Solving iseries to Excel Report Conversion Issues Effective Reporting and Document Management for iseries and Business Professionals

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1 Solving iseries to Excel Report Conversion Issues Effective Reporting and Document Management for iseries and Business Professionals ASYMEX SPOOLIT- FLAWLESS DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT NEW YORK LONDON MELBOURNE

2 Solving iseries to Excel Report Conversion Issues Page 2 Insight for the Executive By mastering the solutions detailed here you can control your organisation's reporting workflow and document management instead of being at the mercy of it. Managing document information workflow is the significant issue effecting and limiting performance across the entire organisation. Executives and Information Managers who understand this gain a crucial insight, understanding its impact on the ability to create immediate market reactivity, on workforce contribution and on the flexibility to confidently make decisions to reorganize resources. This paper accesses our experiences with organisations that lead the way in creating dynamic iseries communications this can show you the way powerful organisations such as Nike, Emirates, Panasonic iseries Conversion Issues: 1. Formatting: Removing column headings and blank lines 2. Formatting: Correcting column sizes from Excel 3. Formatting: Converting negative numbers 4. Data mining: conditional selection of spool file rows 5. Automation: distribution and SOX report archiving and Fuji who seek through document management superior competitive advantage, customer service, quality management and regulatory compliance. For them as for you, access to knowledge is power - information clutter is risk. Critically, this whitepaper solves the issues that constrain your organisation from leading the charge, and importantly how to do so with your current iseries infrastructure.. If you can identify with the symptoms here you and your organisation are being unnecessarily retarded: Are you suffering from late, confusing or poorly communicated reporting workflows? Is there no way to instantly get documents and reports from your iseries or document archives? Frustrated by the hours of administration required to formatting spool files in the correct formats such as Excel and Word or are you the person waiting for this to happen for you? Is information lost, poorly presented or the workaround to tedious to be practical? Are resources being wasted on printing hard copies for distribution and archiving? Notice how your ability to strategically deliver information and document management control is restricted by these symptoms thankfully the root causes are known and this paper shows how to navigate and resolve them right now. Clearer reporting and document management on customer behaviour, resource activity and financial information will boost your business performance markedly. Conversion Issues Converting iseries reports into common PC software packages (such as Excel, Word, PDF, , HTML etc) poses the most significant restriction on your organisations straight through workflow process. If you use Excel you know how powerful it can be analyse numeric data and to present information in a clear and concise fashion. The iseries problem is that the data inside your reports is not immediately accessible to your Excel spreadsheets. Main financial reports are often generated into iseries spool files, and frequently these cannot effectively be modified in house. Organisations invest heavily in generating accurate business application software, you should not have to fundamentally change your infrastructure to convert reports into Excel, to select only the data you need and then to automate the process. Locating and removing unneeded information eats up time information such as blank lines, column headings, page breaks and end report totals. In addition, negative numbers can get converted into text fields and you will need to correct them. Besides wasting time, your report manipulation is prone to error and you risk destroying the integrity of the reports. SpooliT understands the solutions to the causes of document management problems. SpooliT enables companies to download, archive and reformat spool files into PC formats, automatically distributing iseries reports electronically. This cuts through the report confusion and resolves the issues that arise when your organisation relies on exporting iseries reports into Excel and other formats. This white paper investigates how to overcome the top 5 restrictions to efficient information document performance.

