To Modernize or Not to Modernize

“We chose Nexaweb because we needed a solution that would allow us to modernize ETS to a web architecture. They came to the table with a methodology and worked with our management and IT teams to customize a set of best practices specific to our architecture and existing IT assets”
-Chief Information Officer, Consumer Packaging & Logistics Company

Typically, organizations face three main challenges when looking at application modernization and organizational transformation. The first is the inability to easily and completely understand the business logic locked into their legacy portfolio. Quite often, these tend to be mission-critical applications and the business risk of not accurately capturing the all of the logic cannot be tolerated. The second challenge these organizations face is lack of a standards-based technology platform that can provide the same or better performance, usability, and functionality of the legacy client server applications, but delivered in a centrally-managed browser-based client. Finally, the third challenge is the cost of traditional methods of modernization that are manually intensive, risk and error-prone, and often unrepeatable across legacy technologies because of the lack of automation and the reliance on language specific skills and resources.

Nexaweb Technology and Services directly contribute to the increase in operational efficiencies of its customers. Nexaweb is the only company who provides a process and platform that addresses all three challenges above. By using the web to deliver business process and information to the right people at the right time, Nexaweb customers are able to better service their internal employees and business partners via a standards-based, ubiquitous platform such as JEE/Java.

In order to achieve the desired levels of efficiency, the imperative is to reach an understanding of the business process and underlying logic within any single application and across multiple applications to recognize and take advantage of any re-use and synergies. Without full understanding of the application's business and technical logic, it is impossible to know where there is duplication of effort and function, and where efficiencies can be gained. Realizing these efficiencies not only lead to lower maintenance and development costs of future enhancements, and even new projects, but also to the consistency and compliance of the process those functions serve. Nexaweb provides a means to realize these efficiencies by documenting all details of the legacy system at the application, data, and interface layers. This process spans across applications to enable enterprises to effectively plan and prioritize its modernization efforts.

However, understanding is only half the battle. Nexaweb provides the tooling, best practices, and experts to take the knowledge captured and produce transformed applications through a repeatable process that results in highly maintainable business applications delivered over the web. In contrast, manual re-writing, black-box code translation tools, and other approaches tend to be disjointed efforts that open the door to risk, cost over runs, and project delays/failure. Nexaweb Advance^sm is the only integrated cataloguing (capture, re-factor) and modernization (re-compose, deploy) strategy which reduces the risk and cost, as well as providing a robust web technology platform which meets the complex and wide spectrum of end-user functionality and usability.

Meeting the Challenges of Modernization

Nexaweb Advance consists of three main steps to successful modernization of legacy applications and each phase maps to the three main challenges companies face during modernization initiatives.

Risk, Cost, and poor technology decisions are barriers to any modernization project, and any one of these can cause significant delays, project failures, or even projects to not start at all. Nexaweb Advance is the only end to end solution for modernizing legacy languages such as PowerBuilder to a JEE/Rich Internet Application architecture that addresses these challenges, as summarized below.

Risk: the Capture Phase of Nexaweb Advance greatly mitigates the risk of moving off undocumented legacy applications by documenting all of the critical business logic trapped in the legacy application. The output of the process also reduces future risk by creating easily maintained/enhanced, standards-based applications that leverage the vast Java ecosystem.

Cost: During a modernization project, Nexaweb Advance leverages a high degree of automation for the steps required in re-platforming that are typically error-prone and labor intensive, including the capture of the business logic, the creation of the new application code, and the design and implementation of a highly-productive user experience for end users. In addition, the TCO of the new application is greatly reduced because it will exploit all of the benefits of web applications, including lower development/maintenance/deployment costs, lower costs and availability of Java resources, an ease of integration with other applications/SOA architectures, etc.

Technology: Nexaweb's vast experience and history as a pioneer in the Rich Internet Application industry has shown us that traditional methods and technologies for delivering complex, mission-critical applications over the web are not adequate for re-platforming initiatives for many legacy applications. Nexaweb has a unique ability to deliver the same (or better) usability, performance, security, features, etc. that end users expect from their client/server applications, but through any standard web-browser. Our architecture provides the flexibility for enterprise architects and business owners to create the right application for the job, and not be forced to live with the limitations of using an inappropriate web technology for the task at hand. This provides the optimal blend of price/performance for the application(s) a standards-based approach means that CIOs will not be facing similar decisions in 10 years.

A Better Application

Completeness and sensible automation are big contributors to the ROI of modernization with Nexaweb Advance. However, being able to add new functionality, change workflow, and consolidate functions, ongoing business productivity benefits are the biggest value drivers. Nexaweb Advance tools make it very easy to reconfigure a more productive user experience that often produces payback periods for modernization of one year or less. Risks and costs are reduced, yet flexibility and agility are enhanced. If these are the goals, then why not modernize?