interactive capacity. All aXes sessions can run in batch, so whether you want to leverage an existing machine with limited CPW, or upgrade to a zero interactive environment, aXes is your solution. Using axes for your terminal sessions can save you thousands of Euros on hardware, and you won't need websphere or Java as axes is 100% IBM System i native.

  • Eliminates the 'need-to-get-back-to-the-office' by providing host access to mobile users wherever there is internet access.
  • Lowers the cost of providing web access to 5250 applications because there is no change to the current application
  • Improves staff productivity by offloading current in-house work to customers and suppliers.
  • Provides stronger security & better performance for host access over the Internet.
  • Reduces administration, installation and upgrade costs by replacing your current "Terminal Emulator" - aXes is true Zero Deployment.
  • Eliminates the need for additional hardware to purchase (No Windows Server) to run your applications over the Internet.
  • Eliminates the need for expensive 5250 OLTP by running all your applications in Batch.
  • Provides Remote/Mobile workers immediate access to their printed output over the Web in a variety of formats.
  • Provides Remote/Mobile workers with the ability to run Queries over the Web against any authorised database.
  • Easily extends the life of your LOB applications whilst retaining the same skillset to maintain them. Equips your network support helpdesk with improved capability for monitoring Remote/Mobile staff through aXes Shadowing.
  • Reconnects sessions automatically and restarts from point of interruption after unscheduled disconnection through aXes Parking.
  • Increases staff retention and reduces staff training costs by converting their current "green screen" user interface into a modern, more intuitive, easier to learn and user friendly Rich Internet Interface.
  • Is the first step on full application transformation journey

aXes Designer and eXtensions

aXes Designer and eXtensions allow you to redesign 5250 green screens to create a graphical user interface. The enhanced design will produce an application that looks and behaves like a web application. You can convert the elements of the 5250 screen into graphical controls.

Create brand new mobile applications — it's easy with aXes Mobile

From RPG, COBOL or CL applications running on your IBM i (AS/400, iSeries, System i), you can now deliver your business information and data direct to mobile devices — such as iPhones, iPads, Android devices and the latest technology from Blackberry and with Windows Mobile 7 — with Zero Deployment on the mobile devices.

aXes Mobile lets you leverage the growing power of HTML 5 and the emerging industry standard WebKit browser family to provide ubiquitous access to IBM i server based applications.

aXes Mobile (RPG for Mobiles)

Create brand new, purpose built applications for mobile devices such as smart phones and tablet PCs using existing RPG, COBOL and CL skills (i.e. write new applications designed for user interfaces on mobile devices)

Reuse existing applications — let aXes Mobile do the work

You can use your existing RPG, COBOL and CL 5250 applications and access these applications via mobile devices such as smart phones and tablet PCs without changing one line of the underlying programs.

aXes gives new meaning to Cloud Computing on the IBM i

The aXes product suite includes cloud computing software, aXes-Cloud, that provides browser access to all your IBM i (System i, iSeries or AS/400) applications without you having to install any new software on existing IBM i application servers and without having to change any of your IBM i applications.

aXes-Cloud

Just install aXes-Cloud on a single IBM i server, called the Cloud Gateway. Then using any device that runs a browser (e.g. desktops, laptops, mobile devices), users can access all the facilities on any IBM i server that is connected to the Cloud Gateway. aXes-Cloud automatically connects incoming users to their assigned applications that can be spread across multiple IBM i servers.

aXes-Robot is an application programming interface (API) that developers use to write applications that automatically operate 5250 screen-based applications written with RPG or COBOL. The applications use aXes-Robot APIs to simulate the actions of a person entering data on screens in a 5250 application. This feature makes it possible to integrate existing 5250 applications with .NET, Java or other 5250 applications.

Automated Report Distribution & Document Management Tool with BCD Catapult

Catapult is a PC and iSeries Client/Server application used to automatically distribute iSeries spool files or PC files to one or more users. Reports can be formatted as PDF, RTF, HTML, TXT or even as an XLS spread sheet and may be emailed, printed, faxed or archived to any network drive. It can also auto-file and auto-index reports and documents to the Web into organized folders in the FREE* Nexus ECM (Enterprise Content Management). When you export documents to the Nexus ECM you have the ability to automatically create unlimited search indexes based on content in the document such as PO number.

