Profile

Founded in 1967, South Orange County Community College District (SOCCCD) is one of 72 community college districts in the State of California. A multi-campus district, SOCCCD employs over 2,300 employees and manages approximately 36,000 students per semester through Saddleback College, Irvine Valley College and the Advanced technology & Education Park.

“We explored other alternatives, but chose CORE Migration because they offered the right balance of expertise, technology, process and training that fit within our budget.”

Jim Laurie, Human Resources Information Systems Manager, SOCCCD

The Challenge

 One of the key administrative applications for SOCCCD is a Human Resources System (HRS). Built in the 1980s, the HRS is a character-based, custom application using Cognos PowerHouse® and running on HP VAX OpenVMS servers. The information associated with over 2,000 employees is managed in the HRS which tracks the movement of every employee within the district. Some of the sub systems include key functions such as budgeting, personnel, payroll, health and safety and security. There were three main problems associated with this critical and complex system:

• Technology Obsolescence: The HRS databases were running on VAX OpenVMS servers and with several applications already running in Microsoft® Windows, SOCCCD wanted to consolidate all of the applications to a common platform. In addition to the benefit of consolidation, moving the HRS to Windows would reduce some concerns SOCCCD was experiencing regarding finding available OpenVMS/PH experts to maintain the HRS. The risks associated with this potential support challenge and the need to consolidate were primary factors in the client’s decision to modernize their application.
• Functionality: While the custom functionality of the system met the majority of the current business needs, there were some requirements that the system could no longer accommodate. In addition, the frequency and volume of updates driven by statutory requirements of the employee unions and SOCCCD’s Board policies required a platform that would be stable and could be upgraded with enhancements. 
• Costs: The costs to support and maintain the system were increasing. And, with a decreasing level of maintenance available in-house, the HRS was vulnerable. SOCCCD needed to find a cost-effective solution to ensure the integrity and longevity of the system. 

SOCCCD 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™?

SOCCCD looked at two alternatives for its application migration – buy or migrate.

• Buy: SOCCCD looked for an off-the-shelf solution that would meet their business requirements. The systems available on the market required customizations. Cost and preservation of functionality were key requirements for SOCCCD. 
• Migrate: Migrating the old application to a modern Windows platform, Microsoft .NET, was the second option considered. 

SOCCCD chose CORE Migration because of the company’s expertise with PowerHouse and proven technology in migrating PowerHouse applications to a modern .NET platform. In addition, CORE’s solution and methodology guaranteed SOCCCD that 100% of the HRS’ existing functionality would be preserved while providing flexibility for future enhancements and customizations. CORE Migration’s automated migration process and training provided SOCCCD with a low risk and cost-effective alternative to buy or build. 

“The CORE Migration team really impressed us. Not only were they consistently responsive, but their approach was practical and the depth of their technical knowledge made us all feel very confident in the success of the migration.”

Jim Laurie, Human Resources Information Systems Manager, SOCCCD

CORE Migration’s Process

SOCCCD needed to be closely involved with the migration process. Given their experience with the legacy system, the technical skills sets within their team and that they would continue to support their client, SOCCCD chose CORE’s 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.

The CORE Migration team completed the database migration from RMS (non-relational) and RDB on the OpenVMS to Microsoft SQL Server on Windows. Transact SQL procedures were created in order to update data in the underlying database. CORE ensured SOCCCD’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 new environment is Microsoft .NET using CORE’s Renaissance Architect framework for .NET coupled with the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC).

“With every large IT project, there are challenges with keeping on schedule but CORE was able to accommodate any slips on our side. CORE was a great partner and we are pleased with the quality of our new application.”

Dan Johnson, Senior Programmer/ Analyst, SOCCCD