February 1913: D.J. O'Conor quit his job after being paid one dollar for his new invention. He had discovered a new way to insulate electrical wires and connections at a time when electricity was becoming a big buzz in business. The new material composed predominately of resin was a flexible and accessible replacement for mica. O'Conor left Westinghouse and with the help of partner Herbert A. Faber, formed the Formica Insulator Corporation. Today, Formica is one of the 10 most recognized brand names in the world.

Reengineering Order Entry/Order Tracking

Recently, Formica Corporation realized the need to improve their order entry and order-tracking process. Their goal was to enable their formidable network of worldwide distributors to function as though they were all under one roof. Formica's sales channel presented the Internet as a solution for extending their inventory inquiry, order entry, and order tracking system. Formica Corporation's customer service department received approximately 70 telephone calls per day from their 80 distributors. The majority of calls were inquiries pertaining to the availability, quantity, and shipping status of styles and colors of Formica brand countertop and flooring materials.

Jeffrey Strasser perceives the use of WebSmart as a strategic tool advance a greater initiative.

Formica's existing system made this information available to internal customer service representatives. Detailed inventory data from warehouses throughout the world was consolidated on an iSeries-AS/400 model 740 running SSA Global Technologies, BPCS at their Cincinnati headquarters computing site. Distributors first needed to speak with their Formica product installers about their material requirements and then contact Formica Corporation's customer service department. Customer service reps would begin making inquiries against inventory via the green screen BPCS order inquiry module. Finally, they would call the distributor back with the information, who then had to contact the installer.

Formica Corporation's customer service department initiated discussions within the organization on implementing a new system to enable distributors to perform their queries on-line, while remaining on the phone with the contractor. The Customer Service department developed an initial functionality wish list. In taking initial ownership of the project, they also talked to third party software/services vendors and received quotes of up to $225,000 for "a Microsoft Windows NT based, turnkey solution."

Customer service presented their research to Phil Catlin, Formica Corporations Application Development Manager. Catlin, having 15 years of AS/400 experience under his belt, had some interesting ideas of his own on how to tackle this project. He immediately began researching AS/400 based solutions and came across several, including one from Fresche. In the AS/400-iSeries world, Fresche is a well-known company name. Technicians in this industry associate Fresche with key tools that aid in developing new applications or ensuring that their systems run optimally. Catlin had long been familiar with another product of theirs called Docu-Mint.

Catlin downloaded a free evaluation copy of ProGen WebSmart, a web/wireless application development environment with complete user documentation in PDF format from Fresche's website. Shortly after calling for and applying a temporary key, Catlin realized that he had found a fast track, portable PC based development tool for developing and deploying custom, dynamically linked, browser based applications. WebSmart automatically produces dynamic HTML and CGI programs written in ILE/RPG. With 70+ inquiry, maintenance, wireless, reporting, shopping cart, online ordering, and product catalog templates available, it was all there

Morphing Order Inquiry Green Screens

The templates allowed the Formica development team to rapidly build the core of their application. Most WebSmart templates use native ILE record level access (RLA) for accessing the database on the AS/400. This method, ILE RLA is used because industry benchmark tests show it to be more than 30 times faster than Java RLA. The logic in the templates was very familiar to RPG oriented Formica Corporation programmers. The function, get record is like an RPG read for example. Catlin's team used the templates for record positioning, updates, changes and deletes. "The templates were very helpful for the base code, " states Catlin.

Formica Corporation developers then had a choice of several, flexible pre-configured field extensions available for application to fields at the file level. These options enabled them to easily refine output functions like date formats, field lengths, composite functions, or drop down boxes.

Once configured, storing this information in WebSmart's data repository allowed developers to easily incorporate these functions where required throughout the program, by simply referencing the associated database elements, therein dramatically reducing repetitive programming tasks.

Developers then used PML (ProGen Macro Language) extensively to customize their work. "PML looks like Visual Basic," states Catlin." Formica Corporation's programmers expressed a high level of comfort with PML, and Catlin appreciated the fact that they could extend it. "If there is a function that Fresche hasn't yet thought of," states Catlin, "I can write it."

WebSmart uses interactive HTML validation to catch repetitive syntax errors immediately and increases HTML coding productivity. WebSmart looks at HTML code development in real-time. If a developer misses an end bold tag, the WebSmart syntax/validation editor immediately flags the problem. This allows the developer to correct it quickly and speed up the development process.

