KEOUS Has Migration Projects Ranging from Thousands to Billions of Transactions for Financial Services Firms to its New Name

Named after the Titan of intelligence in Greek mythology, KEOUS Solutions Inc., pronounced, “key us,” formerly known as Cratos, is a solutions-oriented company that is 100% focused on system/application migration and modernization. Their services include application portfolio analysis (APM), code migration and conversion, data migration, new system development, customization/enhancements, system maintenance and production support.

According to Andrew Wickett, president, KEOUS has worked internationally with customers and projects in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, Korea, the UK, Poland and Russia on migration projects ranging from thousands to billions of transactions for financial services and insurance firms.

WFS: Andrew, for years we knew your firm as Cratos. Now as KEOUS, what should we know?

AW: We have a new owner and we are re-focused 100% on legacy modernization and migration – so we felt we needed new branding. In partnership with our parent company, PROCOM, we have access to offices located throughout the US and Canada. Mind you, we’re still a certified Micro Focus partner, a member of their BETA testing team, member of the Micro Focus Partner Advisory Council and, of course, a member of the Mainframe Migration Alliance.

Although our name has changed, we still specialize in mainframe consulting, especially conversions, migrations and application software upgrades.

WFS: Andrew, what type of solutions do you offer?

AW: For application migration, we offer a variety of solutions that allow you to run your existing applications and systems in a more cost-effective environment with little or no change to your systems. For application modernization, we focus on modernizing legacy applications to give them a leading edge advantage through the implementation of the latest industry standards, such as GUI front-ends and new databases.

WFS: You stress the importance of ‘partnering’ with your clients, don’t you?

AW: It’s essential that our team and clients’ teams work as one from the beginning to the end of the project to ensure a seamless transition. Working in partnership helps us determine the optimal approach for your project. Whether you need to outsource the entire project or have an outside company provide resources to complement their project team, we can provide seamless service on-site or remotely.

WFS: Is it true that you offer a proof-of-concept – at no cost?

AW: We do that to demonstrate that we have the knowledge and tools to manage your system migration/modernization. Through the proof-of-concept, we will review existing application code and your environment, outline a high-level project plan and approach, migrate sample programs or sub-system and provide a fixed price proposal.

But that’s not all. We also provide a one-year warranty with all deliverables, beginning from production implementation, not delivery, maximizing your coverage.

WFS: When you meet with prospective clients, how do you explain the benefits of migrating?

AW: Whether you are looking to reduce IT hardware or software costs, improve system agility or increase system functionality or continued system availability, a successful migration can give you these benefits plus an ROI delivered in months, not years.

WFS: Then again, migrating your system does not have to mean replacing it with a brand-new system.

AW: That’s right. There are various approaches that your company can take. After reviewing your current system, we help you determine a migration strategy best for your firm.

WFS: Who is a candidate today?

AW: Actually, any company with a mainframe environment is a candidate for portfolio analysis, and based on the results, we can recommend systems for migration or modernization. Typically, these firms either require 100% application availability or are processing thousands of transactions per second. Which means, they need the assistance of a third-party migration specialist to provide the technical expertise required to make the migration successful.

WFS: And KEOUS is a recognized ‘lift and shift’ migration specialist?

AW: We are. Businesses running legacy apps on mainframes or mid-range servers should consider ‘lift and shift’ to significantly lower the TCO. In our opinion, ‘lift and shift’ is considered the most attractive approach to migration by many firms because it allows you to use your existing CICS code and run it within the Windows environment. Without having to change current programming, you’re able to take advantage of the features and functionality offered by Windows. Plus, application knowledge is maintained; there is a reduction in development cost, an increase in system agility and lower ongoing hardware/software costs.

WFS: You also specialize in ‘leverage and extend,’ don’t you?

AW: Yes. As part of many of our migration projects, the client ‘leverages’ their existing system and ’extends’ it to include functionality such as Web services, XML interfaces, GUI front-end and new database.

WFS: What type of firm uses ‘leverage and extend?’

AW: Firms with a strategic commitment to existing delivery platforms, but need to introduce new features and functionality. In most cases, these enhancements weren’t feasible in the legacy environment.

WFS: With all that experience under your belt, what are the key steps to a successful migration?

AW: Always keep it simple and have a good regression plan and methodology. Change as little as possible to get to the new environment. And once it’s running smoothly in the new environment, begin any necessary modifications.

WFS: What first led you to partner with Micro Focus?

AW: Micro Focus allows us to use a PC or a laptop to simulate a mainframe, including connectivity to sign-on, enter data, run batches and reports, to name a few items. With Micro Focus, we are able to provide clients with significant travel savings during the project and the ability to work and provide ongoing production support 24/7. Their development tools also enable customers to extend their systems.

We’ve successfully demonstrated this capability to our clients, supporting the Micro Focus tools.

WFS: That’s the KEOUS migration toolkit?

AW: It is a 10-step methodology that we developed specifically for migration projects.

WFS: Give us a few examples.

AW: It all starts with a full inventory of the applications. At this point, we can determine the scope and identify any challenges. Then we develop a detailed plan and begin the setup of a reference environment. We can then move system inventory from the mainframe into the target environment component by component. This includes code migration/conversion, data migration, redevelopment of components, removing any ‘mainframe-specific’ elements, modernizing the presentation layer, separating the presentation/business rules/data and the testing phases.

WFS: You’ve also created your own toolbox, haven’t you?

AW: Over the years, our teams have worked on many projects where we needed to write our own tools to help with automating some tasks. These tools have matured. While we do not offer these tools as commercial applications, we would be very happy to help customers with their projects and supply our tools and expertise to get the job done.

WFS: Last question: why turn to KEOUS?

AW: We believe great companies are built over time with teamwork, communication and the efforts of talented and committed people. This is reflected in the way we work with our customers, partners and team members. Frankly, our customers have come to depend on us to be leaders in innovation, quality and service. In return, I like to think that we respond to their needs with speed, agility and a ‘can do’ attitude.