NonStop CEOs have their say – Ron Thompson, CAIL

In this month’s issue of Nonstop Insider we feature CAIL CEO, Ron Thompson, and we asked him to expand on topics previously addressed by TCM Managing Director, Tony Craig. As expected, Ron provides insights on NonStop from the platform perspective as well as suggestions to increase NonStop appeal in the enterprise.  In conjunction with this, an important goal is to build on the technical nature of those in the NonStop community by engaging more with other platform groups in their organization and be pro-active in new initiatives to improve business outcomes, compliance, standards, etc.  This is important to expand opportunities – for NonStop and all of us in the community.

What is the business of CAIL and what do you do in the NonStop community?

In the NonStop community, CAIL is in the business of enabling organizations get more value and benefits from their significant investment in information technology www.cail.com/adapt

In the enterprise, CAIL enables organizations improve outcomes through “Business Innovation ” initiatives – with new products / services / revenues / etc.    –  www.cail.com/mob-inno

With this, the focus is delivering results quickly, providing a great User Experience (UX), and better managing change to reduce the risk and cost of evolving information services and extending business capabilities.

What have you learnt about NonStop this year that has you excited for the future of NonStop?

At CAIL we like vNonStop and the on-going HPE efforts to support standards – inside and outside the box.

Extending on this, we look forward to further initiatives and collaboration to make NonStop more integral in enterprise IT infrastructure and leverage NonStop fundamentals with Partner solutions to provide more business benefits for Clients.

What is the status of your work with NonStop X? And, do you see NonStop customers planning to upgrade to NonStop X?

CAIL software has been ported to NonStop X so Customers have more choices for system access, security and to modernize information services.  Examples of this are at  www.cail.com/modern.

From a business perspective,  being client-centric and platform agnostic, CAIL is about making it easy to get information (regardless of the system), providing seamless information services for a better User Experience, enabling IT Technical personnel to readily accommodate change, and delivering results quickly,

Extending on this, with HPE and all Partners having a vested interest in NonStop delivering superior value and capability, we have an opportunity to build the business and increase  NonStop profile in organizations.  This is critical to expanding NonStop relevance and revenue.

For example, with Reflection [integrated CAIL / Micro Focus (formerly Attachmate)] software at the desktop, Users can simultaneously see information from all platforms (i.e. NonStop, Mainframe, Midrange, etc. systems) on their screen.  As a result, leveraging information associated with their NonStop mission critical systems along with platform  fast response, scalability,  and  “ always on “ characteristics  – can be very  impressive.

These optics are important to Users with a direct impact on perceived system value to the business and relevance to personnel in performing their tasks. Based on the above NonStop attributes and that Users can easily compare results from all platforms, this increases awareness of the benefits with NonStop.  And having a single icon on the screen, with NonStop included in the “ Standard for Host Access “, NonStop has greater appeal by being more integral in enterprise IT infrastructure. Because of this, Users have a greater appreciation of NonStop with Reflection and NonStop has a higher profile in the organization.

What role do you anticipate seeing for the new Virtualized NonStop within the traditional NonStop community? Will you be ready?

vNonStop is important – from a technology as well as a business perspective since NonStop can be more integral in enterprise IT infrastructure,  support a strategic technology,  and deliver greater value for Customers.

Extending on this, since Corporate Executives in Client organizations have a business agenda, for the platform to have more appeal, there is a need to show Nonstop relevance to improve business outcomes.

If HPE has a compelling business value proposition, the probability of success is high.  If not, success will probably be elusive in terms of unit shipments, presence in the market, etc.

Because of this, and the need to move beyond the “NonStop Technology Life Cycle Selling Model” that has been used for years, hopefully the “Case for NonStop as a Business and Strategic Solution” will emerge.