When a midrange publisher conducted a survey late last year of businesses using the IBM i, it discovered that 76 percent of the respondents had plans to modernize their business applications, and six percent had already done so. Of these respondents, one-third said that their modernization goal was to make business process improvements, while 30 percent indicated it was to increase end-user productivity. Other reasons to modernize included reducing application maintenance costs as well as improving IT's image.
These figures revealed that the System i (IBM Power Systems platform) is a highly valued commodity within the enterprise, yet as is the case with many older systems, some changes are in order. Many of these businesses are turning to RAMP from LANSA to initiate these modernization goals. These businesses are the focus of the latest LANSA Industry Showcase, "RAMP Provides a Low-Risk Modernization Path," demonstrating how they have incorporated application modernization into their business plans and benefited from the results.
Modernization has various interpretations, from refacing to re-writing existing code, or making the application SOA ready. It can also mean automating manual processes and integrating 5250 screens with GUI components still running on the IBM i operating system. The extent to which a company modernizes its system applications may depend on its desire to mitigate outside risks, such as upcoming mergers or acquisitions, rapid transition to a new platform, or meeting trading partner demands.
Another issue concerning modernization revolves around the number of legacy applications there are of significant importance to the enterprise. These applications contain valuable information about the enterprise's structure and business processes defined in executable form, but they are often difficult to navigate, have cumbersome user interfaces, and may lack interoperability or portability. Yet rewriting is often a time-consuming, costly, and risky undertaking.
LANSA technology provides businesses with the ability to transform mission critical applications with highly productive tools that support newer technologies, adding new functionality as well as increasing user productivity. RAMP from LANSA integrates reanimated 5250 screens with new GUI components that can also run on Windows, UNIX, or Linux. And LANSA makes new technologies like XML, SOA, and Web services readily accessible.
Steve Gapp, president of LANSA Americas, says, "In choosing a modern architecture for your IT systems, you are not restricted to just .NET or Java; LANSA is the third option. LANSA 's platform-independent and agile architecture provides businesses with the ability to respond quickly and cost effectively to industry and technology changes. And RAMP provides a smooth path to evolve your legacy System i applications into that agile architecture."
To read the Industry Showcase article, please visit: http://www.lansa.com/casestudies/ramp.htm.
LANSA Honors Partners and Customers
In other LANSA news, the company in May honored two customers and one solution partner with Customer of the Year, Lifetime Achievement, and Partner of the Year awards. Gapp announced the awards during the opening session of the 2008 LANSA International User Conference, recognizing Save the Children, Royal Bank of Canada Financial Group (RBC Financial Group), and Fidelity National Information Systems respectively.
The internationally recognized children's charity that operates in more than 40 countries around the world--Save the Children--was distinguished by its long-term commitment to LANSA technology with the Customer of the Year award. Initially, Save the Children turned to LANSA to transition from Synon but recently reworked its Sponsorship Web site using LANSA's Web Application Modules (WAMs). The new site integrates with the Synon backend and, because it is written in WAMs, non-developers are able to change content and publish it to the site. A personalized feature allows a sponsor to email his or her "child," knowing that the person receiving the email will transcribe it into letter form and deliver it. For more information about Save the Children, visit http://www.savethechildren.org/.
According to Gapp, the Lifetime Achievement award honors the organization that best uses a LANSA product to significantly enhance its business processes to increase ROI or provide competitive advantage. RBC Financial originally implemented LANSA to develop a heavily customized insurance policy and administration system. The most recent development is the Wireless Road Advisor application that allows insurance claims adjustors the ability to service clients on site. Built with Visual LANSA, this application lets adjustors immediately access policies, key in data, and initiate claims services. The application was recognized as fourth in North America by Bank Technology News in its Innovators 2007 listing. For more information about RBC, please http://www.rbc.com/.
The Solution Partner of the Year award was given to Fidelity National Information Systems, ACBS division. Based in Del Mar, California, Fidelity ACBS markets a LANSA-based commercial lending package, used by 35 of the top 50 banks in the world, confirming its position as the market leader in the banking and financial verticals. Fidelity has been a LANSA business partner for 16 years and has used LANSA for iSeries, Visual LANSA, and LANSA Open. For more information about Fidelity, please http://www.investor.fidelityinfoservices.com/.
"With more than 7,000 customers around the world, it's difficult to narrow our choices to just three to recognize with these awards," said Gapp. "These three companies have distinguished themselves as outstanding models of how LANSA technology can quickly build and deploy robust, value-generating business applications. We congratulate the winners of these awards and thank all the other companies that have enjoyed success with our products over the past year."
About LANSA
LANSA is a leading provider of application development, modernization, and integration software. LANSA's powerful suite of cross-platform development tools lets organizations overcome the complexity inherent in creating and maintaining business applications. LANSA's integrated tool set is also the technology foundation for a wide range of business solutions from LANSA and more than 300 Business Partners. Established in 1987, LANSA supports thousands of companies around the world with its products and services. For more information, visit http://www.lansa.com/.
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