The Automatic System Facility › ASF in the Corporate Environment › ASF in the Information Center

ASF in the Information Center

For All Users

The information center addresses the need for end-user computing. The information center products, illustrated in the following figure provide end users with the ability to:

• Develop database applications themselves, without going through the data processing department.
• Share information among personal computers, departmental computers, and mainframe computers.

  

Managing the Information Center

The Information Center Management System (CA-ICMS) is a mainframe software product for managing the corporate information center. ASF is an integral component of this information center system and is the primary data definition tool for the information center.

Easy Access to Information

Data is a corporate resource. Managers and other decision-making personnel need access to production data in order to make informed decisions. Through ASF, an information center administrator can define views of production data that can be downloaded to a personal computer, providing managers and other decision-making personnel with immediate access to current data through supported PC software.

All Users Develop Applications

Information center users can take advantage of the mainframe's computing power by developing database applications through ASF. Data can be stored centrally in the database and shared by all users. CA Culprit and CA OLQ provide users with mainframe reporting capabilities while supported PC software can provide PC users other types of report capabilities.