Sydney, November 11, 2003
A powerful automation solution, backed by integrated legacy migration services from Fujitsu Australia, can halve legacy system migration costs by automating more than 95 per cent of the software conversion process for organisations seeking new options for core business applications.
"Whether an organisation simply needs to add a Web front-end and e-commerce capabilities to a single application or completely migrate away from an obsolete environment, Fujitsu offers a single point for all legacy transformation requirements," said Dan O'Hara, Fujitsu's Executive General Manager Solutions.
Customers stand to benefit through lower transformation costs, faster migration and less risk as a result of Fujitsu's partnership with Australian legacy migration specialist Quipoz Pty Limited. This relationship gives customers access to the Australian-based company's revolutionary transformation methodology backed by Fujitsu's market strength and proven project management, systems integration and legacy transformation skills.
QBE Insurance Asia Pacific Operations was the first Fujitsu customer to use the Quipoz process and it has enjoyed exceptional results. The insurer used Quipoz to fully document the business rules used in its AS400-based core business application being developed for roll-out in Asia Pacific.
"The documentation generated through the Quipoz methodology exceeded our expectations in terms of clarity, accuracy and completeness," said Ian Hannam, Group Manager - Operational Risk, QBE Insurance.
Fujitsu's aim is to cut IT maintenance costs in half by transforming corporate legacy systems into independent applications that run in modern environments. What makes this service unique is that it achieves this goal without the added cost of complex middleware.
Moreover, the innovative Quipoz Transformation Engine (Q-TE) enables more than 95 percent of the transformation process to be completely automated. This dramatically reduces the time and expense involved in modernising legacy systems.
Q-TE delivers platform-independent source code in a customer-specified language. It is suitable for a wide array of environments and is ready for further enhancement through relational database and object-oriented technologies.
In addition, the transformation methodology delivers a full set of business logic written out in plain English on an easy-to-use browser-based tool. This helps business and technology managers understand how their legacy applications actually work - a fundamental step that positions organisations to tackle business process re-engineering sooner.
"Fujitsu's partnership with Quipoz is a great example of how we support the local industry by looking for pioneering Australian companies with complementary products that really benefit our customers," said Mr O'Hara.
"Quipoz has developed a universal representation model that can analyse almost any programming language and produce accurate documentation. Its plain English explanations help IT managers understand their mission-critical business applications thoroughly, while the automatic conversion features of Q-TE can slash the cost of migration projects."
The Quipoz automation technology complements Fujitsu's established legacy transformation skills and experience across requirements such as Web-enablement, e-commerce integration, database conversion, platform migration, application enhancement and full system upgrades.
"Legacy systems can be difficult to maintain, costly to operate and restricted in their ability to adapt to new business requirements. At the same time, there are many reasons why large organisations may not want to convert functioning legacy applications, including the high risk and cost involved in the migration process," Mr O'Hara said.
"Fujitsu's legacy transformation services reduce both risk and cost, enabling major enterprises to make business-driven decisions about when they want to modernise their most important IT environments. Our approach lets organisations opt for simple web-enablement, specific application conversions or wholesale transformations, depending on whether they need to achieve greater access, improved performance, reduced cost or sweeping change." Fujitsu's legacy conversion software includes tools for migrating business applications from host systems to modern platforms as well as a rapid application development and deployment environment for database conversions. Fujitsu supports these tools with nationwide consulting and project management services to offer a range of solutions to customers undertaking legacy transformation projects.
Phone: +61 (02) 9776 4799 
E-mail: gillian.lamrock@fujitsu.com.au
