EDS SOLCORP’s INGENIUM Policy Administration System Migrated to Microsoft .NET Framework with Micro Focus Lift and Shift™

In April 2004 Micro Focus and Microsoft announced the creation of a new alliance, the Mainframe Migration Alliance, to enable the migration of critical proprietary mainframe systems onto the Microsoft Windows operating system using Microsoft .NET technology. Laying the technology foundation to move application workloads from the mainframe to more modern Intel architecture and the Windows Server platform, the alliance’s mission has been to help customers reduce the high cost of maintaining and modernizing their aging mainframe applications.

As Gary Barnett, IT research director at Ovum (see page 52 for his views on mainframe migration) was quoted saying then, “As organizations increasingly realize that they need to re-use rather than replace their existing mainframe applications, any initiative that enables them to do this at lower cost and risk is extremely valuable to them.”

Catching up on recent customer implementations at Micro Focus, we recently talked to Ian Archbell, their vice president for product management, and discussed the results that EDS SOLCORP, a Micro Focus partner, has realized by migrating their INGENIUM policy administration system to a .NET Framework.

WFS: Ian, last year at the 2005 ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum we saw that EDS SOLCORP had used Micro Focus Studio to deliver a powerful, more agile policy administration system at a lower cost with minimal risk. How has EDS SOLCORP gained these past 12 months?

IA: They said that we, along with Microsoft, have helped position INGENIUM, their flagship product, to a wider range of customers while at the same time there is no significant sacrifice in scalability or security compared to other platforms, which many of their customers continue to use. Providing software solutions and consulting services to the life insurance and wealth management industries as they do, EDS SOLCORP’s solutions are designed to help their customers with worldwide offices and high policy volumes reduce their administration costs.

WFS: What was the situation they faced when they contacted Micro Focus in 2004?

IA: At that time, they did not support deployment on the .NET platform and their customers were beginning to ask for it. It became apparent to EDS SOLCORP that it was a natural progression for them to offer a .NET INGENIUM version. Primarily, it reduced the customer’s total cost of ownership by significantly simplifying the software stack. Also, let’s face it, Windows resources are much easier to find these days than COBOL expertise. They also realized that they potentially had a new market for INGENIUM in that they could now target smaller, tier-3 companies.

WFS: How many lines of code did it have?

IA: Over one million lines of proven COBOL and DB2 mainframe code…

WFS: What was the scope of the code migrated?

IA: As a policy administration system that supports the entire life-cycle of a contract, from the acquisition of new business to final settlement, yes, INGENIUM had over a million lines of code.

WFS: Why was now a good time to migrate INGENIUM?

IA: Although INGENIUM was already running across multiple platforms, many customers felt Windows was now enterprise ready, and EDS SOLCORP responded by turning to us to support the reuse, migration and benchmarking of INGENIUM on Windows and .NET using Net Express with .NET.

WFS: Specifically, why did they turn to Micro Focus?

IA: They tapped Micro Focus Studio and Server to help them with the migration because of the high level of support for mainframe code, focus on performance and the ease and flexibility of the tooling we’re known for. In addition, we’ve accumulated unparalleled expertise in the industry in large scale migrations from mainframe style applications to a .NET environment.

WFS: Can you describe the end-to-end process for us?

IA: The combination of using Micro Focus Studio and Micro Focus Server enables INGENIUM to run in parallel on both the mainframe and in the Windows and Microsoft .NET environment, opening up options and new markets for EDS SOLCORP.

Using the Lift and Shift™ approach, EDS SOLCORP, Microsoft and Micro Focus moved the application from mainframe DB2 database architecture to a Micro Focus Server and Microsoft SQL Server architecture. With mainframe COBOL dialect support in Micro Focus Studio, the migration of the batch mainframe and DB2 to Windows and SQL Server involved changes to less than 100 lines of the one million lines of COBOL code, while the migration of a similarly sized online application to managed COBOL code running under the .NET Framework was achieved with changes to less than one percent of the code.

Using Micro Focus Leverage and Extend, EDS SOLCORP has been able to deliver a system that’s rather agile with a high degree of interoperability with other systems, and integrate and extend INGENIUM into the .NET Framework using Net Express with .NET to provide support for managed COBOL code.

INGENIUM.NET’s open design means that in addition to a Web interface, COBOL business functionality can be accessed through published APIs, ACORD XML and Web services.

WFS: So, its architecture uses Web services to invoke the core COBOL-based INGENIUM code from the Java-based PATHFINDER component?

IA: Yes, and with Web services, EDS SOLCORP can provide simplified integration with customers, distributors and their other partners.

WFS: Tell us about the results.

IA: Migration of INGENIUM online and batch processing to Windows and the .NET Framework using Micro Focus Studio and Micro Focus Server was completed with considerable speed and success. INGENIUM.NET was launched in spring 2005. The cost of Windows hardware and software portends significant savings compared to the mainframe, enabling insurers to reduce their initial hardware and software expenses and continue to enjoy lower costs going forward.

Following successful benchmarking, INGENIUM for .NET is now able to run an estimated 90% of the North American life insurance market. Policy volumes reaching 2.1 million contracts can now be processed on a Windows server and positioned to fully exploit the .NET Framework’s capabilities.

WFS: From all indications then, Micro Focus Studio and Micro Focus Server did in fact help EDS SOLCORP unlock the value of their legacy system.

IA: Correct. In using Micro Focus Studio and Micro Focus Server, we believe that our methodology of Lift and Shift offers migration which dramatically reduces hardware and software costs by enabling low risk re-hosting of legacy applications to contemporary platforms. Once on a contemporary hardware platform, the application can be modified into services thereby introducing agility, reducing costs while minimizing risk associated with such a migration.

In addition, the platform migration allows the application to undergo a Leverage and Extend. This provides a proven path for allowing organizations to re-architect their mainframe legacy applications and re-use existing skill set, at the same time enhance and modernize their application.

WFS: And they support SOA?

IA: And Web services too as they’re both better tailored to the future needs of the business. The migrated application can lay the foundations for compliance, create the building blocks for new products and services and minimize risk by reusing legacy.

For more information, visit www.microfocus.com/Solutions