SAM AUDIT EXPLORER is a Tool that will allow you to automatically monitor your IBM 4690 POS File System to check file integrity and validate personalization and configuration settings - within regions or different store formats. Ensure that files match lab “gold” versions, detect unauthorized changes to store settings and much more.

Unattended version monitoring with email exception reporting frees you up to focus on implementing new business ideas...ASSISTING WITH PCI COMPLIANCE and LEADING TO AN INCREASE IN YOUR BOTTOM LINE.

What are Audits and how and when are they being performed?

• An Audit is a snapshot, or Inventory, of the System - created at scheduled intervals e.g. daily
• Audits are captured to enable comparisons to be made with other audits and report discrepancies
• A Standard Windows Application at the Host initiates Audit capture and retrieves and organizes the XML formatted Audit Files
• No installation at the Store. No logical filenames required. No software development or integration work necessary
• On-demand Audit capability is readily available
• Near real-time Security Audits provide alerts via SAM Health Explorer

Analyzer and the underlying premise
Fundamentally, there are files and settings across stores that are expected to be different and therefore are excluded from analysis. However, if something is the same on say 90% of your systems, it most likely should be the same across all of them. The Analyzer automates the process of finding the differences or similarities between multiple systems. Essentially, it saves the user from the tedious task of comparing multiple stores and removing one at a time the audited items that are expected to be different from store to store. Threshold values are set to determine how many matches and/or mismatches across the data set make an auditable element relevant. Those that fall outside the defined ranges are automatically discarded thereby reducing the amount of initial data the user is presented with.

Automated Deviation Analysis (ADA)
Details and manual analysis are fine but how do we manage a large enterprise and examine the entire file system - initially and on an ongoing basis? Answer - Automated Deviation Analysis (ADA)

• Audits are captured from the stores on a timed basis - say daily
• After a configurable period of time - 7 days, 14 days, etc., the system automatically generates a template from the existing audits eliminating values/settings that have changed based on previously established threshold settings
• Subsequent Audits will then be compared with the template to determine if any deviation has occurred - meaning that something not expected to change suddenly has
• Notification will be sent to interested parties that something has changed, permitting appropriate investigation and action

Version Management System (VMS)
At a high level VMS allows a customer to manage auditable content in much the same manner as source code management software handles software. Specific content, such as store options, can have different values and thus different “revision levels”. By selecting and grouping selected data into “seed content”, it can be monitored as a change management project, providing the ability to easily monitor personalization and other settings across regions or the entire chain. Email alerts notify appropriate personnel of discrepancies

SAM AUDIT EXPLORER - WHAT AND WHY?

What is being audited by the Audit Explorer and Extendibility?

• File System - Date, Time, Size, File Distribution and CRC.
• Personalization - Store & Terminal Options, Hidden Files, EM, EFT, Value Pack, INI and OS files
• Logical Filenames
• Processes - Background Applications
• Select Item Records such as Coupons
• Hardware - Drive Partitions, System Memory
• Utilizes a “plug-in” architecture to easily extend the scope of Auditable Content

SAM Audit Explorer Use Cases

• Compare files between CC and DD to verify distributed files have been distributed
• Compare a store that is having undetermined problems against one or more that are not
• Compare files between two stores to verify that all applications are the same
• Validate that All Files and Settings from an ASM were deployed correctly
• Verify and Report for Compliance the Software and Settings for each store
• Compare day to day changes made to a Lab System (lost track of what you changed?)
• Proactively validate software settings / levels at the store with automated email notification when differences are detected.
• Make personalization settings across selected regions and monitor adherence to these settings
• Monitor key select Item Record values such as coupons for a pre-determined value
• Detect unauthorized personalization setting changes made at store level
• Detect Orphan files - unnecessary files or ones that suddenly appear on a store system