Help/Systems' Scheduler Now Automates EnterpriseOne Jobs

by Alex Woodie

Help/Systems last week launched a new interface that allows its Robot/SCHEDULE job scheduling software for OS/400 servers to work with PeopleSoft's EnterpriseOne ERP system. With the new Robot/SCHEDULE EnterpriseOne Interface, OS/400 shops can manage all EnterpriseOne batch jobs from within the Help/Systems product, resulting in increased automation.

Robot/SCHEDULE was designed to imitate the actions of an onsite operator. In much the same way that commercial pilots fly airplanes with the aid of an autopilot, Robot/SCHEDULE carries out certain tasks for the modern computer operator, freeing him to do other things.

Once Robot/SCHEDULE has been set up, the software can automatically run jobs in several different ways, including according to a set schedule, in reaction to other events occurring on the system, or after other jobs complete. Just like Help/Systems' Robot/SCHEDULE Interface for SAP is designed for the peculiarities of SAP's ERP system, the vendor's new interface for EnterpriseOne has certain capabilities and benefits that are specific to EnterpriseOne.

The Robot/SCHEDULE EnterpriseOne Interface allows users to schedule an EnterpriseOne Universal Batch Engine job on the iSeries, to see the completion status of EnterpriseOne jobs, to use Robot/SCHEDULE reactivity, and to turn on logging.

The new interface also has a special affinity to EnterpriseOne reports, including the capability to show the true completion status of EnterpriseOne reports. This allows you to schedule jobs to run in reaction to the completion of an EnterpriseOne report, or to run reports in reaction to other jobs, the company says.

EnterpriseOne logging normally is defined within EnterpriseOne itself, but with the new EnterpriseOne Interface, users can now turn on logging for individual jobs scheduled in Robot/SCHEDULE. The logs are copied to iSeries spool files, which makes it easy to display or print them to help identify a problem, the company says.

Robot/SCHEDULE EnterpriseOne Interface Version 1.0 is a separately licensed product from the Robot/SCHEDULE product, and only it works on OS/400 V5R3 (i5/OS). The main Robot/SCHEDULE product, currently on Version 9, supports all OS/400 V5 releases (with the right PTFs), and it has been used by more than 9,000 OS/400 shops, according to Help/Systems. For more information, go to www.helpsystems.com.