Midrange Stuff, OS/400 Edition--Aldon Improves Cross-Platform App Development, Maintenance

Most organizations try to eliminate chaos. If they can't, they at least try to diminish it as much as possible. Software development and maintenance is a great example. Without communication and a clear management process, you have chaos like California has wildfires. Taking on this brand of chaos is software change management vendor Aldon Computer Group, which last week introduced the latest upgrade of its Web-based incident-tracking and collaboration system, Affiniti eTEAM 6.0.

Aldon first brought Affiniti eTEAM to market in February, to assist in the management processes that involves a variety of programming languages, including Java, HTML, C++, ASNA Visual PRG, Visual Basic, RPG, COBOL, and even DDS. This is the product's first enhancement.

With eTEAM, it is possible for a project manager to collect incident reports from users, to share those reports with development staff, to follow up on real and potential problems, and to track problems until they are resolved. The eTEAM can operate as a stand-alone product, but it also integrates with Aldon's change management systems, including Affiniti (for multiplatform development) and Aldon/CMS (for native OS/400 development). Development issues that are entered into the eTEAM system become linked to the Aldon change management system, allowing development teams--even those working from various locations--to efficiently collaborate on a single problem.

In addition to improving problem-resolution by providing a central database to track incidents, eTEAM is designed to reduce support costs, through a self-service feature for logging problems and enhancement requests. Users can interact with eTEAM through a Web browser or through e-mail, and a help desk can provide live, collaborative support to users through instant messaging and wireless tools that are e-mail capable.

Improving the collaboration aspects of eTEAM was an important goal for this latest version. Users can now be organized into functional teams--such as development, operations, and support--and issues can be assigned to teams, rather than individuals. This lets multiple members within a team, or across teams, resolve issues through coordinated communications.

If resolving an issue involves the participation of several team members or several teams, it is possible to create subtasks related to multiple elements of the same issue. Many members can work on these subtasks at once, while eTEAM 6.0 tracks the progress and recognizes when the subtask has been solved or the issue has been resolved. It also lets rules be established and automatically partitions issues into subtasks and assign subtasks. An inquiry window lets users view the status of all issues and subtasks.

The eTEAM 6.0 also includes templates that let system administrators predefine issue records. So when a related issue arises, an application user can select the desired template and the predefined fields are automatically filled in. It will also assign the required subtasks to the appropriate support personnel, based on certain actions that are required or because certain people are attached to follow-up support.

The product's new calendar functionality allows scheduling and e-mail notification. For instance, it can notify application users of an upcoming event or alert support staff when critical issues arise. Users of Microsoft Outlook can schedule events that are automatically synchronized with their Outlook calendar. By adding instant messaging and e-mailing capabilities, Aldon has improved the potential for communication between support personnel and users.

Management and system administrators can create their own reports, charts, and tables through a variety of report-building menu options. It is also possible to define multiple knowledge bases, such as an external knowledge base for application user self-service, and an internal knowledge base that provides technical product information for IT support engineers.

Along with this package of enhancements comes support for .NET, XML, and SOAP, which was not previously available.

The eTEAM runs on the Microsoft platform. It requires a Microsoft IIS Web server, running on a Windows 2000 or Windows NT operating system, and uses the SQL Server database (Version 7 or 2000). The client-side only requires a Web browser that works with JavaScript. Through integration with Microsoft Exchange 5.5 and Microsoft Exchange 2000 Active Directory, eTEAM can pull information from contact databases to foster collaborative development. Aldon says customers should be up and running with eTEAM in less than a day.

The basic pricing formula is tied to the number of PCs, Web-based external access, and number of user seats. For more information, go to www.aldon.com.