3 Solving iseries to Excel Report Conversion Issues Page 3 Issue 1 - Removing column headings & blank lines The greatest problem you face when exporting an iseries/as400 spool file into an Excel spreadsheet is that the layout and formatting information also accompanies the data you need. The data needed to make the spool file easy to read renders the spreadsheet unusable when it is exported into Excel. You can solve the problem with a lot of manual editing going through each page and row of the spreadsheet to delete lines containing page headers, totals, blank lines, level breaks, etc. The Solution: Removing column headings and blank lines When exporting to Excel, you can easily remove unwanted column headings, blank lines, and sub-total lines from reports using SpooliT SpooliT uses a method known as Templates to define rules of how an iseries or AS400 report should be imported into Excel. There are two main ways of removing unneeded rows: Omission Rules or Selection Rules. Omission Rules: These rules are defined to automatically tell the software to not export report lines into Excel when they contain certain text strings. This is the simplest way of ensuring unwanted lines are omitted from the Excel spreadsheet. For example, Total lines that may look very similar in structure and position to the detail lines that are required can be removed using the omission rule. To do this, the user simply drags and drops to highlight a unique text string in the row that they wish to omit. They are then prompted to create a row omission rule for their Template. The SpooliT software also allows for the creation of an explicit selection rule which functions in an opposite manner to the omission rule that might be needed to select rows that are being otherwise dropped (this feature would allow for the function of omitting all rows containing a particular text string except where they contain a certain value). Another omission rule may allow certain types of lines such as blank lines to be automatically dropped. Using SpooliT, you can eliminate blank lines by specifying a parameter value on the template used to convert the spool file to Excel. You do this by simply checking a box to Ignore blank lines in Spool File when selecting template properties. Selection Rules: You can define rules which map specific lines from the reports to be imported into Excel using SpooliT the software is intelligent enough to recognise lines based on the definitions you have created. Figure 1: SpooliT template P column definitions

4 Solving iseries to Excel Report Conversion Issues Page 4 In the example above, columns of data that are needed in Excel can be defined and the SpooliT software is smart enough to drop lines that don t match the ones required. For example, the template rule has defined that an Order Quantity value starts in column 70. SpooliT will then automatically drop any report lines that do not have a numeric value or blanks in this specified column position. This will prevent column headings and page headings from being imported into Excel. With the correct row omission and selection information specified, only the desired rows are imported into Excel. This eliminates the time-consuming process of manually checking spreadsheets each time spool files are imported into Excel and deleting the unneeded lines. Issue 2 Formatting columns correctly into Excel There are a number of problems caused by the restrictive and rigid nature of the traditional methods used to dump spool files into Excel. These are: 1. The Excel Text Import Wizard format cannot be saved and your specifications must be reentered each time you import data once you start your next Excel session. 2. You cannot automatically drop columns of data you get everything that was contained in the originating data. 3. You cannot change the order of the columns of data imported they must initially be imported in the same order as the originating data source. 4. The Excel cell types are defaulted to General, so any text fields that contain numbers will be treated as numeric and right aligned. You can spend a lot of time making format edits to an Excel spreadsheet. This is also the case when you have to recreate report definitions each time you import similar data into Excel. SpooliT offers simple solutions to these problems. The Solution: Formatting columns correctly into Excel SpooliT allows you to specify rules or a saved definition of how to import data for a particular report type into Excel. 1. You need to be able to save your Excel import definitions. SpooliT allows you to define a set of rules to map data from a particular spool file type into Excel, and then save these rules as an Excel Template. You can save the Templates externally to the SpooliT application as.tpl files (a proprietary format) that can then be shared among other users of the software. 2. A good spool file management solution will also allow you to define rules about which columns you want to import into Excel. You should be able to define different views over a single report, depending on what elements of the report you wish to focus on. This will essentially allow you to pick and choose which information from the report you want. Removing unneeded information allows the report message to be more clearly expressed. Within the SpooliT application you can achieve this by simply selecting which columns are required with the Template definition. Once the template is defined, it can be used each time a new source spool file is created, remembering the rules about how the report should look when imported into Excel. 3. Once you have defined the rules about which columns of data you want imported into Excel, changing the sort sequence or order in which they are imported into Excel is simple. A good spool file management solution should either allow you to select which columns within Excel the source data should be imported into (i.e. explicitly choosing columns A or B or C, etc) or should allow you to change the sequence relative to the other columns that you have selected. In SpooliT, this is achieved using the latter option. That is, you can re-order columns within your template rules before the data is imported into Excel. The columns of data can then be automatically inserted into Excel in the required sequence.

