IBM Announces End of Support for ASF - meet DOPiX

IBM today, Nov. 10, 2015, announced the End of Support for their core document management mainframe software Application Support Facility, “ASF” (announcement ZP15-0642). IBM has identified the DOPiX ASF Replacement Kit (DOPiX ARK), from IBM Business Partner icon, as the recommended replacement for ASF as stated in the announcement. All existing customers are strongly advised to review the essential information provided by links herein.
 

This article provides key information on the recommended solution from IBM. 

Icon is a leading provider of Customer Communication Management (“CCM”) software in the EU and market leader in some larger markets such as Germany. Unlike other CCM providers, all of icon's CCM products are mainframe compatible. The unique binary compatibility of DOPiX with ASF is a key reason why icon DOPiX was chosen by IBM as the ASF replacement, enabling native functionality on zOS or zLinux with the minimum possible effort for migration. Other platforms are also available.

However, as you would expect from modern software, there are many additional features in DOPiX that current ASF customers would benefit from. These are summarized in the functionality comparison here.

For an introduction to the DOPiX solution, with explanations of compatibility considerations and the recommended migration path to ARK, explore this ARK introduction.
 

There is normally a compelling return on investment case with typical ROI’s of between 3 -18 months. This can be regarded in a number of ways:

1. Labour Savings: The time taken to compose, create and distribute personalised communications is slashed with the use of smart templates, dynamic content and intelligent multi-channel output, all driven in a large part by Line of Business staff.




2. Migration Cost and Risk: Moving to DOPiX ARK is by far the least costly and time consuming option for existing ASF users. Substantial investments in existing document templates, business logic and mainframe interfaces can be directly leveraged with DOPiX. Anything else demands a rewrite or painful migration.




3. Rationalisation: Performance can be doubled on mainframe versus comparable Intel servers. There is also the potential to consolidate distributed CCM and document management systems of many varieties back to the mainframe with this state-of-the-art functionality. DOPiX handles not only Structured content output, but also Interactive and Self-Service modes. Thus it is an excellent replacement for not only other former IBM software such as Document Composition Facility, “DCF”, and Displaywrite 370, but also for many competing products from other vendors. Finally, organisations can also combine DOPiX on different platforms, or run it entirely on distributed platforms.

Ask your icon or IBM representative for further information, particularly the lead time for any typical migration.
 

Icon invites current ASF customers to request an initial walk-though or situational review, with scheduling a phone conference at the earliest opportunity, by email to info@icon-uk.net .

Resources:

IBM Announcement Letter – ASF EOS announcement ZP15-0642

IBM Announcement Letter – ASF 3.4  program number 5655-002 

  
IBM Announcement Letter – icon DOPiX/ARK - ZP14-0625: program number 5619-ARK

DOPiX ASF Replacement Kit – Overview and Migration to icon’s DOPiX ARK

Functionality Comparison – ASF 3.X vs. DOPiX 4.0 in tabular format

DOPiX modules – Information sheets and marketing literature Downloads

ASF Product Life Cycle – Key Dates:

Compatibility considerations and the recommended migration path to DOPiX ARK – Contact Icon

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