 |
Computrol Releases eBASEŽ S/390 e-Commerce Application Integrator
St. Louis, MO. - December 21, 2000 -- Computrol, Inc. today announced the release of its eBASEŽ S/390 e-Commerce Application Integrator as part of its growing family of eBASE products. The eBASE S/390 e-Commerce Application Integrator is a component-based technology to provide access and control of S/390 legacy data for new e-commerce applications through one central location. The eBASE S/390 e-Commerce Application Integrator's reusable components include a highly integrated set of on-demand functions to read and write against S/390 databases or other files from an external PC working with the control functions of an on-line transaction processor such as IBM's CICS Transaction Server or earlier versions of CICS. Security, personalization, audit trails and data integrity features are just some of the additional reusable components which are available on-demand. "Anyone who has attempted to use legacy data with new Web tools or new e-commerce analytical applications such as CRM, SCM or ERP knows that the time and cost of gaining access and control of the required data represent perhaps the major hurdles in implementing new e-commerce technologies," said Holly Fuller, Executive Vice President of Computrol. "The implementation cost may be as much as five to ten or more times the cost of the software. Much of this complexity and the related cost arises because legacy systems were not historically developed with separate processing logic and presentation layers and may involve hundreds or thousands of hard-coded transactions and interfaces." "Extending legacy mainframe applications through new e-business channels such as the Web, wireless devices or even new e-commerce applications has quickly become a major priority for almost every large business organization," said Mike Allen, President of Computrol. "By some estimates, at least 70% of the world's data resides on the S/390 and most of it is likely to remain there. While that data represents a valuable asset, its value to an organization can be greatly enhanced if there is a highly effective way to gather, aggregate and manage it in today's fast-changing and complex e-commerce world. Much of what is happening in today's e-marketplaces is just a superficial connection between buyers and sellers while what is needed is true back-end integration. The eBASE S/390 e-Commerce Application Integrator represents a major advancement in managing legacy data in databases such as IBM's VSAM, DB2 or IMS and providing a simple yet powerful means of integrating back-end processes in an e-commerce environment." "Businesses cannot afford to implement new e-commerce initiatives by replicating the complex integration schemes of the past," added Holly Fuller. "However, the solution to this problem has been elusive because none of the current accessing approaches handles all of an organization's needs. So each new e-commerce technology requires a different accessing solution with additional implementation costs and compounded maintenance costs. As more and more e-commerce solutions are implemented, adding additional layers of integration becomes prohibitively expensive and unmanageable. "Technologies such as 'screen scrapers,' emulators, reusable API's, data replication on a server and new code generation are all being tried in an effort to access valuable data stored on the S/390. Yet, while each of these alternatives has some benefits, each also has major disadvantages and therefore is usable only in limited situations," stated Richard Barker, Computrol's Director of Technology for eBASE. "The eBASE S/390 e-Commerce Application Integrator eliminates that complexity and greatly reduces costs by accessing all legacy data through a single set of reusable components on the S/390 without affecting the legacy programs." "The Gartner Group asserts that organizations that are not using component-based development should be," added Mike Allen. "Their outlook is that, through 2005, IS organizations that are mature in CBD methods, with a large inventory of business components, have the potential to be five to ten times more productive and responsive than those that are not. For this reason, evolution to a new generation of technology like the eBASE S/390 e-Commerce Application Integrator is required to accommodate rapid application development and maintenance in a Web-to-host environment. And rather than providing a single solution for specific problems, the eBASE S/390 e-Commerce Application Integrator provides a true legacy extension 'strategy' because it allows the use of a single set of common functions which are used across all S/390 applications and to all delivery channels." About Computrol Computrol, Inc. is a software development and services company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1975, Computrol has designed, developed and installed major business applications for many of the top Fortune 500 companies. Much of the eBASE technology consists of the reusable S/390 components that have been used by Computrol's customers in major applications for many years. The eBASE family of products includes the eBASE Application Generator, the eBASE DB2 Dynamic Processor, the eBASE S/390 e-Commerce Application Integrator and other products for using legacy data in an e-commerce environment. eBASE operates under IBM's MVS, OS/390 or zOS.
|
