COLD System Integration

The Challenge: Streamline Archiving Large Quantities of Disparate Print Files

If you are responsible for building and/or running your organization's COLD (Computer Output to Laser Disk) system, here are some of the challenges you may be facing:

Many of the documents may not be compatible with the format adopted for COLD archiving and you may lack transforms to convert them
Your organization may want to archive its business data so that it is fully searchable and ready for retrieval and display, and/or printing
It may be required that the data be archived in separate entities - reports, branch oriented sections, individual customer statements, etc.
For some storage media (DVDs or CD-ROMs) you may need to limit the total size of stored files while making sure all stored files are complete
Your organization may need to archive very large numbers of small files. You know that it is difficult to manage such quantities of small files in most of the existing file systems. You want the COLD archive to store the collected data in large, aggregate files that are easier to manage
You may need to extract print files from z/OS JES2 or JES3 spools and transmit them to the appropriate server for COLD archiving
You may want to archive the print data in its original format, complete with print directives such as paper tray calls and finishing equipment instructions for reprint purposes, but you may also need to allow users to view the information in a standard web browser without increasing disk storage significantly

Our PRO Suite can help you overcome those challenges.

The Solution: Let PRO Suite Fill the Gaps in Your COLD System

Regardless of print architecture (AFP, PostScript, PCL, Xerox LCDS/metacode) and platform (z/OS, UNIX or Windows), the PRO Suite of products can be used to extend the capabilities of most COLD systems.

In addition, many of our partners have fully integrated our technology into COLD systems, providing a wide range of alternatives to meet every organizational requirement.

The CrawfordTech solutions are modular, flexible and extensible. They provide capabilities such as:

Conversion from one format to another
Extraction of information from print files to XML, CSV or other formats
Splitting large print file into smaller files based on user requirements
Indexing pages within print files
Creation of compressed archives from any print stream format
Retrieval for reprint purposes
Interactive viewing of documents from web browsers
Enhancement and tailoring of documents

Convert Print Data to Match the COLD Format

CrawfordTech PRO transforms can convert print files from any of the following formats: AFP, Xerox LCDS and metacode, PCL, Postscript and PDF.

Our PRO transforms to Image can easily convert any print stream format into TIFF or PNG files, widely used in archiving.

CrawfordTech PRO transforms create HTML or PDF files that contain text and images, instead of full page images as files generated by many other products.

PRO transforms make it easy to bridge legacy print applications into new and/or future architectures.

Index Even the Most Complex Data to Make it Fully Searchable

To make the COLD archived data fully searchable and easily retrievable, it needs to be properly indexed. PRO Indexer provides a reliable and robust way to get even very complex data from the print files faithfully.

The print files can be line data, AFP, Xerox metacode or LCDS, PDF, PostScript or PCL and the platforms include z/OS, UNIX and Windows.

With the PRO Indexer, a designer can define the extraction rules for each section using whatever algorithm works best for that particular section. Since many sections can run from one page to the next and can begin or end in many different ways, a scripting capability makes it possible to extract even the most challenging data reliably and achieve customized solutions.

Split Data into User-specific Files or for Intelligent File Size Management

Regardless of print architecture (AFP, PostScript, PCL, Xerox LCDS/metacode) and platform (Z/OS, UNIX or Windows), the PRO Splitter can satisfy a number of crucial requirements:

Separate reports
Split reports into small files targeted at individual users
Split large print data files into region, agent- or broker-oriented sections
Enable intelligent splitting for file size management

Extract & Transmit with PRO JES to FTP, a Powerful COLD Utility for z/OS Systems

Our PRO JES to FTP product is a very good tool for COLD system integration in a mainframe environment. PRO JES to FTP automatically selects output from z/OS JES2 or JES3 spools for transmission over FTP protocol to target FTP sites. Output can be selected from the spool based on a variety of criteria. There is no need to modify the application JCL procedures

The target sites can include COLD systems, print servers, imaging systems, disaster recovery systems and outsource services systems, running on any platform that supports FTP. Print files can be in the following print stream formats: line print data, Xerox LCDS and metacode, AFP, PostScript, PCL or in any other format.

Users of PRO Suite components for COLD solutions include insurance companies, utilities and financial institutions.