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Transoft Migrates and Modernizes Database for Macsteel Service Centers USA
ATLANTA , Sept. 30, 2004 — Transoft, a leader in enabling companies to evolve new solutions from existing applications, today announced the successful completion of a database migration and modernization project for Macsteel Service Centers USA Inc., a leading provider of one-stop service, distribution and processing of carbon, stainless, aluminum and specialty steels based in Newport Beach, Calif.
The six-month project involved transforming the data utilized by Macsteel’s COBOL-based, legacy ERP application into an IBM DB2 relational database that could give the company the flexibility to continue growing. Despite constant tailoring to meet its business needs, Macsteel – which employs 1,500 people in 30 plants throughout the U.S., Puerto Rico and Mexico – had reached the point where the underlying architecture of the ERP application was preventing it from expanding its functionality along with the growth of the firm.
Besides the lack of flexibility, Macsteel did not have a single corporate enterprise application - 12 different regional systems ran on 12 different UNIX servers. “We asked Transoft to consolidate the separate distributive regional resources into one single corporate application,” said Jeffrey Samson, Macsteel’s director & senior executive vice president, technology.
Transoft’s proven database modernization approach for COBOL applications is to partition the logic of those applications from the database’s I/O layer by introducing a set of I/O modules that provide dynamic access to the new database schema – all without changing the logic flow or data types within the original application programs.
“We thought that was a very efficient methodology,” said Nak Sung, vice president of information technology for Macsteel. “Instead of application-wide change, Transoft delivered a module that translated all the COBOL I/O commands into dynamic SQL statements. The data would then be in the DB2 format to make it homogeneous for the entire system.”
“We started modernizing and migrating Macsteel’s data in November of 2003,” said Dave Roth, vice president of business development at Transoft. “By July of 2004, 30 percent of the company’s business transactions were conducted using only one application.” At the beginning of August, the converted data was rolled out to all regions.
From the end-user point of view, nothing has changed after the migration. “We made minimal modifications to the application functionality, and we didn’t change any of its business logic,” said Samson. “But the system now runs as one throughout the entire company, making our processes much more cost-effective and productive.”
Macsteel executives are pleased with the project and its results. “Transoft tried to think things from our point of view, tried to understand our business requirements and processes, and then brought the right solution – all under a relatively tight timeframe,” concluded Sung. “Its planning process was also well-documented, and all pending issues were solved in a timely manner. Transoft passed our test with flying colors.”
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