There are the roll your own solutions, (writing your own MPF exits).
There is the free TSSO solution, and also MPFXTALL (also free) and both are
available on the CBT tape (www.cbttape.org).
In the next-to-free area, there are some event driven subsystems (one of
which is marketed by the company I work for, and is between $500 to $5,000
depending on your processor size/configuration). Then you get into the big
bucks with offerings from IBM, CA, et-al, where you pay just about the
entire cost of our product just in monthly maintenance for them.
For most sites, if you only have a few things you want handled, then writing
your own MPF exit, (or getting one from the cbt or other share tape) is
normally all you will need. They rarely have problems, and are easily
created and manipulated.
If you have moderate needs, (a lot of messages to handle or frequently
changing what you want done for the message, then TSSO will probably do what
you want. The MPFXTALL facility is also available for that, but while it
seems like it should be much simpler to use, is actually a bit less friendly
and has had (and might still have) some problems always getting it to do
what you really want it to do.
If you want a bit more flexibility, like unlimited script processing with
more scripting commands than TSSO can handle, then you could move up to a
vendor product like the one we sell. The cost is still very low, and you
get most of the capabilities that site need.
If you still need more than that, or want processing capabilities that
aren't available within any of the above products, then you can move to the
IBM, CA, or other big vendor products. You don't really get much more than
you do with one, or a combination of the above cheaper products, but you do
get a larger customer base, and therefore the support structure (and cost)
that goes with it.
You actually have a lot of choices, it just sort of depends on what you are
trying to accomplish, and how much time you want to spend doing it.
Personally I think that the Big vendor products are much more difficult to
install and maintain, but you will always be able to find people who are
trained (and make no mistake, you will need training to use them well) are
available all over.
The small vendor products and the free ones, are a bit simpler to install.
The only drawback to the free ones is that you might have to make some
site specific changes to use them well, and support is a bit slower since
fixes are made on a time available basis because they are maintained in
people's spare time. The manuals for the free ones are also not really up
to date or user friendly, so they can be a bit of a headache to get started
with, but they are free, so you have to give them points for that. The
small vendor products have dedicated support, (at least ours does), and if
you run into a problem you can normally talk to someone who actually works
day to day inside the code, so a fix, if necessary, is normally quick. If
there is a special function that you want, you can ask for it fromt he
small vendors and normally get the code within a very short period of time,
you can do the same with the free products, but you might have to write the
routines yourself, or wait for someone to get the free time to do it.
Asking IBM to do something special for you with their products is not even
funny to think about.
Since I work for one of the small vendors, I'm probably overly partial to
that segment, but it works well for all involved. We have several hundred
customers, and (knock on wood) no complaints.
You really can get a lot done with TSSO, I have worked with it for many
years and except for the fact that we have a product that is slightly
better, I wouldn't mind using it in a production environment. I designed
our product to take over where TSSO left off, and to make it easier to use,
but TSSO is still VERY good. If you have a complex site, then it might be
difficult to get the way you want it, but it is a good, solid set of code.
There aren't really many bad choices, (except for the money wasted on the
big vendors). I suggest that you try the various products out and see which
one you like the best. If you provide some additional information on what
type of processing you need to perform, I can give you a better idea of
which one would be best for you.
My guess for right now is that, unless you only have one or two messages to
process (in which case an user MPF exit is your best bet), that since you
don't have anything currently, that TSSO would be a great place to get your
feet wet.
Brian Westerman
Syzygy Incorporated
www.SyzygyInc.net
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