How can job scheduling software A-AUTO help your business? -A real story A travel insurance company in Japan had been using a task manager to run batch jobs. When one job precedes another, an operator set the time for the succeeding job to begin by estimating the end time of the preceding job. The task manager seemed to work fine, because the company had to operate only two jobs on each of three systems. However, since reaching a specified time was the only trigger for beginning the succeeding job, idle time between jobs caused a loss of efficiency. Moreover, in the company's first ski season, more data had to be processed, and some jobs took three times as long as usual. This could cause the succeeding job to start before the preceding job ends. Such overlap could have a crucial impact on the company's mission-critical task. To address the problem, the company's systems department decided to adopt a job scheduling system. One reason why they chose A-AUTO over other products was its history: It had been used for over 30 years by more than 700 companies, including major insurance companies in Japan. Cost was another important factor in the choice: The initial cost was 30% less than that of other job scheduling software. Implementing A-AUTO solved the company's problems with batch management. Moreover, because jobs are executed automatically, the possibility of human error inherent in manual processes was eliminated, and the reliability of job execution was increased. And because A-AUTO traces every operation, it leaves an audit trail. The high expandability of A-AUTO helps in adapting as the company and its systems grow. Today, A-AUTO's ability to integrate batch management across different platforms, for various applications, from information systems to mission-critical systems, is supporting the company's effort to maximize performance, reliability, and efficiency.