It is a fact of life with any computer system that the generation of reports may take some time. If the generation process requires the exclusive use of a terminal, then your normal online, interactive processing may be interrupted for extended periods of time.

The Batch Processing System allows you to maximise your terminal availability and utilisation by using the surplus processing capacity of your computer to perform this lengthy processing in a background mode.

When a report is requested you may specify that the report is to be passed to the batch processing system for generation. Requests are then serviced in priority order, ensuring that urgent reports are produced first.

Maintenance facilities allow you to enquire on the Batch Queue, and adjust relative task priorities, or remove entries entirely if you wish. You also have complete control over the number of tasks that can be processed concurrently, as this may have an impact on normal terminal applications.

For example, during the day when terminal use is high you may place a limit of one or two concurrent batch requests to be processed, while overnight this may be increased to a much larger number as there are fewer terminal users to contend with.

As well as allowing you to schedule resource hungry tasks, the Batch Processing System also provides a mechanism for the maintenance and execution of "keyboard macro’s". When a macro is executed, Stamina is driven by these simulated keystrokes, rather than relying on a terminal operator, which has a number of practical uses.

For example, as part of your normal end of period processing there may be a number of reports that have to be produced, then the necessary end of period performed. The keystrokes required for this can simply be stored as a macro, and a single execution may replace a lengthy terminal session, and as the macro can run unattended, the whole process can take place out of hours!

Keyboard Macro’s, in conjunction with the Query Language, can also save time when large amounts of information has to be changed within Stamina. For example, imagine that you had to change some incorrect General Ledger accounts associated with a large number of your products.

The Query Language could be used to select the records that needed to be changed, using the selection criteria you would normally have to apply manually. A simple keyboard macro could then be invoked to access this list sequentially, and make the desired change for each product in turn, automating an otherwise labour intensive operation.

So, the Stamina Batch Processing system helps you to maximise your terminal availability, and also can result in significant productivity gains, further increasing your return on investment in a totally integrated Management Information System

Click for Batch Processing System Flow Chart