In only three days, Catlin had written a functional specification that mirrored the customer service wish list and then compiled a functioning proof of concept. "The primary functionality was distributor self-service," states Catlin. The new browser-based application mirrored BPCS order inquiry entry green screens field for field. "Everything that customer service came up with, we were able to make work using WebSmart," declares Catlin.

At Formica Corporation, the WebSmart solution will provide value for the long haul. "As our requirements change," notes Catlin, "we can easily make changes to the application. It's very supportable. If contractors come in and do all the work, as with the other solutions that we looked at, when they leave, it will be more difficult to internally support the system." By comparison, the fees for ProGen WebSmart's Interactive Development Environment, (IDE) for unlimited developers, and the Web Application Server (WAS) for unlimited users for our AS/400 model 740 were $19,000. Catlin comments, "This was a no-brainer."

Customer Service quickly approved of the solution. Catlin and his team visited a few distributors and performed demonstrations over a 28.8 dial up line to their host AS/400. "Even with the slow modem," Catlin states, "the application ran very well and the distributors that we showed it to were thrilled." In WebSmart, persistent CGI, maintains a bookmark between the server and the client after the server has passed the client data and the conversation stops. By issuing a unique conversation ID there is increased continuity and speed between the server and client. WebSmart users get the benefits of "state" conversations in a CGI script format without the exorbitant overhead typically represented by Java.

Formica Corporation developers are only scratching the surface of WebSmart's vast functionality. One of Catlin's technicians is using WebSmart to develop applications that will replace all of their existing Visual Basic programs. As an example, Catlin noted one system that allows customer service reps to view past invoices on line. They capture all spool files related to invoices and store them in a database. When a rep needs to review an invoice at a customer's request, visual basic is used to overlay the invoice template. Catlin says this can all be done on the AS/400 now using WebSmart. "The database on the machine that was serving this application was getting too large and the AS/400 seemed like the appropriate alternative," states Catlin.

Ready for Business on the Web

Jeffrey Strasser is Formica Corporation's Marketing Director for all surfacing business lines offered in North America, accounting for over 250 million dollars in annual revenue. Strasser comments, "Formica is proceeding to leverage the Web as a marketing channel to drive incremental sales and reduce Overall costs. The redeployment of our company's Website will improve distributor and consumer accessibility to the company and establish a common aesthetic format for future applications."

Strasser perceives the use of WebSmart as a strategic tool to advance a greater initiative. He comments, "This effort will also let us establish a common technology strategy and infrastructure to build upon. Our first major application will be taking some of our key customer service processes and put them online in a self-service format. From there we will look at other processes in our company and determine if it is appropriate to put them online to increase overall customer satisfaction and reduce costs. Additionally, we will consider how the Web can be leveraged to compliment the direct sales teams."

Iron Valley, a leading sporting goods distributor, launched a new responsive eCommerce website that was developed by Fresche’s web development services team using WebSmart PHP, Fresche’s rapid web application development solution.

The B2B order entry application is responsive, accesses DB2 data and includes advanced search capabilities, real-time inventory and the ability to save shopping carts. It also includes convenient reporting for users, who can now review past orders, pending orders and more.

Challenge

"We had some web experience prior to the WebSmart project. We started in 1997 with a Windows eCommerce application that we built from scratch. Back then, it was great to have a B2B application in our industry. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a competitive issue – it was a nice to have.

Gradually, the complexity of the application, Windows Server, SQL Server and IAS became more expensive for us to maintain. We’re a small IBM i midrange shop - not a Windows shop. I saw that we were heading to a point where I was going to have to try to afford to maintain skills and complex capability on two platforms and something was going to have to give."

Solution

After using Fresche’s Presto to modernize a warehouse application, Iron Valley engaged Fresche’s web development services team to develop a mobile-friendly eCommerce website that replaced the Windows application.

The new application enables dealers to efficiently find and order products from the Iron Valley website. It accesses DB2 data and is responsive, meaning that it automatically resizes based on the device you’re accessing the website from. This provides the end user with the optimal look and functionality regardless of whether they’re ordering products on their PC, tablet or smartphone.

• Advanced search capabilities that make it easier for customers to find products within Iron Valley’s large inventory
• Real-time inventory
• The ability to save shopping carts
• Convenient reporting for users to review past orders, pending orders and more
• Easy-to-use admin interface for updating products, ads, etc.