5 Solving iseries to Excel Report Conversion Issues Page 5 4. It is important to be able to choose the field type of the destinations column within Excel. This allows for text fields to be aligned correctly and for special fields (like date fields) to be imported automatically into an immediately usable format without further manipulation. A good spool file management solution should allow you to define and save the destination field types for your Excel spreadsheet. With SpooliT, each column defined with the Excel Template can have its field type set to any valid Excel type. No further editing is required. Issue 3 Converting negative no. s without Administration Negative numbers are one of the more challenging aspects of importing reports created on the AS400/iSeries into Excel. In AS400 and iseries reports, negative numbers normally have the negative symbol formatted on to the right hand side of the field. For example: $2, or $2,000.05CR In Microsoft Excel, negative numbers are formatted with the negative symbol on the left hand side of the field. For example: -$ When you convert a negative number from an iseries or AS400 report using traditional means, the resulting field is treated as a text field in Excel. This means that your normal numeric functions such as Sum will ignore this value. Normally, the only way to correct this problem is to read through the excel spreadsheet after importing the AS400 or iseries report and then manually converting each field to a negative numeric. This is not only time consuming, but also creates a risk of human error, which can compromise the integrity of the data in the spreadsheet. The Solution: Convert negative numbers Automatically Any good document management software that allows conversion of AS400 or iseries reports to Excel should automatically convert negative numbers formatted with the negative symbol to the right of the last decimal place to a true negative number. Formatting negative numbers with SpooliT is as simple as defining the field width within the Excel Template function to include one or two characters to the right of the last decimal place in the numeric field. Figure 2: Selecting a negative column in SpooliT P When this field above is imported into Excel the resulting spreadsheet for this column should look like the following: Figure 3: Negative numbers correctly formatted into Excel

6 Solving iseries to Excel Report Conversion Issues Page 6 Not only has this saved the time and cost of having to manually edit the resulting spreadsheet, but the possibility of user error has also been eliminated. Issue 4 Data mining: conditional selection of specific rows You generally import data from iseries/as400 reports into Excel to further analyse information (for example, applying formulas), or to present the information in a more visually pleasing manner such as graphing or formatting. Reports created on the iseries/as400 are often very large and try to accomplish everything. The iseries/as400 systems are regularly used to store large amount of data, and the batch windows and CPU usage often dictates how many reports can be produced. Downloading large reports into Excel can be counterproductive as the spreadsheets become difficult to use and formulas slow down. An iseries/as400 query can be done to refine the data selection, but most occasional users of the iseries/as400 may not have the in-depth knowledge to do this. Many reports may also be built up from data from multiples files (again a reasonably complex option with query to define for the average user). In addition, some reports can only be created at certain times of the day, due to time or CPU limitations, or the availability of certain component data. Purchasing a dedicated EIS or data mining system and using a data warehouse is a possible solution, and there are many occasions when this is necessary. However, such systems are expensive and complicated to set up, and usually require significant user training. This may be overkill if you simply want to filter report data by a limited set of data. The other solution is to let SpooliT do it for you. The Solution: Data mining: conditional selection of rows The logical place to apply conditional selection of data into Excel is when the information is extracted from the source spool files. With SpooliT, you can be control this when columns are selected within Templates. You can define different templates over the same spool file, allowing for different views over the same data with different data mining attributes. For instance, one template may select only invoice lines greater than a certain value while another may select invoices for a particular customer or product. By using a simple graphical interface, end users can define their own views over reports without the need for iseries/as400 Query training or even access to the iseries/as400, let alone training on a dedicated MIS/EIS system. The same product that delivers their information formatted into Excel can also be used to conditionally select the data they need. This also eliminates the need to run additional reports on your iseries/as400 the Super report that does everything for everyone can finally be used as it was intended. This is a win/win solution for both your business and IT users alike. The business can now deliver the information needed into Excel in a timely fashion they can change their minds and try different combinations without the time and cost of raising IT work requests. From an IT point of view this means less pressure to support business requests to extract different combinations of data and less pressure on the iseries/as400 to run additional report combinations. IT can concentrate on areas that deliver other benefits to your organisation. This solution leads to the following question: if the ultimate destination of a report is into Excel, why spend the time creating a programmed report on the iseries/as400 that presents the information in a pretty fashion? You can simply dump a physical file with query into a query out file. This can then be imported with SpooliT using an Excel Template. The template will data mine the required information

