Can someone recommend a data analysis tool that comfortably handles all
the nuances of COBOL VSAM files ( occurs clauses, redefines and packed
fields). The ideal tool would be able to manipulate the source file
after it has been converted from EBCIDEC to ASCII and transferred from
the mainframe platform without any COBOL pre processing.


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Posted via http://dbforums.com

Check out WebFOCUS from Information Builders
(www.informationbuilders.com).

It natively supports VSAM including occurs, redefines, packed fields,
multi-record structures, etc. Also, once you moved the data from VSAM
on the mainframe to a flat file on some other platform (Windows/Unix),
you can still use the same basic definition to read and process the
file there if you want to.

Check out the website, contact us or feel free to post questions to
http://businessintelligence.ittoolbo...TIONBUILDERS-L


Kyle Hachey
Information Builders

mpoteat <member39164 (AT) dbforums (DOT) com> wrote

"mpoteat" <member39164 (AT) dbforums (DOT) com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:3358219.1063293894 (AT) dbforums (DOT) com...

Hi,

an alternative might be tools which are able to extract data from host
systems, called ETL (extract, transform, load) - tools from various vendors.
With this tools you load data into a consolidated data store (data base)
which builds the foundation for analysis tools (front-ends). Some vendors
offer analytic engines, too, some only ETL-functionality. Business Objects
is a vendor who offers both, like Informatica (ETL vendor with tools for
Analysis) or SAS (End-to-End data warehouse vendor). Some of the vendors
like BO, Hummigbird, Informatica use connection technology from Striva to
connect to host systems. You might have a look for vendors who have a
partnership with Striva since BO and Informatica a among the strongest (and
most expensive) ETL-vendors. Ascential offers connectivity to host systems,
too. Ascential has a strong focus on ETL only.

These vendors don't offer direct reporting on VSAM though.

Kind regards,

Joerg

Recent announcements from Informatica indicate that Striva might soon be
integrated into its software.
J.