Results

In the first 24 hours of cutting off the old site, Iron Valley didn’t receive a single support call and website traffic was up 90%. “Our customers are going to buy from the website that’s easiest to use. Our [WebSmart-developed] website is quick and easy for folks to find what they’re looking for. Pushing data out to our customers and giving them self-service helps them, and it helps us,” says Todd.

"The level of skill, service and professionalism that Fresche has provided has been outstanding by all measures,” says Todd. “I can’t emphasize enough the importance of professional project management. It was very important to have a good leader to manage the development and keep the project on time and on budget."

Lisa Shows, an Account Manager with 20+ years’ experience, also comments: "I have had nothing but good feedback on the new website. Everyone likes the ease of using it. I have been told by a few accounts that it is by far the best distributor website."

Jim Underwood, IT Manager at Quest Medical, used Presto to web enable all of their green screens without changing a single line of RPG or DDS code. This included globally converting all their customized menus and subfile navigation keys into clickable links and buttons.

We asked Jim ten questions about his experiences with Presto. Here are his responses:

Please tell us about your organization.

Quest Medical, Inc. develops and manufactures sterile medical devices for a variety of medical markets. The markets our products provide solutions for include cardiac surgery, ophthalmic surgery, oncology, IV fluid and anesthesia delivery.

Why did you decide to web enable your green screens?
We decided to web enable our green screens because the GUI version for our ERP system was no longer supported. Green screens are perceived as antiquated.

Why did you choose Presto?
We chose Presto over other solutions because of the faster implementation time and superior support team during our evaluation efforts. We especially like the way that you can quickly and easily make global changes.

Please describe how you are modernizing your screens with Presto and who is accessing them.
Using Presto, we web enabled over 2,000 display screens within our ERP system for 100% of our users without changing a single line of RPG or DDS code. At this time we chose to enhance 100% of our screens and hundreds of menus with only navigational and calendar enhancements. We also added command key, paging, menu navigation with clickable links. In the future we are planning to enhance many of our inquiry screens such as in Order Entry, Inventory, and Accounting applications.

How much skill or effort was involved with your web enablement and modernization project?
It required basically no skill at all. We were happy with the out of the box results and didn’t enhance our screens much further. That is a big reason why we chose Presto. Presto’s support team helped us make some of the global changes that we needed. It was as simple as that.

How much programming and web development experience did you have prior to using Presto?
Funny you should ask! This is another reason that we chose Presto. My colleagues and I have many years of programming in RPG and COBOL and absolutely no web development experience. So to implement a 100% web enabled solution for our ERP system in a very short time is extraordinary. The end users are also happy, which is a very good thing.

Are you using Presto with mobile devices like iPads and iPhones?
Currently we are not but as we are speaking we are in the final stages of testing our Presto web enabled application with our manufacturing departments. The production supervisors/leads using iPads will then be able to update and inquire shop floor transactions real-time while walking the floor and interacting with their employee’s vs. being tied down to their desk. So far only one minor change was needed for the mobile view vs. the desktop view. That is truly remarkable.

What has the end user response been to the web enabled screens?
The response has been very positive. They took to it like ducks to water.

How would you describe your experience with Fresche’s Technical Support team?
They have by far the best support team that I have ever worked with. They all are very knowledgeable and always make you feel like they are part of your team.

Would you recommend Presto to other people and why?
Yes, that is a simple question. It works, it is simple to use and is rock solid!

Michell’s, a horticultural broker that has been in business for more than 125 years, worked with Fresche’s team to develop a B2B ecommerce site that runs on IBM i over DB2 data. The mobile-friendly website makes it easy for Michell’s customers to place their own orders from anywhere, on any device.

The website was developed with WebSmart PHP, Fresche’s rapid PHP web application development solution. Fresche also used Bootstrap, a responsive development framework that enables the website to automatically adjust to fit the screen size that it’s displayed on.

JF Fabrics is the leading Canadian wholesaler/distributor of Home Decorative Fabrics, Tapes and Trim, Drapery Hardware, Wallcovering and Area Rugs. Their highly diversified customer base numbers 15,000 globally and includes large Retailers, Designers, Upholsters and Manufacturers in both the retail and hospitality sectors. JF Fabrics runs an IBM i-based ERP application to manage critical business functions.

This ERP system originated in the 1990s as a package called MIS Spirit. Since that time, the application has been continually modified and enhanced to meet JF Fabrics’ needs as the company grows and evolves. The application was originally written entirely in COBOL, and some RPG programs have since been developed. JF Fabrics has also developed some graphic user interfaces to the application.

