A Case for Case360
Reviewing your Case360 Deployment
By Mark Knaus, Senior BPM Consultant
The Java-based Case360 Management software from OpenText may no longer be at the forefront of the solutions they provide but there are still many customers out there successfully running on the platform. With the ability to manage a combination of different business processes in an unstructured manner by providing a virtual folder, or ‘case’, businesses can reign in structured processes, unstructured processes, and even ad-hoc, on demand processes. By allowing a case to connect various data elements and content into a single view by account number, client, or groups of clients, Case360 provides visibility and control, even if you don’t know the particular outcome of a process.
This is what separates Case360 from most other BPM or BPA platforms. By allowing users to fire off independent processes from a main case folder without the benefit of a predefined workflow OR using a predefined workflow from the same case folder, Case360 allows organizations to quickly and efficiently react to day to day business requirements.
Even Legacy Systems Need Love
When Case360 is properly tuned, it performs quite well but over time you may see a degradation of performance. Things your users could be seeing are things like:
Longer load times for the Case360 case folder;
Longer retrieval times for content referenced within the folder;
Log files that have repeated errors but are cryptic and hard to pinpoint;
Users with sudden access to documents and data they shouldn’t be able to access;
Unmonitored storage locations that run out of space with no warning.
If your system is having issues with any of the above, your system performance is either suffering or you are opening yourself up to future problems until these issues are unresolved.
All of these issues are related to internal items that need to be examined. For example:
Unauthorized system access relates to the Case360 user roles and ACLs (access control lists);
Longer retrieval times are probably an indicator of non-optical query syntax and ordering;
Longer load times for the Case folder point to missing recommended database indexes.
There are a myriad of other things to look at like FMS tables and field, menus, scripts, query bindings and preprocessing syntax. Just because a system may be considered legacy, it doesn’t mean it’s easy or less complex than today’s system.
Take it in for a Checkup
We have found that going into your Case360 system with the proper tools that allow for a rapid and comprehensive audit of the Case360 infrastructure can help resolve current issues and prevent existing ones. Not only should all administrative settings be reviewed and optimized, but other areas like security assessments, deployment practices, source code reviews, and database optimizations can make your Case360 system run smoother, faster, and elongate the overall life of your system.
But clients shouldn’t stop there. In our experience, we find that internal resources end up “inheriting” older systems and other than surface level exposure to it, don’t really know anything more. Training or knowledge transfer sessions from people who are experienced with Case360 is very important. It’s also possible that your system is due for an upgrade which is possible. Even though Case360 is older, OpenText still releases updates and upgrades to it. The new features within Case360 could help either resolve an existing issue, provide more security and/or provide new features to help address business needs.
Areas that need to be addressed include but are not limited to the following areas depending on how much time you commit to the analysis:
Admin toolbox configurations for queries, menus, fields, scripts, Filestore, Casefolder, Process, and Form data, user roles and ACLs, system metrics, cache, etc;
Performance – database indexes and query turning, user interface calls;
Testing – identification of development test schedules and tool selection, functional testing, failure testing, etc.;
Project team organization – roles, responsibilities, skills and training;
Upgrade considerations.
All of this should be included in a proper audit of your Case360 implementation and perhaps even deeper dives as the above will expose things that require even more analysis and optimization.
Legacy Shouldn’t Be Ignored
So while a Case360 system may be considered “legacy,” the support and optimization of the system shouldn’t be. ClearCadence feels that as long as the system you have in place is meeting the needs of your business for now and in the immediate future, there is no real reason to change but there is a need to make sure that system is running it’s best.
We can not only provide you with the information you need to on how your system is performing but also provide the expertise to tune it, train people on it or provide development or support resources to further strengthen it.
Mark Knaus is a Senior BPM Consultant at ClearCadence, specializing in Java EE based applications and solutions for Business Process Management and Automation (BPM/BPA) and Enterprise Content Management (ECM).
ClearCadence has a long track record of assisting customers with analyzing, planning, designing, and implementing solutions. Visit the link below for more information about our organization.
