Case Study Highlights
Industry: Manufacturing
Technology Legacy: IBM i (AS/400)
Core Operations:
- Production control
- Inventory management
- Order entry
- Customer item tracking
Technology Approach: Hybrid transformation from RPG to JavaScript with phased implementation
The Challenge
In the rapidly evolving manufacturing technology landscape, this major manufacturer found itself at a critical crossroads where their reliable but aging systems threatened to become a liability rather than an asset.
Like many organizations with legacy IBM i applications, they encountered several critical challenges:
- Limited Programming Resources: The pool of qualified RPG developers was shrinking as veteran programmers retired, making it increasingly difficult to maintain and enhance their systems.
- Legacy Codebase Issues: Their applications, built in RPG and CL, had accumulated technical debt over decades, making modifications complex and time-consuming.
- Testing and Change Management Gaps: The absence of standardized testing methodology and proper change management created risks when implementing modifications. Additionally, the team was developing directly on their production system, which introduced significant risk.
- Aging User Interface: The traditional 5250 green screen interface impacted employee satisfaction, training time, and operational efficiency.
The Vision
Rather than accepting the inevitable decline of their legacy systems, leadership developed a bold strategy to transform their technological foundation while preserving decades of operational excellence.
Their futurization vision focused on:
- Replacing their legacy RPG codebase with modern, open-source technologies
- Implementing a web-based user interface to improve usability and training
- Establishing standardized testing methodologies and change management
- Creating access to a larger pool of development talent for future enhancements
- Maintaining the reliable business logic that had been fine-tuned over decades
Most importantly, they needed a solution that wouldn’t disrupt ongoing operations or require a complete system replacement.
The Solution
After evaluating several options, this manufacturer chose Profound Logic for its comprehensive approach to legacy futurization and its unique ability to deliver transformation with minimal risk.
Taking a surgical approach to legacy transformation, Profound Logic crafted a customized strategy that minimized risk while maximizing business continuity throughout the process.
Based on the Profound Discovery results, a hybrid approach was recommended that combined:
- Automated Code Conversion: Using specialized technology developed over many years, Profound Logic automatically converted much of the legacy DDS and RPG code to modern JSON, Node.js, and JavaScript.
- Targeted Rewrites: For certain portions of code that weren’t suitable for automated conversion, Profound Logic implemented rewrites using JavaScript programming and low-code methods.
- Third-Party Integration: Where appropriate, modern third-party tools, APIs, and open-source Node.js packages were integrated.
- Phased Implementation: Rather than a high-risk “big bang” approach, the transformation was implemented in phases, allowing both old and new systems to coexist during transition.
Key Components of the Solution
Profound Logic worked closely with the company’s team to identify the right tools and technologies for each layer of the transformation. Rather than applying a one-size-fits-all solution, the approach was tailored to the organization’s specific workflows, priorities, and long-term goals.
- JavaScript Transformation: Converting RPG programs to enterprise JavaScript, providing access to the world’s largest repository of software packages and a vast pool of JavaScript developers.
- Rich Display Web Interface: Replacing the 5250 green-screen interfaces with browser-based Rich Displays built on HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript.
- Atrium Enterprise Portal: Implementing a comprehensive menu system to tie all applications into an intuitive, easy-to-use browser interface.
- DevOps Implementation: Setting up proper testing environments, source control with Git, and deployment automation with Azure DevOps.
- Testing and Change Management: The Profound Logic team helped create a development partition for better development and pre-implementation testing practices and change management.
The Results
The partnership yielded transformative outcomes that extended far beyond mere technical upgrades, delivering tangible business value across multiple dimensions of the organization.
The impact on talent acquisition was immediate and dramatic. Where the company had previously spent months searching for qualified RPG developers, they now had access to a vast and readily available pool of JavaScript talent, a difference the HR team described as night and day.
Improved User Experience
The modern web-based interface resulted in
- 40% reduction in training time for new employees
- Significant improvement in user satisfaction scores
- Ability to access applications from any device with a browser, including handheld scanning devices
Enhanced Development Agility
With modular, testable code
- Development time for new features decreased by approximately 35%
- Defect rates in new development dropped by 50%
- Time to deploy changes reduced from weeks to days
Technical Benefits
- Complete preservation of critical business logic
- Improved/modern coding standardization
- Enhanced security via user access controls implemented with the Profound AppDev Atrium menu system
- Improved performance for key business processes
- Foundation for future integration with cloud services, AI, and other modern technologies
Cost Benefits
- Reduced maintenance costs due to simpler codebase
- Lower recruitment costs due to larger talent pool
- Avoided the multi-million-dollar expense of a complete system replacement
- Preserved decades of investment in custom business logic
Platform Flexibility
While the company chose to keep their transformed applications on the IBM i platform for the immediate future, the futurization delivered significant strategic flexibility. The JavaScript codebase is now completely platform-agnostic, giving them the freedom to migrate to cloud, Linux, or Windows environments when business needs dictate, without requiring another major conversion effort.
Leadership was particularly encouraged that Profound Logic’s solution avoided platform lock-in, allowing the company to leverage their existing IBM i infrastructure today while maintaining a clear and low-effort path to the cloud or other environments in the future.
Budget and Timeline Management
The project came in exactly on budget. The timeline extended beyond initial projections, driven by scope refinements, additional integration requirements, and extended testing cycles. All of these were collaborative decisions made to protect business continuity and improve the final outcome. The result was a better solution than originally scoped, delivered without financial surprises.
The Partnership Experience
Throughout the project, this manufacturer found that Profound Logic’s approach to partnership distinguished them from other vendors. Leadership described the futurization as positioning the company light years ahead of their previous systems, with the development team expressing strong confidence in the outcome.
The overall collaboration was regarded as a success, with the company feeling well-supported throughout the engagement and looking forward to accelerating their initiatives with the new tools in place.
Key aspects of the partnership included:
- Regular steering committee meetings to ensure alignment with business goals
- Knowledge transfer sessions to enable the team to maintain the new system
- Responsive project management that adapted to changing business priorities
- Transparent and frequent communication about progress, challenges, and solutions (including real-time project progress statistics and weekly written status reports)
- Interactive project board for collaborative testing and remediation
Lessons Learned
Throughout this ambitious futurization journey, the team gained valuable insights that can serve as a roadmap for other organizations contemplating similar transformations.
- Start with a comprehensive analysis: The Profound Discovery analysis provided crucial visibility into the scope and complexity of the transformation.
- Prioritize based on business value: Focusing initial transformation efforts on high-impact areas helped deliver early wins.
- Leverage automation where possible: Profound Logic’s one-of-a-kind automated conversion tools significantly reduced risk and cost compared to manual rewrites.
- Plan for coexistence: The ability to run legacy and transformed applications side-by-side was critical for business continuity.
- Invest in proper environments: Establishing proper development and testing environments early was essential for quality assurance.
- Consider future platform flexibility: Even if immediate migration isn’t planned, the platform independence of the transformed applications provides valuable strategic options.
Conclusion
Profound Logic’s futurization approach gave this manufacturer a modern, platform-agnostic codebase without disrupting operations or sacrificing decades of embedded business logic.
Leadership’s only regret was not starting sooner
For more information on how Profound Logic can futurize your business operations, contact us at Futurization@ProfoundLogic.com.