People often want to know how current the data on their SEQUEL dashboard is. To answer this question, you can add a Run Date/Time or System Date/Time time stamp to the dashboard. This article offers a couple of different ways to do this.

Use a SEQUEL View for a System i time stamp
You can use a simple SEQUEL View to display the reserved values Current Date and Current Time from the System i:

SELECT current date COLHDG(”Run Date”), current time COLHDG(”Run Time”)

FROM sqlexec

If I need to re-use a tape before its original expiration date, can I expire it manually in Robot/SAVE?
Yes, Robot/SAVE lets you expire a tape manually. Go to the Save Media Management Menu and select option 2 (By Volume Name). Locate the volume that you want to expire and enter a 9 next to the volume. A warning displays that the volume and its history will be removed. Press Enter to remove the history and expire the tape.

Yes! Here’s how to set up business intelligence quickly and cost-effectively.

During the development of a typical business intelligence solution, you gather user requirements, catalog existing data elements, identify the new data elements for the data warehouse, and make your hardware selections. You create procedures and programs to reformat, redefine, summarize, and transfer the data to data warehouse files. You define dimensions and drill pathways to structure your data warehouse properly. You hire additional staff to manage the new environment. Typically, the project timeline expands as new requirements surface and original specifications change. Finally, often months after the original target date and hundreds of thousands of dollars later, your business intelligence system may be ready.

Southwestern Motor Transport, or SMT, provides the eastern half of the United States with transportation services. In addition to offering direct service to fourteen states, the company provides service to Mexico, Canada, and the rest of the United States through their network of partner carriers. That translates to a lot of information that needs to be evaluated and analyzed, quickly and effectively.

Although SEQUEL executive dashboards are most commonly used to track business indicators, they also can display operations data to help you streamline and improve your System i operations. In fact, a SEQUEL executive dashboard could be a crucial tool if you must comply with Service Level Agreements (SLAs). This article describes how key performance indicators stored in the database files the Robot products maintain can be incorporated into SEQUEL executive dashboards.

Manage job schedules and batch jobs
The sample Robot/SCHEDULE dashboard (below) displays metrics to help you evaluate job scheduling and batch management. It can help you answer many interesting operations questions.

Track your top business metrics in a graphical display

Are your executives and managers asking you to present System i data in a compelling, graphical format? SEQUEL addresses this challenge, not only with its graphical query and reporting capabilities, but also with its executive dashboards. This article explains how you can set up SEQUEL executive dashboards that present key business metrics simply by clicking on an icon or at PC startup.

Pinpoint key locations with interactive map plotting

Imagine being able to generate an interactive Google map that shows locations for your branch offices, customers, product installations, or even vehicles with real-time GPS tracking coordinates. The map would allow you to click on a marked location to display information from your System i database within a pop-up balloon. Within the balloon, you could even click on a hyperlink to display a related Web page or run an interactive SEQUEL business intelligence request to retrieve relevant information for the selected site.