The right solution, on time and on budget
ADC undertook a careful analysis of the company’s needs and a technological assessment of the project, and subsequently designed a CA Plex model-based solution, generating both System i and Microsoft .NET solutions from the same business application model. A key advantage of this model-based development was that the software could be delivered at a high level of productivity by small teams, resulting in a system that met both time and budget constraints. After implementation, over 1,000 employees were able to administer and deliver training on a student management system (SMS), distributed across different locations.

From green screen to browser-based
The company’s previous SMS system was originally based on CA 2E (Synon) and RPG technology, and before the modernization, employees worked on a 5250 green screen user interface. The 2E application fulfilled the administrative tasks adequately, but there the SMS system needed to be modernized with a browser-based user interface and new usability features. These included:

• the use of existing infrastructure and developer skill sets in a model-based environment
• integration with MS Office
• integration with credit card processing
• creation of e-mail
• a modern, browser-based user interface
• integration to other applications and systems using SOA/Web Services
• enhanced usability on assigning security to different sets of screens and for spread sheet analysis
• accessibility from anywhere

Improved job satisfaction and service
The company reports that its everyday users are extremely pleased with ADC’s CA Plex model-based development. Their employees are now enjoying the many benefits of a modern, user-friendly, browser-based and secure application, which they can access from anywhere, anytime. Best of all, this improved usability has not only increased working satisfaction for the staff, it has resulted in increased efficiency and improved customer service.

Rewrite, replace—or migrate and modernize?
Rewriting the company’s applications in .Net or Java was an option. The current staff had the majority of their expertise in RPG on IBM I, with little direct experience in other languages. Unfortunately, to get the team trained and then rewrite the applications would take a significant amount of time. Also, the cost of this rewrite was conservatively estimated to approach or exceed the estimated cost of the entire original application development effort. Finally, the inherent risks involved in such an endeavor would be substantial. Any piece of the fundamental existing business logic built into these applications could be missed or simply incorrectly interpreted, rendering the new application useless. And during the long development process, new enhancements to the current application would not be possible.

Buying new applications was another option. But new applications come with new business rules. Adapting the company to those new rules or attempting to adapt the new application to the company rules is a major challenge. Also, many interfaces to external applications and machines would have to be rebuilt, adding many of the same costs and risks associated with a rewrite.

In the end, migration of the existing CA 2E logic to a development tool capable of generating multiple languages to multiple platforms seemed to be the right option. It would preserve the investment in the current applications while providing the ability to deliver them in multiple interfaces depending on the user requirements. Automated migration of the code would also reduce the time required to deliver the new applications as well as many of the risks associated with a rewrite. Further, new enhancements could start as soon as the migration was validated.

The tools
CA Plex was chosen as the new development tool because of the long-term relationship with CA and its model-based development techniques that allow standards enforcement and easy re-use of existing tested code.

Formerly known as AllFusion Plex, CA Plex provides application development in a Windows environment and then compile and test them in the target environment such as Windows/.NET, Java/J2EE or the IBM System i. CA Plex supports the development of many different types of applications including client/server, web-based, service-oriented, character-based, and batch and wireless device-based—all from a single set of skills and development techniques. This has proven to reduce development time and deliver a solid, robust application.

CA Plex is a multi-platform, model-based, architected rapid application development (ARAD) tool that includes architectural and design objects known as patterns. By eliminating the need to code repeatable elements of applications, patterns significantly accelerate time required for projects, which in turn provides a significant cost savings.

ADC Austin provided the right tools—and training to use them
In this instance, ADC Austin was retained to serve as technical advisor, providing assistance with implementation and training of CA Plex, as well as the migration of the CA 2E model to the CA Plex model.

CA Plex training of existing CA 2E developers was done on-site, and with ADC Austin’s coaching, our client was able to easily understand both the similarities and the differences with the new technology set. Pattern definition and inheritance were key, so that development standards could be established from the start.

The migration tool built and executed by ADC Austin provided a working CA Plex model for the application. All database definitions and functional specifications were migrated, compiled and tested. Within a short period of time and very little intervention, the application was performing the same functions in both web-based and client/server interfaces from the same code.

