Transformation projects take core applications into cloud and new platforms
Micro Focus (LSE: MCRO.L), a leading provider of enterprise application modernization, testing and management solutions, today confirmed two additional customers have delivered innovative business capabilities in the cloud and other new platforms using its Visual COBOL solution. Wolters Kluwer and Lumbermen’s Merchandising Corporation have implemented Micro Focus Visual COBOL to harness the competitive advantage in their critical business systems in order to meet new demands for business innovation.
"Visual COBOL helps customers accelerate from old to new with no risk," said Ed Airey, Product Marketing Director at Micro Focus. "By reusing investments in proven COBOL systems, our clients can meet future business demands with confidence and speed. We bridge the gap between core COBOL and newer-age technologies such as Cloud, .NET, and mobile."
Wolters Kluwer – Journeying to the Cloud
Wolters Kluwer Italy, branch of the global publishing and user information leader, sought to provide additional market offerings with its existing software portfolio. Providing cloud-based services was seen as critical, but the cost of building a new offering was prohibitive. Visual COBOL enabled the company to reach out to new business without having to change its underlying product offering. The journey to the cloud with Visual COBOL was far easier than expected: "Visual COBOL has enabled us to achieve higher levels of developer productivity and product quality," said Sergio Boaretto, Software Engineering Manager at Wolters Kluwer Italy.
Lumbermen's Merchandising Corporation – Higher performance at lower cost
Lumbermen's Merchandising Corporation, a leading forest products and building materials buying group, had to deliver on key IT initiatives using its existing Unisys mainframe environment, including dealing with concerns over application performance. By reusing its existing investment in COBOL, LMC took core applications to Windows and .NET, gaining a 75% improvement in application performance. "Our journey with Visual COBOL has brought our development teams closer together, allowed us to realize significant cost savings and increased our application performance, and as a result our service to our network of independent lumber dealers, said Dave McCann, Programming and Operations Supervisor, LMC. "We are delighted with the results."
"Modernizing the still massive amount of COBOL in use every day is a major concern for IT leaders as supporting enterprise skills and systems escalate costs," said Michael Azoff, Principal Analyst at Ovum. "Using a modern development environment, one approach is to preserve the existing COBOL logic opening it up to business change requirements, while leveraging the latest advances in next generation technology such as web, mobile, and the cloud. This is a low risk approach that can enable business transformation."
The latest release of Micro Focus Visual COBOL 2.2 is available on 15th November 2013. The most advanced COBOL development and deployment solution available for business critical applications, Visual COBOL delivers powerful, productive and agile application development capabilities for Windows, UNIX, Linux, .NET, JVM and Azure platforms. This latest update helps developers acquire new and marketable skills, integrate with cutting-edge IT architectures, and improve team collaboration across shared projects for accelerated code delivery.
Micro Focus, a member of the FTSE 250, provides innovative software that allows companies to dramatically improve the business value of their enterprise applications. Micro Focus Enterprise Application Modernization, Testing and Management software enables customers' business applications to respond rapidly to market changes and embrace modern architectures with reduced cost and risk. For additional information please visit www.microfocus.com.
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