The Challenge

A large Fortune 500 Financial Management Group based in the Eastern USA relies heavily on a financial accounting system written in VPLUS, TRANSACT/4GL and COBOL running against an IMAGE database to manage all aspects of its Retirements Fund System. Built in the early 1980’s, this system is a character-based application that runs on HP e3000 servers. The system supports thousands of users across the USA. There were three main problems associated with this large, complex system: 

• Technology Obsolescence: The system databases were running on HP e3000 servers, which will no longer be supported by Hewlett Packard as of December 31, 2010. The risk associated with obsolescence was the primary factors in the client’s decision to modernize their application.
• Resources: It was becoming more difficult to secure TRANSACT 4GL programming resources to maintain the system. That, coupled with the fact that many of the key members of the original project team would be retiring soon was a factor in the client’s decision to modernize their application. 
• Costs: The costs to support and maintain the system were increasing. Upgrading the system was paramount to reducing the operational cost of the system.

The organization needed a solution with a modern architecture that could preserve 100% of the custom-built application functionality they relied on, delivered as soon as possible. The solution needed to be both cost-effective and low risk, causing minimal disruption on the end-users. And, they also needed a robust platform that could support on-going future enhancements to the system. 

Why CORE Migration™?

The organization looked at four alternatives for its application migration – buy, build and two variants of migrate.

• Buy: The organization looked for an off-the-shelf solution that would meet their business requirements, but none were available that fit their budget and retained their custom functionality. Cost and preservation of functionality were key requirements for the organization. 
• Build: The organization considered building a new system in-house to duplicate their custom functionality, but limited resources for a project of this size and complexity were key considerations. 
• Migration to COBOL: Migrating the VPLUS and TRANCACT/4GL to COBOL was the third option considered. 
• Migration to .NET: Migrating the VPLUS and TRANSACT/4GL application to a modern Windows platform – Microsoft .NET- was the fourth option considered. 

CORE Migration’s Process

The organization needed CORE to manage the migration process from start to finish so they choose the CORE Directed Migration Method.

The CORE Directed Migration Method comprises of three logical components. The CORE team performed the procedures, operated the technology and carried out the bulk of the migration tasks for the organization’s Retirements Fund system migration project. Once CORE ensured the source code was through the Forward Engineering stage, CORE executed the Unit Test plans against the newly migrated application. The CORE team then worked with the client to build a Quality Assurance project plan which included test cases, screen shots, execution times and test data. CORE used the outputs and statistics as “anticipated results” for testing and verification of the migrated code during the Unit and Functional Test stages. To ensure 100% preservation of the functionality within the legacy TRANSACT/VPLUS application, the Functional test phase undertaken by the CORE team was rigorous and multi-faceted. Upon completion of this phase, the CORE team delivered the completed modules to the organization. The organization was then able to initiate their formal Acceptance Testing. 

CORE ensured the organization’s IT staff who are responsible for the maintenance and enhancements of the migrated application were fully trained and confident with CORE’s Renaissance Architect development tools. 

CORE Migration’s Solution

The organization chose CORE Migration automated TRANSACT/4GL to .NET solution because of CORE’s expertise with TRANSACT/4GL, VPLUS and its proven technology in migrating TRANSACT/4GL and VPLUS forms to a modern .NET platform. In addition, CORE’s Renaissance Architect™ Framework guaranteed the organization that 100% of the Retirement Funds system’s existing functionality would be preserved while providing flexibility for future enhancements and customizations. CORE Migration’s automated migration process and training provided the organization with a low risk and cost-effective alternative to buy or build.