ADC Austin’s pre-modernization analysis makes the difference
In most development shops, applications are built over many years, by many different developers. So it is inevitable that obsolete or unused objects will remain with the application. This was the case here. These objects were maintained year after year as new changes were introduced to the application, adding time and cost to each enhancement. There was little to no application documentation, and the original application designer was no longer with the company. Therefore, a better understanding of the application design was needed to complete the modernization effort.

ADC’s Application Mapping and Analysis (AMA) service was used to provide a complete, interactive model of the application design, augmented with expert analysis. A staggering 30% of the application was determined to be abandoned or no longer in use. As a result, this analysis helped improve development and maintenance productivity.

A robust and responsive Help Desk solution needed
In order to improve visibility into the status of change requests, the team was looking for a formal Help Desk solution that could be used across all development environments. The Help Desk would be accessible to developers across all company groups and would deliver complete visibility from incidents through to change requests and application development. The ideal solution would allow developers to work concurrently on large-scale projects and emergency fixes, offering faster andexpanded service to meet customer expectations established in Service Level Agreements (SLA). The solution also needed to be user friendly, providing a single interface for customers to enter Help Desk Tickets.

In line with their main objectives of increased visibility and heightened levels of customer service, the company also sought a solution that would effectively keep developers more focused on development tasks and less on administrative duties, based on the reasoning that efficiency would increase if the developers did not have to constantly enter the system to view tickets. They also hoped to resolve some auditing issues with respect to recovery and traceability, while being able to provide management with a quick and easy status update of where things stood at any given point in time.

A collaboration with MKS
A small group of the company’s personnel worked to familiarize themselves with the project requirements well in advance of initial meetings with outside vendors, and this proved to be crucial when it came to implementing the new solution within their three-week deadline. Already having a sound idea of the requirements for their new Help Desk solution, the project team worked alongside a team of MKS consultants, converting vision to reality and implementing a solution that addressed the challenges being faced.

The Help Desk Ticket was designed as a single screen to include:

• mandatory fields, with an automatic error message to be triggered when a user tried to submit a request with information missing from mandatory fields, along with event triggers to auto-populate non-mandatory fields upon submission of a request
• unique cascading pick lists in a three part category field, categorizing issues extensively so that the correct technical group could be assigned to deal with the change request
• the option to include a screen shot (or other attachments) as part of a change request in order to clear up any confusion that could result from ambiguous information being provided

Change requests at the company are now “batched” or grouped together as either “enhancements” or larger scale projects, with simple event triggers enabling automatic email notification for all stakeholders when status updates are made on certain issue types. The enforced workflow facilitates visibility of processes from start to finish, validating workflow by requiring an electronic signature to approve the movement of a ticket from one stage to another, while user-friendly charts offer valuable metrics to quickly analyze where IT is spending the majority of their time.

The MKS difference
The company ultimately decided to go with ADC’s strategic technology partner MKS over the competition because MKS Integrity could accommodate its requirement of allowing development to be able to have two models within CA2E, and MKS automatically keeps those models in synch with each other. Just three weeks after an initial onsite visit from MKS’s team of consultants, the company had successfully implemented MKS Integrity as their solution of choice, with positive results expected soon thereafter. It is MKS Integrity’s unsurpassed flexibility that has enabled the company to implement a solution that addresses their unique requirements.

A successful implementation
The ability to group change requests appropriately is facilitating concurrent work across multiple projects, allowing developers to respond to emergency fixes while larger scale project development is ongoing; mandatory fields are helping to increase efficiency in responding to Help Desk Tickets, since the necessary information is being captured at the time of original entry; and effective documentation of past ticket issues is allowing for more efficient resolution of future change requests, providing a more focused starting point for solving new but similar issues.

Moreover, automatic and comprehensive email notification is keeping developers more or less out of the Help Desk system when dealing with change requests, while improving overall visibility across all relevant parties. The end-user community has found the new Help Desk system more “straightforward and easy to use.” And finally, management is now able to quickly and easily access metrics to gain an instant snapshot of progress, and history tracking is improving overall workflow traceability, impressing internal users and external auditors alike.

A secondary challenge was to interconnect the new ERP with the PLCs, in order to have real-time information from the plant floor, and be interfaced with 10+ central corporate systems.

Lastly, the company needed to have a robust application capable of working on a 24 hours per day, seven days per week basis—while ensuring that the system could be operated by a wide variety of users.

