Case Study: White‑Rodgers achieves 242% ROI and eliminates night/weekend staffing by automating IBM i with Fortra Robot Suite

Automation Brings a Season of Changes to White-Rodgers

White‑Rodgers, part of Emerson Climate Technologies and a long‑time maker of thermostats and HVAC controls, relied on two IBM i systems and a 24/7 team of six operators to run production and high‑availability environments. When IT was tasked with a major cost‑reduction goal, they aimed to eliminate nights and weekend staffing and complete the automation project in just over four weeks.

They deployed HelpSystems’ Robot suite (Robot Schedule, Console, Alert and Network) to automate daily jobs, implement group and reactive schedules across systems, manage operator messages, and automate paging for on‑call staff. Tackling challenges like tape‑management and centralizing monitoring, they achieved an initial ROI of 242%, cut computer room coverage to three operators (13 hours/day, 5 days/week) and—after a tape drive upgrade—reduced operations to a single Help Desk technician monitoring schedules 1–2 hours a day, with no significant scheduling issues.

White-Rodgers

Bob Burnham

Director of Applications Development