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Screen scraping technology

Wrote custom .Net windows service to interface with NCR Worldwide Dispatch System (D1) to automatically detect and transfer calls for ATM service crews. New calls were detected and logged in alternate system with automatic data feeds back to D1 to update NCR on the progress of the call. Upon completion calls were automatically closed in D1. Allowed customer to triple call volume without hiring of additional staff amounting in annual savings of $125,000.

Overview of the requirement:

A long time customer servicing ATM machines became a partner with NCR and was contracted to provide first line service to all NCR ATM machines within a geographic region. All service calls were dispatched using NCR's D1 worldwide dispatch system. More than 300 service calls were received daily through D1, which then in turn had to be logged into another system for dispatching. NCR also required compliance to service level agreements so calls had to be updated within D1 when the crew arrived on site as well as when the machine was fixed. To handle the call volume additional D1 terminals were needed along with staff to manage the data feeds to and from NCR. Physical space and budget restrictions prohibited this from happening so a technical solution had to be found quickly.

Description of the solution:

NCR's D1 system is a green screen mainframe application. A technique called "screen scraping" was used to read the contents of the terminal window, interpret the results and take appropriate action. An application was written that would read the D1 system at regular intervals looking for new calls not yet dispatched. If new calls were found they were logged into the internal system and then D1 was updated to indicate the call had been logged and dispatched. Once the field crew accepted the call and provided an ETA this information was also transmitted back to NCR through the screen scraping interface. Once the call was ultimately resolved by the service crew the application closed the call off in D1 and provided the proper information to D1 for billing purposes. This application allowed this service parter to handle a increase in daily call volumes of 300% without having to acquire additional space or hire extra staff. Cost savings were approximately $125,000 annually.

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