gtpc3m0d | Concepts and Structures |
Gathering the information needed for handling an item of business typically spans a few minutes. For example, two minutes per call is the average for the agents at one of the airlines using the TPF system. Typically, each piece of information is equivalent to a message in the TPF system. Each message represents an interaction between the TPF system and the agent. A group of related messages is, in the parlance of the TPF system, a transaction.
Several messages comprise a transaction, which results in processing of importance to the business enterprise, such as reserving an airline seat. The transaction required to reserve a seat on the flight can consist of information spread over several messages, as in the following example:
A transaction consists of one or more messages. Within the TPF system, a message is a component of a transaction. The number of messages required to complete a transaction depends upon the application design and the complexity of the specific information required by the end user. Credit verification applications, for example, often result in transactions of just one message.
Imagine, for example, that a two-minute (120-second) transaction consists of five messages and suppose the system responds to each message within three seconds. This means that only 15 seconds of the 120 seconds are spent within the system (where the system also includes the communications activity involved in transferring the message).
In general terms, this means that the time required to process a transaction is dependent upon the processing speed of the end user and the complexity of the transaction, while the response time for a single message is a function of the way in which the TPF system manages the computing resources.
Use of programmable workstations and message processing performed by front-end processors can affect the transaction mix by reducing the think time between messages and the number of messages transferred between the user and the host application. Programmable workstations can be used to perform preliminary editing of a message and to collect and package the messages in a transaction.