n News From the Lab
n Encrypting Your IBM i Backups
n More on Watson®
n Answers to Your Questions
n SpoolFlex Training Schedule
n Recent Additions to the DRV Family of Customers

Current version 4.9.7 was released on May 12, 2011.
Enhancement List See what's new in the latest version.
Update Instructions Follow these instructions to upgrade your SpoolFlex/FormFlex software.

Nightly Backups
We continuously encounter companies that are not backing up their SpoolFlex/FormFlex/ ReportFlex/MessageFlex data. All companies should have procedures in place to back up all of their data on a daily basis. PLEASE make sure you have a daily backup procedure as well. Your daily backup should include the following:

n Save library DRVSFLEX (using SAVLIB command)
n Save IFS directory /DRV (using SAV command)
n Backup any other directories (IFS or file server) you are using to store documents created by our software.

If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact our support team at support@drvtech.com.

Upgrading Your System or Moving to a New Box?
If you are upgrading your system or moving to a new box and need to transfer your software license, please e-mail or call DRV Customer Support two weeks in advance at (678) 417-1521 to request a license transfer agreement.

As long as you have an active maintenance agreement, there is no charge to transfer your license but you must complete and fax back a signed license transfer agreement which states that you are transferring your software license to another box and will remove the software from the original box within 30 days. If you need to run the software in parallel testing on both boxes for a longer period, DRV offers software rental licensing.

Before the internet, data encryption was not widely used by non-government organizations, although data was certainly subject to being stolen and misused. A ballooning theft and improper use of private data came along with the internet. . [Read Article…]

Using SpoolFlex you can define an Output Queue that is continuously monitored for reports, and as the reports appear they are instantly converted to PDF and emailed back to the user who generated the report. Just tell your users to send their reports to this monitored Output Queue and they will have their report in seconds as a PDF file as an attachment in their email inbox.

n Create an Output Queue to be monitored for this process. Example: create an Output Queue called EMAIL by using the following command: CRTOUTQ QGPL/EMAIL

n From the SpoolFlex Main Menu create an Address Book for all the users that will be receiving their reports via email. Note: Most companies use the existing address book *USERS for this.

n Add an entry into the address book for each user who may want to receive reports via email. Note: The address book entry value must be the same as their AS/400 user profile.

n Create a Report Distribution to monitor for spooled files in the output queue created in step 1, convert the reports to PDF and email the PDF file back to the user who created the report. Note: You may already have a Distribution defined as AUTO EMAIL REPORTS. Note: If you are unsure how to do this, call our support team and they will be happy to assist you with this.

n Create a Spool Sentry to automatically run this Report Distribution that is monitoring the output queue. You can create the Spool Sentry to run based on your company’s hours of operation. Note: You may already have a Spool Sentry defined as AUTO EMAIL REPORTS. Note: If you are unsure how to do this call our support team and they will be happy to assist you with this.

n Finally, either setup your users' default output queue to be this new output queue name or tell your users to send their reports to this output queue to receive them via email rather than at the printer.

Remember when IBM ruled the land of technology? Then along came Microsoft, an upstart company IBM embraced to develop an operating system for its PCs. Microsoft jumped at the opportunity and ended up overtaking IBM’s dominance in the tech industry by focusing on software. By the mid 2000s, Microsoft outpaced IBM 3 to 1 as the largest computing company. Now, for the first time in 15 years, IBM has regained its lead over Microsoft in market value, showing the tech industry that Big Blue is alive and well.

Here are a couple of interesting facts about Watson®, the IBM Power 7 system created to compete in a two-round Jeopardy! Challenge against two of the most successful Jeopardy! Champions, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter.

n Watson® was named after IBM founder Thomas J. Watson.

n Watson® is not a single computer, but rather a cluster of IBM®POWER7®processor-based servers, based on a workload optimized systems design. A workload optimized system is a new kind of analytics capability that can perform thousands of tasks simultaneously within seconds.

n IBM purposely chose to design Watson® on commercially available servers, unlike Deep Blue® which was a customized supercomputer. As you may recall, Deep Blue® successfully competed in a chess match against world chess champion Gary Kasparo in 1997.

For more information about Watson® and the technology it uses, see IBM’s site dedicated to Watson.

Q: Can I password protect my document through SpoolFlex?

Yes. The Advanced Security module allows you to protect your PDF documents with a password.

Q: I need to split my report by customer number, but the spooled file is not sorted in the correct order. Do any of the FlexTools do this?

Yes. You can use Sort Definition to sort your file by any field such as customer number and then use Report Distribution for splitting the report on that field. The Advanced Utilities Module contains both of these functions.

Q: My OUTQ has several versions of a file in it, and for various reasons, I need to keep them there. Is it possible to set up my report distribution to only grab the latest one?

Absolutely! Create a Spool File Selection definition to qualify which spooled files to select. In the Spooled File Number field, use the parameter *LAST to tell the program to select the most recently created file.

Q: I have users who only need to access the Address Book interface; they do not need to use any of the other menus. Is there an API for your menus that allows me to send users directly to a particular menu screen without giving them access to the SpoolFlex Main menu?

Yes. There are APIs for almost every menu so you can customize access for your users, giving the access only to the Address Book menu or any other menu that you require.

[More…]

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DRV is committed to helping you get the most out of your software investment. If you purchased the SpoolFlex one-year unlimited training subscription, please join us in an upcoming training session. You can view and register for upcoming training sessions by visiting the training page on our website. You will be prompted to enter your username and password which are issued at the time of purchase. If you don't have a username and password please contact tech support. If you did not purchase training, or your subscription has expired and you would like to get your team some additional training, contact your account manager for more information.

n 21st Century Bank
n Bank of Luxemburg
n Chickasaw Nation
n Customized Distribution
n Kop-Coat
n SYSCO Corporation HQ
n Wolverton Inc

SpoolFlex automates the delivery of reports electronically to eliminate printing and manual distribution. Our Excel and PDF conversion gets data where users need it, without hardware, and at the speed of light.

FormFlex native IBM i  (System i, iSeries, AS/400) software lets you replace pre-printed forms with electronic laser forms and checks that print on inexpensive HP-compatible laser printers using plain cut-sheet paper. It also allows you to copy them to PDF to automatically e-mail, fax, and archive to network file servers for company-wide on-demand access. No PC hardware or custom programming is required.

ReportFlex allows you to reformat reports into easy-to-read, easy-to-manage reports without any programming. Its features include combining multiple lines into single record, changing column headings, inserting lines, and inserting page breaks.

MessageFlex monitors for system and program messages and sends notifications via e-mail, text message, or instant message when these messages appear, providing you with proactive system management to avert disaster before it happens.

For more information about any of our FlexTools please visit our website.

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Questions or comments? E-mail us or call (678) 417-1521.