MKS Announces Latest Release of MKS Integrity Solution
New capabilities deliver powerful process management control and enterprise integration capability to global development teams
Waterloo, ON-March 2, 2004: MKS Inc. (TSX: MKX), a leading provider of enterprise software configuration management (eSCM) solutions for the Global 1000, announced today its latest release of the MKS Integrity Solution, extending change management support to the mainframe and delivering significant new product capabilities aimed at enhancing global development team productivity, reducing IT complexity while lowering total costs. With this release, MKS becomes the only eSCM vendor to provide a single change management solution connecting distributed, iSeries and mainframe with unified process control.
“MKS continues to aggressively advance its enterprise SCM solution for the global 1000 marketplace. Our ability to rapidly add enterprise capabilities for both managers and developers enables our customers to improve their development processes rapidly while achieving a lower total cost of ownership,” says David Martin, MKS Vice President Product Management.
Comprised of MKS Source Integrity Enterprise Edition for process-centric SCM, MKS Integrity Manager for process and workflow management and Implementer, the market’s leading SCM solution for the iSeries platform, the MKS Integrity Solution offers robust enhancements in the following areas:
Process Control for Mainframe Environments
MKS has integrated MKS Integrity Manager with Computer Associates’ AllFusion Endevor Change Manager (CA Endevor), a leading change and configuration management solution for the zSeries. This integration enables organizations to seamlessly manage their development activities across all main computing platforms, including the IBM zSeries, and can be easily adapted for other mainframe-based SCM solutions. Utilizing existing mainframe version control tools, organizations can leverage existing best practices and skills to achieve a lower total cost of ownership. See recent press release at http://www.mks.com/press/releases/040223a.shtml.
Advanced Process Management Support, Customizability and Flexibility
New process templates for Iterative and Waterfall development methodologies enable development teams to jump start their process implementation. Organizations benefit from a quickly implemented baseline process that can be customized later according to needs.
Customizable Presentation Templates allow users to customize submission forms (issue screens) according to what information is of highest priority and map look and feel to a company’s corporate identity standards.
New MKS Integrity Manager user interface enables project managers to have better information about the status of their projects at their fingertips, while tightly integrating developer activities to increase overall productivity and to gain better visibility into team activities.
Improvements to Support Regulatory and Auditing Requirements
Enforceable Change Package Audit Review Process allows for management review prior to a software change commitment into the system. This prevents potential errors from entering the development stream, while allowing developers to remain productive. Strict process enforcement is particularly useful when managing contract or offshore development teams for corporate governance and in regulated environments.
Enhanced Process Control and Developer Flexibility for the iSeries Platform
Tighter integration between MKS Integrity Manager and Implementer, MKS’s leading SCM solution for the iSeries, offers a faster and more simplified deployment process for native and cross-platform applications. MKS Integrity Manager provides a departmental role-appropriate user interface to promote and deploy software without requiring the use of developer-oriented tools. Now QA and IT staff can launch promotions or can perform activities directly within the MKS Integrity Manager browser, GUI, or command line interface (CLI).
MKS continues to support IBM's iSeries Developer Roadmap initiative with enhanced plug-in based support for WebSphere Developer Studio client for iSeries (WDSc) 5.1 (and 5.0) allowing common change control tasks to be performed directly within WDSc 5.1. New Implementer object properties windows and user customization features allow developers to tailor their WDSc experience to their specific needs.
Numerous other enhancements have been made to Implementer including; simplified SQL stored procedures handling, customized parallel development, and dependency and impact analysis enhancements during promotions.
New Open API and Integrations into Enterprise Environments
This full featured, documented API provides enterprises and technology partners even greater flexibility in terms of integrating all aspects of the MKS Integrity Solution with other applications, tools and IDEs, improving productivity and reducing total cost of ownership.
MKS Integrity Manager now integrates with Mercury Interactive TestDirector® Defect Module to provide an enforceable development process for defect resolution. A link is established between defects found by Test Director and the original requirement being tested, and issues are updated bi-directionally in the respective systems. Traceability to the source code that is changed to resolve the defect is also established.
Reusable data mapping technology allows almost any third-party help desk product to be integrated with MKS Integrity Manager. This allows software development related issues to be resolved with the same change management product used to drive the development process.
New Desktop to Enterprise Conversion Utilities
New SCM Conversion Utility eases migration from desktop SCM tools such as Merant PVCS, CVS, Microsoft Visual SourceSafe and others to MKS eSCM products. Desktop migration allows global development teams to benefit from flexible process support, better collaboration, security and scalability, and engage in code reuse through consistent tools.
For additional details on these releases please visit http://www.mks.com/products/integritysolution.shtml.
Availability MKS Integrity Solution 4.6 is available direct from MKS. For pricing and sales information, please contact your MKS sales representative at 1-800-265-2797 (North America), +44 1483 733919 (UK) or +49 711 351775 0 (Germany).
About MKS MKS Inc. ("MKS") (TSX: MKX) provides award-winning enterprise software configuration management (SCM) and interoperability software solutions enabling Global 1000 companies to better manage and control the complete process of software development. The company’s family of SCM products offers advanced technology with robust workflow, version control, and impact analysis capabilities. Under its widely known MKS Toolkit brand, MKS provides UNIX-Windows co-existence, and system administration that significantly cut development and administrative costs and reduce time to market while enabling enhanced performance. Founded in 1984 with over 10,000 customers worldwide, MKS has built its brand on the foundation of advanced technology, superior quality and extraordinary customer service. More information about MKS can be found at http://www.mks.com, or by calling 1-800-265-2797 (US & Canada), +49-711-351775-0 (Germany), and +44-1483-733900 (United Kingdom).