Published on 04-Nov-2009
Customer:
Strongback Consulting
Industry:
Computer Services
Deployment country:
United States
Solution:
Enterprise Modernization, IT Life Cycle Management , Web Services
Overview
An IBM business partner based in Central Florida area, Strongback Consulting is a consultancy that focuses around helping customers modernize their enterprise, modernize applications, old green screen applications, getting those out into new features, new interfaces, whether it would be web services or the web.
Business need:
One of the challenges that their customers have is being able to reuse and incorporate legacy assets, systems that have been in place for decades…. Assets that are in formats that they have not been able to use or expiring systems that have long lost their performance value.
Solution:
We are specialist in Rational HATS, Host Access Transformation Services. This is a toolset for reusing existing green screen applications without changing the backend logic, without changing your COBOL, without changing your RPG and being able to incorporate that into brand new web interfaces.
Benefits:
- Replaced the green screen environment with a web browser interface
- Created a more secure environment
- Reduced a 90 day training cycle down to 3 to 4 weeks
Video
An IBM business partner based in Central Florida area, Strongback Consulting, focuses around helping customers modernize their enterprise, modernize applications, old green screen applications, getting those out and into new features, and new interfaces, whether it would be web services or the web.
Video Transcript
Kenny Smith
Senior Architect
Strongback Consulting
We are an IBM business partner based in Central Florida area. Strongback Consulting is a consultancy that focuses around helping customers modernize their enterprise, modernize applications, old green screen applications, getting those out into new features, new interfaces, whether it would be web services or the web.
One of the challenges that my customers come to me with is being able to reuse and incorporate legacy assets, systems that have been in place for decades…. Assets that are in formats that they have not been able to use or expiring systems that have long lost their performance value… In some instances, it is too expensive to rip and replace.
We are specialist in Rational HATS, Host Access Transformation Services. This is a toolset for reusing existing green screen applications without changing the backend logic, without changing your COBOL, without changing your RPG and being able to incorporate that into brand new web interfaces.
This customers have been on System z for even before it was even called System z, they have been on it for 15 years. We have a customer that is an electronic payment processor one of the largest in the world and the amount of transactions that go through their systems requires something that can handle massive, massive amounts of data, securely, fast, and efficiently. If they were to do this in an Intel environment, the amount of hardware required would be enormous, they are able to do this in a much smaller footprint on z.
And what they are seeing at this point is an erosion of their revenue stream on the low tier offering….The low tier offering is 3270 green screen environment. Using HATS, they are able to replace the green screen environment with a web browser interface, it is a secured environment, it is easier to use for a CSR. What had been about a 90 day training cycle is now collapsed down to 3 to 4 weeks. By reducing the training time 75%, you are getting much more utilization out of that person, that person is actually able to add to your bottom line instead of taking away from it.
The green screens don’t change, what changes is how people interface with those green screens, now they are using a web browser interface. So now the HATS platform is providing them new opportunities. Now they are able to get an interface into the green screens to mobile platforms, to portals, even to the new rich Eclipse Rich Client Platform. They can be at the store talking to their customers with their PDA, whether it be a Blackberry or Windows Mobile, and start entering in orders on their handheld, click Submit and it's in the system. And the backend of course is the ever reliable System z and the applications that they did not have to touch, to transform the code that is still there. All we have done is just add a front-end.
We, as an IBM business partner, receive a lot of technical benefits from IBM as well as more strategic benefits. IBM has got some really good strategy as far as where they are going within building a smarter, greener environment, within understanding better Application Lifecycle Management, better understanding customers long-term strategic needs. Quite frankly, IBM understands the bigger picture of where IT is going.
Products and services used
IBM products and services that were used in this case study.
Hardware:
System z
Legal Information
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2009 IBM Systems and Technology Group Route 100 Somers, NY 10589 U.S.A. Produced in the United States of America October 2009 All Rights Reserved IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com , System z, Rational, are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. If these and other IBM trademarked terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (® or ™), these symbols indicate U.S. registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information was published. Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at “Copyright and trademark information” at ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both. Other product, company or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. IBM and Strongback Consulting are separate companies and each is responsible for its own products. Neither IBM nor Strongback Consulting makes any warranties, express or implied, concerning the other’s products. References in this publication to IBM products, programs or services do not imply that IBM intends to make these available in all countries in which IBM operates. Any reference to an IBM product, program or service is not intended to imply that only IBM’s product, program or service may be used. Any functionally equivalent product, program or service may be used instead. Offerings are subject to change, extension or withdrawal without notice. All client examples cited represent how some clients have used IBM products and the results they may have achieved. Performance data for IBM and non-IBM products and services contained in this document was derived under specific operating and environmental conditions. The actual results obtained by any party implementing such products or services will depend on a large number of factors specific to such party’s operating environment and may vary significantly. IBM makes no representation that these results can be expected or obtained in any implementation of any such products or services. THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED “AS-IS” WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED.
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An IBM business partner based in Central Florida area, Strongback Consulting is a consultancy that focuses around helping customers modernize their enterprise, modernize applications, old green screen applications, getting those out into new features, new interfaces, whether it would be web services or the web.
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