Organizations relying on IBM mainframes are adopting Web-enabled applications in large numbers, but they may not be going about it in the most cost-effective way. According to a survey from Macro 4, 62 percent of IBM mainframe users reported that their organizations had enabled at least some of their mainframe applications to be accessible through the Web.
While this is generally less expensive than buying new mainframes, the study revealed that 70 percent of the survey's respondents used customized web interfaces that had a higher total cost of ownership than third-party solutions on the market.
Regardless of industry, many employees today expect to be able to access key workflows and data from mobile devices and personal PCs whenever they want, no matter their locations. For businesses, greater degrees of efficiency can be unlocked by allowing users to access the mainframe in the field.
Deploying Web-based access to mainframes has several benefits. Chief among them is that it improves operational efficiency, allowing customers and personnel to access the mainframe at critical points in the value chain, thereby speeding up workflows.
Another less well-known benefit is that it ensures that non-technical users can easily access older mainframes and pull data as needed without having to learn the ins and outs of legacy applications.
It's imperative for your business to have these capabilities, but it's equally critical to ensure that it helps achieve your company's goals without incurring unnecessary costs. By installing a high-function, mature and reliable Web-based emulation terminal emulator like Flynet Viewer, you can have access to your legacy mainframe applications without needing to divert key resources to a customized one, lowering your total cost of ownership. If you do want to customize, the same Flynet tools and runtime can provide modern, responsive Web user interfaces running on a standard web platform.