Unisys is a large systems manufacturer, software
company and consulting organization. One of their
areas of specialty is in supplying iSeries-based
software to the travel industry. In recent months
the company, based in Blue Bell, PA, has expanded
into new markets by supplying its existing software
on new hardware platforms.
The situation
Although travel industry iSeries vendors are
satisfied with their hardware, operating system and
the available application software, it is extremely
difficult to establish new business. Since budgets
are stretched, the high administration costs needed
to adopt and maintain Windows applications mean that
they are not a valid option. Experienced users are
happy with the iSeries, but the iSeries does not
enjoy the same acceptance with the new IT
generation. This is easily explained and affects all
industries alike - in today's education system there
is generally no contact with the iSeries - in stark
contrast to Windows and Unix systems.
Shrinking market forces platform expansion
We are a provider of critical, complex software for
the travel industry and have a clearly defined, but
shrinking market. In the long-term we cannot
withstand this loss of market share due to declining
interest in hardware platform. To secure our future
we must act now otherwise we will lose out to the
competition. In our opinion, there is no
technological reason to justify a change of
platform. But still, software developers and
consulting firms are forced to look for ways that
enable them to offer their applications on other
hardware platforms.
The problem is widely recognized but to remedy the
situation requires the following: time, personnel,
capital and of course specialized knowledge. Due to
their familiarity and recognition, Unix and Windows
NT are often popular target platforms. Our objective
is simple: to migrate the quality and the experience
of our successful iSeries applications to another
platform.
New development remains a dream
A complete redevelopment is not a financially
viable option. Time is the most expensive component
and new development involves complex procedures that
may be defective in the installation phase.
Moreover, today's informed public sector user
prefers to buy ready-made solutions, which already
have a high level of acceptance. The transfer of
data to the new system incurs enormous costs. Not
least is the cost of simultaneously supporting both
the existing and the new platforms.
Another issue is the conformity of source code
for the new platform. The former source code will
not be technically compatible with that of the new
platform. Since we must redevelop on the target
platform after the migration is completed, we will
have to buy in specialists with knowledge of our
target platform. Both we and our customers are
ardent iSeries users. Therefore to move away from
our iSeries applications was just not acceptable to
us. Therefore we have spent more than three years
looking for tools that would generate both our RPG
developments and the CL programs for other
platforms. Plus we needed our development - both
current and further - to remain on the iSeries.
Intensive testing of two options
In the search for a solution we reduced the
number of possible providers to two. We evaluated
both providers to ensure they could handle our
company specific requirements. The support from both
suppliers was very good and both were committed to
the fulfillment of our demands. So as not to overtax
our development, we decided to migrate our
application to Unix and then to Windows. As is the
case with many iSeries public travel solutions
Office Vision/400 functions form a large part of all
our applications. Furthermore, all our on-line
documentation is done in TEXT/400. Leaving aside the
office functions, both providers migrated a typical
Unisys application without any support from us. Our
decision was based on the following criteria:
• How is the security concept of the iSeries
reproduced?
• How do the integrated query forms or spool
reports perform?
• Must we recruit Windows specialists?
• Are functions such as job queues, system
navigation and data queues, to name but a few,
reproduced on the target platform?
Migrating the source programs - the smallest
problem
Since our development is carried out according to
a very disciplined procedure, we encountered only
minor problems with the migration of the source
program. Our decision to opt for INFINITE iSERIES
was based on the following characteristics:
• The fact that INFINITE iSERIES generated a
completely new C Code meant that we could fully use
the system architecture of Windows. Our developers
can test and change the applications without any
introduction to Windows.
• The relational database can be migrated back
and forth from the iSeries to Windows without
restriction. This also applies to the security
back-ups of iSeries libraries to cartridge. We
recommend however the extremely fast transfer of
Savefiles via FTP.
• Our support team was especially impressed with
the user-friendliness of the help functions. Our
on-line documentation for one application -
containing over 350 pages - was migrated to Windows
in approximately 15 minutes and was immediately
usable.
• No change is required for printing tasks, and
also printer files - including the familiar spooling
of the iSeries.
• The relational database can further be
evaluated with query.
The main task - migration of office functions
The greatest effort was spent on the
development of substitutes for ISERIES office
functions such as EDTDOC, WEKDOC, PRTDOC, MRGDOC,
etc. For this an office shortcut was developed which
reproduces these functions with Word for Windows -
with great results. The same shortcut can be used to
the iSeries as alternative to Text/400. This means
that through expanding our platform range, we have
immediately improved our iSeries application.
We were greatly influenced by the fact that
INFINITE iSERIES provided a graphical user interface
that provided more capabilities than other GUI
products which we also evaluated separately.
The final pleasant surprise however was the
smooth migration of the DB2/400 database to the
native database running under Windows.
From decision to delivery in two months
After we made the decision to implement
INFINITE iSERIES, it was installed on our Windows
server in one afternoon. In the following two and a
half days, we generated two new strategic
applications of our business with INFINITE iSERIES
for Windows.
Over the summer, we migrated our remaining
applications. The support from INFINITE Corporation was
solid and fast.
Today we are ready to offer our applications on
Windows. The migration was no problem for our
development team. Our support and training teams are
now testing the INFINITE iSERIES applications. Such
is the similarity, that staff believe they are
working on the iSeries, but the data is actually on
Windows.
Mission accomplished - platform independent
software
Since the installation of INFINITE iSERIES, we
are more relaxed about the trend towards Windows.
Today the software buying decision process is
steered by the application. We can improve the
performance of our product without worrying about
which platform system is currently in fashion. We
have achieved our goal - to offer our software
independent of any system platform.
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