Modernizing Legacy IBM i Application

About the Client

Based in Fort Worth, Texas, the client is a valuation consultant firm specializing in mass and specialty appraisals for industries like large industrial, oil and gas, and real estate. Along with valuation services, it provides end-to-end cartography, IT, mailing, and printing solutions.

Industry:Technology
Team Size: 5 Developers and 1 Architect
Project Tenure: Multi-year

Key Deliverables

Deciphering and understanding a legacy green-screen-based AS400 system
Transforming a green screen interface into a modern and intuitive web UI
Addressing long-pending customizations during new system development
Supporting new APIs and services with existing partner and third-party systems
Designing a system that could support diverse deployment environments
Ensuring system accessibility and optimal performance while migrating
Managing numerous reports and replicating their functionality in a new web application
Safeguarding a large amount of business-critical data during the transition

Prime Challenges

The client’s green screen-based AS400 application was difficult to access remotely and had limited options for usability.
New employees had to follow a steep learning curve before working on the application.
The legacy application was difficult to scale and accommodate growing business needs.
There was a lack of IBM i/AS400 talent to manage and maintain the application.
The application required high maintenance costs and complex enhancement efforts.
The report-centric application required significant development efforts to create diverse format-based reports or modify existing ones.

Proposed Solution

Initial Migration Steps: The team conducted a thorough assessment of the technical environment and business needs before deciding to transition the application into a web-based solution using modern technologies.
Considerations: They started jotting down the factors that may affect the overall system to ensure it runs simultaneously and is accessible during migration.
Customization Enablement: The team intends to make the application easy to amend and enhance as per the client’s requirements.
Usability Enhancement: They aim to transition the model in a way that enables business users with domain knowledge to operate the application.
Maintenance Reduction: The team wants to make the application an API-based one that can help lower infrastructure and maintenance efforts and costs.
Scalability Improvement: They intend to ensure the application can be scaled horizontally and vertically when business requirements grow and application loads increase.
Business Intelligence Tool Integration: The team aims to integrate a business intelligence tool that would simplify report creation and modification irrespective of their formats.
Deployment Decisions: They plan to deploy the application on the IBM i server initially, which can be transferred to their preferred servers in the future.