As a partner with IBM Products, using the software subroutines and tools written in our healthcare Patient Accounting and Medical Records systems, I can take advantage of integration technology and communication with other systems.  These other systems may be within the mainframe environment, or it may be running on another software and operating system platform.

I perform routine Quality Assurance (QA) functional testing and retrieve our third-party software tools via access using IBM Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) to a server to process my claims.

I can verify my results with the software changes on the server against our software on the mainframe system.    The IBM subroutines to use TCP/IP is the way we communicate with other systems within and outside of our network of products inhouse.

As regulatory updates arrive weekly, I review changes to our mainframe system and may need to update the third-party software toolkit on the server.  After applying the newest updates, I perform my export and ensure the system sends the latest regulatory version updates with the correct result to the mainframe system and the associated test cases.    

With each step in my process, I am confirming that the software can work together and ensure what we have running and written for the hospital Patient Accounting system.

In the event there is an issue that has been identified, we may need to rerun the TCPI/IP communication protocol again and re-execute the testing steps.     

The communication using TCP/IP is seamless and runs as requested.

These IBM tools are fast and handle error processing to alert the technical team when there are potential issues before we continue onto the next step in testing.     

The advantage of being able to work with a third-party software system that is not written using mainframe-based technology, can stay with its own software standards and integrate with the mainframe is incredible.  It has become clearer that mainframe computing can continue to live in a world of new software platforms and still run as efficiently as it did 50 years ago.    

By Gwen Moy, Business Analyst with Ventus Altera Digital Health