The steel manufacturer ultimately decided that ADC Austin was the best option to accomplish these goals.

The ADC solution
ADC’S solution was based on the .NET platform, which enabled daily use by more than 250 users—including administrators, managers, supervisors and operators — over 3 daily shifts, all year round. Supported by ADC’s project management office and our methodologies, the solution was created by five teams of analysts, developers, testers and software architects, all working in tandem to ensure the best possible product.

ADC designed the training materials to meet the specific needs of the final user, and, additionally, training groups were organized three times a day to ensure that all three shifts received adequate instruction.

The results
ADC’s solution allowed the physical location of raw material to be displayed in 4 levels of depth, resulting in an optimization of time and motion in the operation of loading raw materials into the furnaces and rolling mills. In addition, ADC’s solution provided the plant autonomy to generate new product introductions, ensuring their compliance with corporate standards, without having to go through the centralized approval process. As a result, the time to enlist a new presentation dramatically decreased from 5 days—to just a few minutes.

What’s more, the company can now track the quality level of piece produced, in each of the 3 lines of lamination and 2 furnaces, and can even analyze multiple defects in a single unit, in order to take preventive actions and make appropriate corrections, all in real time.

Given the demanding timeline and the immense scope of the project, the manufacturer was extremely pleased with ADC’s solution.

Soliciting bids is a time-consuming task for this agency, and one that requires the utmost accuracy. In the past, it has used several separate applications and manual processes involving emailing, telephoning, and hand typing. Unfortunately, the system often led to the duplication of data, inconsistencies in data structure, manual calculation, and the rekeying of information. The construction-management team wanted a more consistent and efficient way to organize its data and processes.

Creating a new system
The agency designed a web-based system running on an IBM i back-end server with an IBM DB2 database to handle the soliciting process. The design focused on fixed procedures, confidentiality, the publishing of data on the web, and workflow that called for sequential performance. The solution consolidates old applications and incorporates the new functionality within the agency’s line-of-business Plex application using Websydian for the web application to display on the website.

Saving time and money
The time it takes to initiate, approve, and report project bid advertisements and awards has decreased, and all data is now located in one place for ease in reporting and managing. The internal reporting is also consistent and accurate.

Altogether, these improvements have resulted in a solution that shortens the processing time for project bid advertisements, benefitting the agency and the public. The number of applications have been reduced and duplicate data and work processes eliminated—as well as manual calculation and the re-keying of information.

The agency develops the client server applications with CA Plex on Windows and the web applications with Websydian v5.6 and the Apache server as middleware. The solution has easily handled the workload, which can spike substantially on publication days for notifications and review results.

Preparing for tomorrow’s challenges

The agency’s team members are confident that web-based applications can solve more of their process issues. The next feature they are ready to tackle is an online portal in which contractors, architects, and engineers can submit required project information directly into the agency system via the website.

After careful consideration, the agency chose ADC Austin for the web development tooling required for the project. ADC Austin was chosen because of its excellent reputation as a technical adviser and reseller, as well as its track record in providing training and technical services for companies using CA Plex and Websydian products.

“Security is a major issue in these kinds of features,” says John Rhodes, principal architect at ADC Austin. “The state agency has decided to use the Websydian web-product, WebClient, to develop the application. With WebClient, users sign all web pages with an MD2 algorithm, so not one pixel can be changed or accessed without authorization. Furthermore, it has a high degree of usability both in the development phase and in production,” Rhodes adds.

The tools
Formerly known as AllFusion Plex, CA Plex helps users develop applications in a Windows environment and then compile and test them in a target environment such as the IBM i. CA Plex supports the development of many different types of applications, including client/server, web-based, service-oriented, character-based, and batch and wireless device-based, all from a single set of skills and development techniques.

CA Plex is a multi-platform, model-based, architected rapid application development (ARAD) tool that includes architectural and design objects known as patterns. By eliminating the need to code repeatable elements of applications, patterns significantly accelerate the time required for projects, which in turn provides a cost savings.

Developed for CA Plex, RPG, and CA 2E users, Websydian is a suite of tools and products for web development, web services, SOA, RIA, and XML. ADC supplies the i community with application modernization and vertical products, custom development, technical training, and document-management solutions.

The agency reports they are very pleased with the on-demand project assistance they have received from ADC Austin.