World-Class ESM
Today's organizations are highly or completely dependent on application systems to drive their day-to-day business functions. PCS' Enterprise Systems Management (ESM) practice focuses on providing our clients with the capability to keep these systems accessible through the monitoring and management of data centers, hardware and software platforms, networks, remote facilities, software applications, and databases.

Agent Technology
"Agents" are compact specialized programs that monitor managed objects and report back to an administrator function. PCS can help you acquire 3rd party agents or develop your own. The overall result is an object-oriented, dynamic platform that can be readily modified or expanded to accommodate the monitoring and management of any IT event.

Change and Configuration Management
To facilitate the restoration of earlier configurations and the management of software projects, our ESM solution logs and tracks historical configuration data (including user profile) and software changes.

Cross Platform Implementation
The typical IT environment today consists of a number of different platform technologies and is in a state of continual change. Your environment may contain OS/390, UNIX, NT, AS/400, Windows, VAX platforms running Netware, LAN Manager, LAN Server, Banyan Vines, or Windows NT network platforms all integrated into one business service infrastructure. PCS can provide the tools and services to implement an ESM solution across all of these platforms.

Network Management
The dependency on application systems today for transacting business transcends into a complete dependency on the networks that provide access. Network performance, reliability, efficiency, "scalability" and adaptability are attributes that must be monitored and managed as well as the recognition of and viewing customers, suppliers, employees and business partners from a single perspective. PCS' solutions monitor and manage performance of all aspects of the operating systems, and report the status of all discrete elements such as platform and network devices, business applications, and database systems.

Output Management
Efficient document administration on a cross-platform infrastructure is greatly enhanced through the establishment of one central control and management point, encompassing all platforms, with document delivery and storage requirements managed out of one integrated repository. PCS solutions include the capabilities to source enterprise documents from mainframe, UNIX or LAN environments, and delivery management that includes multiple-user access, archive management, retrieval, storage and security functionality.

Performance Event Monitoring
In order to ensure that the complete infrastructure is performing at expected levels, it is necessary to continually manage all events that occur. Events are system conditions that can lead to a change in the state of a managed object. All enterprise network devices, applications and databases must be regularly monitored with immediate and automatic notification occurring when problems are detected. PCS' solutions include the capability to rapidly detect problems, identify resolutions using a set of predefined operational parameters, and compare current performance levels against historical performances.

Process Improvement
Evolving out of our standard Business Process Management service, PCS has developed a specialized methodology for evaluating and implementing technology-related process improvements. Utilizing predefined best practice and technical process templates for Production Environment, Security, Backup and Recovery, and Service-Level Agreement Metrics, PCS consultants can rapidly resolve process deficiencies.

Security / Workload / Backup
Base production level functionality essential to any infrastructure includes the operational categories of security, workload and backup. These are all available within any solution provided by PCS. Full scale security capabilities are provided including: login and access controls; security profiles defining the level of access afforded different user types or classes; file management defining data accessibility options; audit trails; controlled access restricting access to sensitive data. Cross-platform workload management functionality is provided to enable balancing of discrete platforms to avoid resource-contention problems and automatic job scheduling at specified dates and times. Addressing both security and disaster recovery concerns, PCS' solutions provide full-scale backup and restore capabilities.

Server / Desktop Management
PCS' solutions enhance control and management of infrastructure server and desktop resources and processes through the application of an additional series of options. Asset management provides control over the physical hardware and software resources. Other options provide directory management, remote control, and automatic software distribution-delivery functionality.

Service Desk / Help Desk
Today's IT environment extends beyond the enterprise. External users (customers, suppliers, business partners) can have requirements to access applications in order to transact business. Difficulties and problems encountered in accessing these applications pose an impediment to the conducting of business and must be resolved as expeditiously as possible. A formal service / help desk capability is available to record and track each problem / question submitted. Some of the features include: predefined escalation paths, single call resolution capability, parent / child relationship designation capability, automatic messaging.