Challenge

JF Fabrics has grown significantly since it was founded 30 years ago, requiring its IT department to be innovative and to implement a variety of solutions. By early 2014, the company’s rapid growth and the pending retirement of key IT resources meant that there would soon be an issue maintaining and developing the functionality of the IBM i systems. Business was advancing quickly, and there was already a growing backlog of requests for maintenance, integration and new sales channels.

JF Fabrics needed to find a way to replace the retiring resources. But they wanted to avoid having all technical expertise vested in just a few key people. They were also concerned about ramp-up time, as their highly complex systems had been developed to meet the needs of a very large and diversified client base. In addition, they hoped to gradually modernize their IBM i systems to take advantage of modern GUI, Web and mobile solutions. The company began to search for a way of responding comprehensively to all of their diverse requirements.

Solution

After conducting a search and consulting with partners, JF Fabrics chose Fresche Legacy’s Staff Augmentation & Application Support offering. The engagement started with Fresche performing a rapid Discovery service that included interviews, shadowing and code analysis to quickly understand JF Fabrics’ business, users and applications. Key to this exercise was use of Fresche’s X-Analysis suite to fully examine and graphically document JF Fabrics’ IBM i applications and expose the full set of business rules that were embedded in the application code.

After Discovery, the onboarding process was greatly accelerated by X-Analysis, which became one of the core tools for ongoing development and testing. After becoming familiar with the system, Fresche became an integral part of JF Fabrics’ IT team and began supporting the IBM i applications and dealing with the backlog of requests for new functionality.

Result

Since JF Fabrics and Fresche began working together, the backlog has been significantly reduced and Fresche has started supporting JF Fabrics’ business with new development efforts. Fresche brought decades of application support experience and the skills to address break fixes, front-line support, enhancements and new code development. In addition, Fresche employed its experience with document sharing tools, coding standards, formalized prioritization processes, regular governance reviews and dashboards of key performance indicators. It also approached all of its tasks with an eye toward improvement and modernization.

Best of all, business continuity was assured: Fresche’s skilled team, using highly proven tools backed by Fresche’s entire support organization, meant that JF Fabrics no longer had to think about resources to support their IBM i. The Fresche support organization learns from every engagement, so JF Fabrics was actually benefiting from dozens of other support engagements. As part of the JF Fabrics IT team, Fresche supplied the peace of mind to concentrate on business, not the IBM i.

ACTS is one of the leading providers of software-based solutions across a wide range of industries in the Caribbean and beyond. As specialists in software development and Web-based applications, they provide clients with an unmatched combination of software and technology expertise to meet organizational goals. ACTS takes pride in being experts in application development and security within the financial and judicial sectors, which are areas that recognize elevated risk and increasingly require advanced cyber security. ACTS works with diverse organizations including banks, insurance companies, border patrol, police and organizations in the legal profession.

Challenge

As ACTS develops new solutions for clients, it needs to incorporate a variety of cyber security features so that client data is protected. Their clients also need to remain compliant with constantly evolving security regulations. So developing and modifying these solutions and getting them rapidly to market can be a challenge.

When ACTS conducts testing on solutions, it needs a sufficient quantity of reliable test data, which requires the use of production data. But this data must remain secure and obfuscated at all times.

In addition, ACTS needs to meet the challenges posed by regulatory commissions. Many clients need to be compliant with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Under GDPR, customer data must be deleted or anonymized after a certain period.

The challenge, ultimately, was to find a solution that could help ACTS and its clients with a variety of data security requirements.

Solution

ACTS began the search for a proven IBM i data security solution. Several options were considered, including X-Datatest, a solution from Fresche. After careful deliberation, ACTS was very impressed with X-Datatest’s data anonymization capability. What made it the best choice, however, was the unique ability to identify and help implement required changes in applications, which aided significantly in expediting time to compliance for both ACTS and its clients.

For example, ACTS used Fresche’s X-Datatest in conjunction with Fresche services to perform a pilot project for a key client. The client needed complete anonymization of test data and also needed to remove some records to be compliant with GDPR. “This is really what we needed,” says ACTS CEO Jairo Belioso, “because one of our biggest headaches is that the applications we work with are big, and to add that functionality without automation would be a very big project and expensive.”

The Goh Shoji trading company sells hydraulic hoses and related parts — resins, rubber, electrical components, etc. — to major construction machinery manufacturers. Goh Shoji’s core system runs RPG programs on IBM i Power Systems. The company’s overseas subsidiaries operate the Movex ERP (currently “Infor M3”). For most in-house systems, only the design has been carried out by Goh Shoji, and the development process has been outsourced due to a dwindling number of RPG developers.

