At 11:54 AM 2/9/99 +0100, Simone Ongaro wrote:
>JS-Iteco has an application software package
(Accounting/Commercial/Manufactoring) we developed using COBOL for HP3000
with IMAGE and KSAM; we're going to consider he possibility to give out
product a new life following two steps, in priority order:
>
>1) VPLUS facelifting
>2) MPE -> NT migration
>    MPE -> UX migration

Certainly placing a new front-end on the application would breath new life
into
it.  Especially if this includes building a GUI-type front end for PC-based
access.  There are some tools that can help in this effort, such as NewFace
from
HP, FrontMan from Minisoft, Cognos and Speedware.  There may be others as well
which I've overlooked and I'm sure others on this list will help identify
what
they've used as well as others I've probably overlooked.

However, before considering moving the application to another architecture
you might want to consider a number of things, such as hardware/operating
system
reliability; ancillary tools/utilities; people costs (resource requirements
and
training); and the overall impact on business.  You are already on the best,
most cost-effective OLTP environment available today.  Simply do what many of
the retailers do and that is to simply 're-package' what you already have!
Many market people know/understand that when you take the same product and
place it in new packaging it indeed draws people's attention as it has a more
'modern' look.

You are basically 'marketing' your services to your customers(users). So if
you
place it in a new 'package', your customers will feel better about using a
more
up todate tool while you continue to provide the same high-level of
reliability
and functionality to meet the business needs.  Furthermore, you'll be able to
achieve this at lower cost with minimal impact on the business when compared
to the risks of changing out the computing architecture.



/jf
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