7 Solving iseries to Excel Report Conversion Issues Page 7 into Excel and format it in the way the user requires. You can create a new report in minutes, rather than days or weeks using the traditional software development cycle. Issue 5 Automation: Distribution and SOX Report Archiving SOX compliance means companies must view this as an area of strategic risk. Traditional methods for distribution and archival of reports produce a number of obvious inefficiencies and error: Issues with Distribution of Reports It takes time to print reports, collate and distribute the hardcopy to the required destination. The unpredictable nature of ad-hoc requests may put demand on printing resources as peak times and delay distribution of hardcopy to users. Larger reports may tie up printer for prolonged periods Paper, toner cartridges, printer ribbons, printer upgrades and maintenance, power and operator s time to support follow up calls and to make sure user use reports Issues with Archiving Reports It takes time to file reports; it takes time to locate them when you need to refer back to them. SOX mandates that organization make sure archiving is effective Hardcopy takes up space, and space costs money Staff must also support requests for copies of archived reports Hardcopy does not provide the most ideal backup. It is costly to duplicate, and/or move off-site and requires a higher degree of physical security SpooliT works by automating the formatting and distribution process, in the process it can place documents in a secure and easily accessible archive structure the most impressive function we ve seen. The Solution: Full Automation: Distribution & Archiving The only thing you ll need to do is maintain your user lists as people come and go and if new reports are created you may need to apply new categorization rules. SpooliT will automatically monitor your Outqs and automatically distribute and archive reports as they are created on your iseries or AS400 machine. Your users may receive their reports distributed to them electronically in real time and in the format they need Word, Excel, PDF, HTML, Text or RTF. With no n operator invention set and forget! The final step is creating the automated jobs within SpooliT to automatically apply the distribution and archiving rules that you have just created. Create a scheduled job SpooliT allows you to create and maintain jobs or tasks that run automatically. These jobs could involve automatically archiving certain Printer Queues from your iseries computer, or automatically ing reports, or clear folders on your PC, perform iseries housekeeping or, in fact, just about any task that you perform manually using SpooliT can be automated. For the purposes of this discussion we will focus on just the archive option Step 1: Select the "Scheduled Jobs" tab within SpooliT and either highlight the Archive under which you wish to associate jobs and select the icon from the Toolbar, or the "New" option from the "File" menu, or right click the Archive and select the "Job" option from the "New" menu on the pop-up menu that appears. After selecting the "Job" option you will be prompted to select a job frequency, or how often the job will run the options are, once & always, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or yearly Enter the timing for your job, and then select the "Next" button to continue. When automating real time distribution and archiving you would normally set up an Always job. This allows SpooliT to constantly monitor the desired Outqs and distribute and/or archive spool files as they are created in the most timely manner possible.

8 Solving iseries to Excel Report Conversion Issues Page 8 Step 3: SpooliT will then prompt you to enter the job properties. SpooliT provides 10 job options that you can define for your job. You can set any or all of the job options for a single job, and you can set the sequence in which the job options will run. You navigate through each of the 10 job options by selecting the appropriate job option tab. Once you have defined a job option, the tab will display a red "tick" beside the tab description (as above). Step 4: Define your choice of job options below (in our case, Archiving ): This option allows you to perform an archiving function on your choice of iseries Printer Queue. You may indicate that you wish SpooliT to delete the Spool Files once the operation is complete. You may select the iseries computer along with the Printer Queue that contains the Spool Files then select the destination drive for the archive for the operation. You may subset or filter the files that SpooliT considers for this operation based on the dates. If you select "All reports" then SpooliT will not filter or subset ANY of the reports. Step 5: Your job has now been set up. You may revisit these options for your job at any time by selecting the job properties. You may now "Start Jobs" or "Stop Jobs" from the "Scheduled Jobs" option within the "Tools" menu. With your SpooliT job running, reports will be automatically archived, categorized and distributed electronically to your users in real-time! Solve more issues of exporting iseries spool files into Excel SpooliT can also to solve the following common issues which are not covered in this white paper: Handling spool files that are too big for Excel Saving spool file run parameters into Excel Adding graphing and special formatting Re-using and sharing your Excel format definitions Automated real-time distribution of spool files into Excel via or intranet. SpooliT have made a decision to work with you to identify the sources of iseries/as400 document management issues in that way we create a better way to manage the emerging issues which retard the performance of true information systems professionals and foster greater reporting flexibility. There are other significant benefits to be extolled across your entire organisation including: Boosting productivity by automating workflow Improving customer service responsiveness Eliminating paper shuffling and duplication Reducing paper, postage and storage costs Integrating existing business applications Decreasing data loss and misfiling occurrences Tracking, searching and logging work history abilities throughout Offering an instant and measurable ROI with zero implementation disruption