Challenge

Goh Shoji has just three engineers in Tokyo and one in Osaka who know RPG, so there is almost no spare capacity for development. However, exchanging data with business partners will continue to require minor development and frequent modification of the RPG programs. For example, the system is compatible with foreign currencies and when it was necessary to modify system functionality, Goh Shoji needed a way to quickly and accurately identify all impact points. As a result, Goh Shoji began considering tools that could efficiently analyze the applications.

The company also needed to eliminate the fundamental issue of the software being black-boxed. Numerous in-house and outsourced personnel had modified the system over the years and the remaining engineers were familiar with only small parts of it.

Finally, Goh Shoji wanted to eliminate the productivity loss associated with an inability to quickly visualize the application structure.

Solution

In selecting a solution, Goh Shoji compared and examined five products. X-Analysis Advisor met all criteria for application understanding, impact analysis and productivity increase. GRSolutions (GRS), a leading IBM i modernization solution expert and Fresche’s master distributor in Japan, provided the licenses, including localization and introductory support.
X-Analysis Advisor gave Goh Shoji the ability to:

• Perform impact analysis when modifying file fields and source code
• Find differences in source code that had changed over time
• Analyze the complexity and quality of source code
• Check the validity of database tables.

In all cases, X-Analysis Advisor performed admirably, often exceeding Goh Shoji’s expectations. An IT manager from Goh Shoji explained: “The fact that the server module works on IBM i was also an advantage, compared to other tools. Some tools work by preparing an external server, exporting the source code to the external server in text format, and then analyzing it. X-Analysis Advisor can run entirely on IBM i, so there is no need to maintain an external server. Furthermore, you can analyze not only the source code but also the compiled object. Additionally, X-Analysis Advisor can analyze objects without source code.”

Results

Goh Shoji uses X-Analysis Advisor mainly to investigate the impact of source code changes and to extract target program objects that require modification. Says an IT representative at Goh Shoji:

"Since complete impact analysis is quick and accurate, the time and effort required to make changes has been significantly reduced. In terms of dependencies between program objects, you can extract not only child programs associated with a specific parent program, but conversely, parent programs associated with a specific child program."

And you can easily check the source code that needs to be modified when adding functions or changing specifications. Simply enter a keyword and search to extract a specific line of target source code. With X-Analysis Advisor, it is easy to visualize the structure of source code created by other programmers, making it much simpler to perform maintenance and repair work. This has greatly improved efficiency and team morale.”

Originally founded in Sanjo City, Niigata Prefecture in 1946, Harmonick was a leading hardware wholesale business In Japan. Over the years, Harmonick’s business evolved to the point where the company now sells numerous product lines including textiles, pottery and food, and has become a premier gift retailer, specializing in experience-based gifts (spa visits, hot springs, salons, etc.) and ethical gifts, such as organically produced foods. Its catalog gift business has more than nine million users per year, ranking it first in the industry.

In 1991, Harmonick began using an IBM System/36 to run the business, and the following year, developed a dedicated system as it entered the gift catalog business. The company’s IT has evolved through successive versions of IBM i and integrated a wide variety of technologies including specialized logistics systems, AI and B2B systems used by its partners.

Challenge

As Harmonick expanded its business and began handling more products and developing logistics systems apart from the main gift business, they needed a quick, flexible method of bringing IT into line with changes in the business and operations. In addition, the number of experienced RPG programmers with deep system knowledge was declining. Making changes was slow and causing problems with business continuity. Both IT and business management recognized the problem and began considering a solution.

Solution

Harmonick decided that they needed a solution that would give them a high-level understanding of their application environment while also providing sufficient detail to make changes with confidence. After evaluating several solutions, they acquired Fresche Solutions’ X-Analysis Advisor from their business partner GRSolutions (GRS), a leading IBM i modernization solution expert. As Fresche Solutions’ master distributor in Japan, and a long-time member of the Fresche Power Partner Program, GRS has the product knowledge and service capability to help IBM i customers like Harmonick.

After acquiring and using X-Analysis Advisor, Harmonick found that most of their IBM i development issues were quickly addressed. Takeshi Yamamoto, Information Systems Department Manager at Harmonick, said that “the problem of understanding highly customized RPG code has been resolved with X-Analysis; we now have detailed documentation of our IBM i applications and can make changes with complete confidence. We no longer have to rely solely on the memory of our original System/36 programmers.”

