Customer in Focus Pamela Cunningham, Lynn Richardson & Brian Erickson

Nationwide

• Introductions

• Project Overview

• How We Got Started

• Project Milestones/Key Components

• Project Issues, Risks & Successes

• Future Strategic Direction

• Q&A

2

Session Agenda

• Lynn Richardson – Consultant

• Brian Erickson – Senior Developer

• Pam Cunningham – Manager

3

Introductions

• ALS

– Variable Life Insurance Administrative System

– 500 end users

– Lots of interfaces with other systems

• LCS

– Life Insurance Commission System

– 100 end users

• Project/break-fix team

– 6 developers

4

Our Applications

• Development Software Upgrade – Micro Focus Net Express 3.1 to Visual COBOL 2.0

• Database Upgrade – Oracle 9i to Oracle 11g

• Platform Migration – Unix Solaris to Window 2008 R2

5

Project Overview

• 10+ years behind

• Lapsed maintenance agreement with Micro Focus; running on unsupported development tools

• Cannot deploy modern UI due to older version of Net Express

• Licensing server for Net Express had stopped functioning

6

Development Software Upgrade

• COBOL vs ‘modern’ languages

• Visual Cobol 2.0 vs Net Express 5.1

• Re-use of proven assets

• Visual COBOL is an emerging standard and can allow other language developers to transition more easily

• YES – we COBOL!

7

Development Software Upgrade

• Application Servers were due for replacement in 2012 – Nationwide has a rolling 3-4 years server currency roadmap

• UNIX infrastructure is more costly than Windows

• Different deployment environments between batch & online

• .NET tool support

• Windows Active Directory Authentication

8

Platform Migration

• Current version of Net Express could not support latest version of Oracle

• Current Oracle 9i databases – Were out of direct Oracle support as of September 2011

– Had known security vulnerability

• Oracle database servers needed replaced and migrated to Linux OS

9

Database Upgrade

• Software Purchase (Oct 2011)

• Training (Nov 2011) – Visual COBOL & Visual Studio

• Project Kickoff Meeting (Mar 2012) – 1 week onsite visit from Micro Focus

• Core Team

• Skills Assessment

10

How We Got Started

• Analysis (Dec 2011 – March 2012) – Current State documentation, PERL, Interfaces/Handoff’s

• Conversion (March 2012 – June 2012) – Revolve Utility to purge unused modules

• Testing (July 2012 – Feb 2013) – Unit Testing

– Integrated/Alpha Testing

– Systems/Beta Testing

– Parallel Testing (on the yet to be live PRODUCTION box!)

• Implementation – February 22-23, 2013

11

Project Milestones/Timeline

• COBOL Programs/LOC – 1269 programs/1,260,700 LOC

– 638 copybooks & screen sets/82,600 LOC

– 200 dialog systems files

• PERL Scripts – 334 scripts

• Databases – 2 databases

– 63 tables

• Files – 160 ISAM

• Interface with 24 Application Teams

12

Project Key Components

13

• Carriage Control – Ensure no changes to interfaces

• ASCII vs EBCDIC – Special code set for high values

• Oracle Issues – .NET environment does not support ProCOBOL pre-compiler

– ProCOBOL vs Open ESQL

• Fileshare

• Visual COBOL Directives

• Cicero Interface

14

Project Key Issues & Risks

• End users no longer timeout of online systems

• Supported and stable platforms

• Developers increased knowledge and understanding

• Application Simplification – Obsolete unneeded functions, reports, and code

– Move to one platform

• Project implementation planning was almost perfect!

• Excellent Micro Focus support – Cicero vendor

15

Project Successes

• IT Value – Technical Knowledge

– Users (Gen Y & Millennials)

• Build Server using Team Foundation Server (TFS)

• Users Love our IT Solutions – Redesign Online Screens for LCS

16

Future Strategic Direction

17

Future Strategic Direction – Current State Rate Screen

- Character/Terminal Screen Look

- Fixed Size Screen – No Scaling

- Static Field Layouts (unused fields)

- No Clipboard = No Copy & Paste

- Lots to memorize…

18

Future Strategic Direction – Future State Rate Screen

- Modern Look.

- Stretchable Size Screen –Scales

- Dynamic Field Layouts (no unused fields)

- Clipboard Available = Less rekeying

- Drop-Down Lists (allowed values listed)

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