HYPHEN Technology, a member of the FirstRand Group, has shown a 120-fold improvement in its data transfer rates since implementing CommerceQuest Data Integrator 4.0.
HYPHEN, which operates as an outsourced financial application service provider, offers its services across various industry segments to some of the largest corporate enterprises in the country. Remarkably many of these companies may be found in the top 100 performing companies in SA. They include life assurance, short-term insurance, furniture retailers, banks, etc.
HYPHEN facilitates straight through processing of payment and collection transactions from a client's own line of business system regardless of payment streams, eg EFT, cheques, payroll collection, etc. It also facilitates the automated reconciliation of clients' bank accounts and via integrated methodologies, is able to update clients' systems without manual intervention being required.
Clients provide Hyphen with files or messages containing debit order or other payment instruction, which HYPHEN processes via IBM's Websphere MQ. Hyphen makes use of middleware products to process transactions and to ensure guaranteed delivery.
"We started with FTP (File Transfer Protocol) as the carrier for the transactions, but because of its many points of failure, we needed a suitable replacement technology that would simplify the process," says Kirstie van den Berg, Manager of IT Research and Development at HYPHEN.
Says Alex Steyn, MD of CommerceQuest SA, the local reseller: "Data Integrator is an excellent replacement for FTP-based solutions as well as other third-party movement solutions which are often difficult to maintain and lacking in integration capabilities." Van den Berg says: "CommerceQuest's Data Integrator 4.0 offers a powerful and proven data movement solution for WebSphere MQ Data Integrator manages all interaction with MQ and moves files between platforms handling file type differences automatically. Status of data movement is collected in detail and presented for audit and control. Data Integrator offered us a unique solution, and we have suggested it as a replacement for FTP for all our clients."
The JD Group was HYPHEN's first client to use the new solution. Hannes van Achterbergh, IT support manager at JD Group, says the solution has saved him many headaches. "Previously, it could take up to six hours to transfer the required debit order details to HYPHEN, and up to two days to receive confirmations from HYPHEN. This has been cut down to three minutes for each transfer, constituting a 120-fold improvement. In addition, downtime on the system is virtually non-existent," he says.
"Data Integrator has delivered more than I expected, and I strongly doubt the possibility of finding a better product. The solution is stable and fast," says Van Achterbergh.
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