Results

With X-Analysis, anyone at Harmonick can easily and accurately assess the impact of code changes without having to manually analyze programs. As a result:

• Reliance on expensive IBM i experts has been reduced.
• The burden on technicians has been reduced and their job made significantly easier.
• The scope and impact of a modification can be accurately assessed, greatly improving project planning.
• Speed and quality of system maintenance has improved; productivity has grown by approximately 30%.

X-Analysis use has become widely established in the IT department at Harmonick, and the team continues to work with GRS to learn all they can about the solution. The full range of X-Analysis functionality holds numerous advantages both for Harmonick’s gift catalog and its development of additional product lines and businesses.

SCHRADER Pacific is a specialist in automotive control and measurement equipment and is behind many innovations such as the TPMS tire pressure monitoring system. The global reputation of this 2,200-employee company is based on its reliability, expertise, product performance and collaboration with its customers. Schrader’s business systems are built on IBM i and recently, its French subsidiary had to bring on new developers and ensure efficient, secure knowledge transfer.

Challenge

Schrader needed to preserve the knowledge in its legacy IBM i applications for commercial management, supply chain and production management, which were written in RPG. They needed to do so while respecting Sarbannes-Oxley (SOX) regulations. Ultimately, Schrader needed a method of producing application documentation that was complete enough to give new developers the ability to understand and begin maintaining the system, while also providing a basis for complying with audits and security standards.

Solution: X-Analysis

X-Analysis was implemented by Schrader to automatically generate documentation for legacy applications and perform impact analysis. Some of the main X-Analysis functions used by Schrader:

• Subsystem charts and layered structure charts
• Variable tracing: hierarchical exploration through multiple layers of variables and programs/files/screens
• Source code browser, graphical structure diagrams and interactive data flow diagrams
• Documentation wizard for static documentation in MS Word format
• Entity-relationship diagrams
• Impact analysis: objects and procedures “where used” — through all iterations of objects/variables.

Schrader worked closely with Itheis, a leading IBM i modernization solution provider, to acquire X-Analysis licenses. As a long-time member of the Fresche Power Partner Program, Itheis provides expertise and solutions to the IBM i community with modernization and platform evolution as their main focus.

Results

X-Analysis helped Schrader share business application knowledge between established and new developers and secure development and maintenance operations during changes in teams. X-Analysis did all of the following for Schrader:

• Provided a shared view of applications along with clear maintenance documentation
• Boosted productivity gains in maintenance teams, development and support
• Reduced risk and helped meet deadlines
• Ensured rapid onboarding of new developers

Cencosud Scotiabank, the retail financial division of Cencosud Holding, is one of the main companies that provide credit card operations management in Chile and is also the leader in capturing market share. The division manages the entire Cencosud cardholder customer portfolio and its supermarket chains, department stores and home improvement centers.

In 2018 and 2019, Cencosud Scotiabank undertook a strategic and regulatory initiative called the AS/400 Separation Project (also known internally as the Minga project) to have its own IBM i server infrastructure. This project was part of the company’s digital transformation process, and carried out in accordance with regulations from the Commission for the Financial Market (CMF).

The strategic effort included the migration of all Cencosud Scotiabank IBM i applications to the new infrastructure, which required separating out the systems and files shared by the holding company and the Scotiabank division. It also required an exhaustive analysis phase to develop a thorough understanding of all IBM i systems and their hierarchical relationships, dependencies and structures.

This information provided the conclusive technical background required to determine the necessary scope, impact and effort to adjust and advance the project. Analysis results are stored in a collaborative documentation platform that also supports knowledge management in the company.

During the analysis, Cencosud Scotiabank used Fresche Solutions’ X-Analysis to automatically generate interactive documentation of the IBM i applications. X-Analysis was instrumental in helping separate the systems at the logical and physical level, aided by services from Clip Tecnología, Fresche’s representative in Chile. The Clip team helped ensure proper segmentation of the systems and execution of the rules of logical separation that guaranteed the consistency of each application.

The Minga project was a remarkable success, providing high quality systems and a reduced footprint. Completed ahead of deadline, this initiative established a new benchmark in terms of managing strategic technological projects at Cencosud Scotiabank.

Clip Tecnología is proud to have demonstrated the value that X-Analysis and the Clip project team can bring. Combined, they address any IBM i challenge and produce quality deliverables that contribute to a successful outcome.