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Sunnyvale, CA, December
5, 2005
- Using NetCOBOL for .NET™, West Covina Service Group (WCSG),
an enterprise division of the City of West Covina, and a section
of West Covina Police Department, has turned a potential disaster
(an end-of-life announcement for the HP3000) into a tremendous opportunity
for the future. Applications, such as computer-aided dispatch, that
provide critical services for the City of West Covina and 29 other
client agencies, have been migrated from the HP3000 to Microsoft’s
.NET framework, “opening up a new world of possibilities,”
according to Vern Morton, software development manager for WCSG.
No Longer Trapped
For WCSG this means that instead of feeling trapped by the character-style
interfaces and functionality provided by a single vendor, their
applications can move into the 21st century using graphical interfaces,
taking advantage of the advanced controls available, with access
to tools, technologies and utilities from many different companies.
For organizations in
similar situations, WCSG has demonstrated that existing COBOL code
is an asset that can be preserved and enhanced by moving it to Microsoft’s
leading edge .NET Framework. WCSG accomplished this with careful
planning and execution, helped by a willingness to tackle apparent
roadblocks, such as the character-based ViewPlus HP3000 interfaces,
and with a little creativity (writing their own routines to convert
these to WinForms - ASP.NET pages).
Describing their motivations
and benefits, Morton said, “We selected .NET and NetCOBOL®,
because we have a very large investment in applications that work
very well, and could be enhanced with new features. Moving to .NET
allows us to build on what we have and expand to areas that were
previously out-of-range – actually opening up a whole new
world. Since we did not have to spend resources rewriting software,
we have been able to move much more quickly.”
Project Summary
Using a tight-knit team of six programmers and two support personnel,
WCSG migrated more than 1,000 programs (more than 1 million lines
of code) in less than 12 months. All the COBOL code was migrated
to Fujitsu Software’s NetCOBOL for .NET; data that was stored
in HP’s TurboImage database was moved to Microsoft SQL Server.
Some critical interfaces were rewritten using Microsoft’s
C#, with the remainder converted to WinForms automatically by some
in-house-created utilities. A multi-layer architecture was selected
with separate servers for Web, application and database layers.
Extensive testing was performed before these critical systems were
placed in production to ensure a smooth transition for WCSG’s
users.
More
Information
For the full story and more details about NetCOBOL for Windows go to:
http://www.netcobol.com.
About Fujitsu Software Corporation
Fujitsu Software Corporation, based in Sunnyvale, California, is
part of the Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) family. The wholly owned
subsidiary delivers one of the world’s broadest lines of application
infrastructure software products, including the Interstage®
Suite and NetCOBOL®. Fujitsu Software Corporation leverages
Fujitsu’s international scope and expertise in developing
and providing information technology solutions, including more than
4,000 software developers worldwide. To learn more about Fujitsu
Software Corporation, visit www.fsw.fujitsu.com.
About Fujitsu
Fujitsu is a leading provider of customer-focused IT and communications
solutions for the global marketplace. Pace-setting device technologies,
highly reliable computing and communications products, and a worldwide
corps of systems and services experts uniquely position Fujitsu
to deliver comprehensive solutions that open up infinite possibilities
for its customers' success. Headquartered in Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited
(TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 4.7 trillion yen (US$44.5
billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005. For more information,
please see: www.fujitsu.com.
Copyright
2005 Fujitsu Software Corporation.
Fujitsu, the Fujitsu Symbol Mark, Interstage, and NetCOBOL are registered
trademarks of Fujitsu Limited.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners
More
Information
Fujitsu
Software Corporation
Andrew Mackenzie
(408) 746-6323
andrewm@us.fujitsu.com
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