9 Solving iseries to Excel Report Conversion Issues Page 9 How to identify if your organisation needs assistance to convert and automate Spool file reports into Excel After looking at the top 5 issues of converting iseries/as400 spool files into Excel, you might ask yourself if a Spool file document management software is what you and your business needs to overcome iseries communication and document management issues. The following questions can allow you to survey your peers to help you determine how your organisation is affected by the issues of converting spool file reports to Excel and broader iseries reporting issues. Inside the IT Department: 1. Do you currently have a system for simply converting spool file reports into Excel? 2. How much time is spent each month fulfilling special requests to convert reports to Excel? 3. Do you have problems converting spool files into Excel? 4. How much time is spent each month printing, collating, monitoring and distributing hardcopies of iseries reports? 5. What is the approximate monthly cost of printing these reports, including paper and printer consumables; printer maintenance and upgrades? 6. Have errors been made when manually removing unneeded information or correcting negative numbers when converting to Excel? 7. Would your company benefit if you had more time to mine data? A Survey to Management: 1. Are you able to request reports that provide the information you need? Are they provided in a timely fashion? 2. What is the approximate cost of printing all these reports? 3. Are hard copies format needed or would it be better to distribute electronically? 4. Would the report information be more useful if converted into Excel Word, PDF, or HTML? 5. What is the cost of archiving and retrieving hard copy reports? 6. What advantages could we gain if we had automatic report distribution? Issues for Report Users: 1. Do you really need the hard copies of the iseries reports you receive? 2. Would it be better to receive these reports electronically in Excel, Word, PDF, or HTML? 3. Are the reports your need provided in timely and efficient manner? 4. Are you able to request reports that provide the information you need? Note: A SpooliT representative may follow up you and your organisation to enquire about the results of your pop survey and how you are currently navigating a way to overcome the constraints to your document management and report manipulation. This enables our developers to be razor focused on the issues facing information managers in today s world and allows our team to discuss the resolutions to your issues more specifically.

10 Solving iseries to Excel Report Conversion Issues Page 10 Conclusions for iseries Spool File to Excel Report Conversion You can now understand that you can spend significant financial and human resources accessing, formatting, printing and scheduling the distribution of iseries reports. Despite the significant time and cost you still might not achieve the optimal result as printing iseries reports does not allow for further analysis and manipulation or provide a visually appealing format readily available in Excel. The alternatives of printing out reports; create unnecessary waste and manual conversion is both timeconsuming and subject to human error. There are third-party solutions that solve these conversion problems. One of these is SpooliT a,, document management software designed to enable you to download, archive and reformat spool files into PC formats, then distribute iseries reports electronically automatically. More specifically, SpooliT is designed to solve the frustrating issues that arise when you export spool files into Excel, Word, PDF, HTML and other more useable formats. This white paper presents only a portion of the technical issues the SpooliT technology has overcome. In an effort to get a better idea of how your organisation, and the capabilities which arise with professional document management technology, we will follow up soon with specific case studies showing how the software has helped particular businesses and provided an immediate return on investment. If you would like to comment on the whitepaper produced by Asymex please info@asymex.com If you would like detailed information on SpooliT please visit the Asymex website at Alternatively lodge a call on the Asymex 24/7 International Support Line