You should install version 12.3 as it makes it a lot easier to set it up.

Stability is a major criteria for selecting a vendor. Ease of working with a vendor is also an important factor.

Compared to the products on the market, it is hands down the best one.

For what it was produced for, it's an excellent product. It's done everything that we wanted to do with the product and more, which has been a really big help for us. It's made my job much easier. It's very sustainable and an extremely stable product over the last cycle that we have had it.

They continue to enhance the product and make it easier for even more general users to use.

After using it for some time, I still feel it's a great product: easy to install, implement, and administer.

The most important criteria when selecting a vendor are depth of support, intelligence on the industries that we are in, and similarities of different organizations so we can leverage their data points to make sure that we have a streamlined approach on support going forward.

I would look at the vendor's internal teams to see if there people capable of supporting it, and what it will take to ensure that there is sustainability around it. And last but not least, what is the roadmap of the product compared to the roadmap of your company? Strategically, they should be in lock step.

With any company nowadays, senior people are being shipped out, basically retiring. New people are coming in and, in the mainframe industry, a lot of the newcomers do not know the mainframe. So, having that automation platform in place and having it learn throughout the years, we had to do something.

We started off as a beta site for CA, so we learned throughout the years that it's worked value for us and even reduced head count, so that was a good thing.

I'm happy with what we've seen with CA OPS/MVS.

Ask the vendor for a demonstration of the product.

I would advise others to go with OPS/MVS. We still occasionally review what's in the market to make sure that it's still the best product for us and we have never been disappointed by it.

I would advise others to simply install it in a test environment first, then play with all the features. I know there are also many samples and tools provided, such as how to set up a table to start up your system tasks.

CA give a lot of support as standard for converting between products, including sample rules and REXXes. Use all the support you can get.

Regarding important criteria when selecting a vendor, it's all together: It's the stability, it's the support. I also know some of the developer guys, and that's really an add-on if you know them, and you can talk to them straight here at CA World.

It's definitely a 10 out of 10, because it's a very stable product. It's a really fast product. It's one of the best on the market. I compared other products like stuff from IBM, BMC, with it, and it's nothing like anything else on the market for the moment.

It works well. 

Most important criteria when selecting a vendor: 

• Cost
• Functionality
• Cost of the business.  

Our most important criterion when selecting a vendor is how closely do we partner with them, that is the biggest thing for us. What kind of attention do they give us when we have issues? We're satisfied with that with CA.

I give it an eight out of 10. There is always room for improvement. To get it to a 10, I will know when they do it. Maybe it's cheaper, maybe it's some new flexibility in the product that we've never even thought about. If they anticipate the industry, what's going forward, what's out there, is it something that you would maybe use it in the cloud.

For the mainframe it's a really good automation tool. It's been really solid for what we needed it for, and it's been flexible and scalable across the enterprise.

If converting from a different product, all of your existing code (REXX, rules, clists,...) will have to be rewritten. It is NOT hard, but it is time consuming. If you are installing automation for the first time, use the samples, and be aware that automation is an evolution and it takes time for everything to fall into place. Once it does, life becomes MUCH easier and system stability improves tremendously.

I would recommend the solution. It is a very friendly solution: Easy to upgrade and it is pretty self-contained. It does everything you need it to.

Most important criteria when selecting a vendor: 

• Responsiveness of support. 
• Easy to follow instructions. A lot of times you open a manual and it is like a foreign language to you, if you don't have the knowledge upfront. You need a vendor there to explain it, and CA has been very helpful.

We really do need this product. We have the necessity now, because we have implemented for so long that we can't function without this product.

Implement and write the script correctly from the beginning. Make sure and plan out ahead. Plan the project five, six, or seven years ahead, instead of just installing, implementing, and starting. Plan ahead.

When selecting a vendor, the most important thing is the ability to meet our needs. CA does a very good job of that. It's a very solid product. This tool is very good as far as doing what we need it to do.

I would recommend others to look at it and compare it to other products on the market. I think they'll find that OPS/MVS is a leader in the automation industry.

I would definitely get a demo and look at this product and compare it to what they're running. All of these vendors have conversion processes, so I'm sure they'd have to do the other stuff that I don't do, make the dollars work. If it works I'd do it. 

I would say yes, definitely use it. The ease of using it and the training is useful. It's very good.

Make sure to allocate enough space for the OPSLOG and for the global variables.

It's easy to use.

Go for it. It's a superior product for automation.

If you're at the point of implementation, take advantage of CA technical support and the local OPS online community. Both are extremely helpful and willing to give advice to help new people avoid potential problems.

Look at the samples. There is a lot of information there.

Also, this product has integration with CA-SYSVIEW, and they work great together.

It is an easy product to use and it is stable.

Make sure it’s the right product, get a strong proof of concept, and, importantly, get the right expertise.