Catapult includes everything needed in a complete report management solution for administrating, parsing, formatting, distributing and archiving spooled files, documents and reports. It also supports adding graphical form overlays for professional looking reports. Catapult interfaces with EZ-Pickin's, BCD's Report Mining tool, to automatically extract data into Excel, Access, MS-Word and more.

Catapult Highlights

  • Automated Spool File Distribution Management
  • Network Polling for PC file distribution
  • Forms/Graphics Overlays to transform plain text reports
  • Meet SOX requirements with complete distribution audit trails
  • Split reports
  • E-Mail, Fax and Print reports
  • Create PDF, RTF, TXT, HTML, etc
  • Web or Network Archiving
  • Integrates with the FREE Nexus Web portal for complete Enterprise Content Management (ECM) & Archiving

How Catapult Works

No programming is required to use Catapult and no changes to your programs or printer files are required. Using a Windows-based application, you indicate which spool files you want to distribute and how and where they are sent.

When you distribute your documents, you can send them either to individuals or distribution groups defined within Catapult. At scheduled intervals Catapult looks at all the selected output queues on the iSeries to see if any new entries have arrived on the queue for distribution.

Catapult also supports multiple iSeries hosts, so it is possible to distribute reports from any number of iSeries servers in your organization.

LaserVault Tapeless Backup and Universal Backup Device

LaserVault Backup (LVB) is the complete Disk to Disk backup solution for IBM I5, iSeries and AS/400 systems. Consisting of software on both the I5 host and a Windows Server, LaserVault Backup replaces tape backup with highly compressed, encrypted backup files on the Windows Server.

LaserVault Backup saves libraries and objects directly to the PC server through a simple TCP/IP connection. Operators can view multiple generations of backup through a regular workstation screen as well as select and restore libraries and objects - without handling tape!

  • Simple familiar commands - no need for BRMS
  • Saves libraries, objects, DLO, CFG, SEC, IFS
  • Up to 12 simultaneous saves and restores
  • Save from one I5 host or LPAR and restore on another
  • Save to hard drive, SAN, NAS or deduplication appliance
  • Compression of 4* to 8* for most I5 data
  • Supports AES-256 encryption
  • Disc to Disc, Disc to Disc to Tape or Disc to Disc to Disc

Universal Backup Device (UBD) is a FC-connected appliance that appears as a tape device to your IBM i (iSeries, AS/400) host, or to your Windows server.

This means you can replace your tape drive with UBD™ (pronounced "You Bet") and continue to backup and restore via BRMS, Robot/Save or any other backup software package without programming or CL changes.

The only difference to the operator is that instead of getting up to retrieve and load one or more tape cartridges, they can use the UBD™ browser-based interface to create and load a new tape image file before backup.

UBD™ also supports special CL commands for automating the tape image creation and selection from the host side, if you prefer to do so.

UBD™ can be used as a gateway device to store backups on your SAN, NAS, or any deduplication appliance that supports CIFS, NFS or iSCSI connections; such as Data Domain, GreenBytes, NetApp, Quantum, Exegrid, etc.

The first model of UBD™, available today, can plug into any IBM i that supports FC tape, includes 4TB of storage with RAID-6 protection, and a single FC connection that supports 2 or 4 GB Fibre Channel. Most users should get about 20 TB of backups with normal compression.

MERCON iCare Security Assessment (as a service)

Security Check is non-intrusive and will be removed from your system automatically after the audit is performed. The software does not change any system settings or populate any libraries. All that is needed to run Security Check is a user profile on the server with *ALLOBJ and *SECADM special authorities.

Security Check consists of the following 4 major audit categories:

Security Related System Values

Examines secuirty related system values, which of them have same value as the shipped and which of them consider critical and need immediate review.

User Security

User and Password Security. User and Password security are critical because they are the most exploited method of compromising a system. Security Check retrieves the enabled and disabled profiles, profiles with no expiration date, group profiles, profiles with no password, user classes and special authorities, default passwords, inactive profiles and many more.

Public Authority

Security Check gather all necessary information regarding the libraries installed on your system and presents the authorities granted to public.

Exit Points

Information regarding the exit points that are present on your system and how many of them have exit programs attached to them.