Transoft
opens Windows for Paymaster to reduce costs with migration
from ICL mainframe
Microsoft
platform introduces increased automation and lower operating
costs for Banking Suite
31st
July 2006: Transoft, a leader in helping companies
evolve their existing legacy applications, has successfully
completed an application migration project for Paymaster
(1836) Ltd, formally the Office of HM Paymaster General,
moving its critical Banking Suite COBOL-based systems from its
legacy
ICL VME
mainframe to an open systems and better performing Microsoft
Windows 2003 environment.
The
new Microsoft Windows based system has delivered cost savings,
streamlined processes and simplified operations. When the legacy mainframe application was finally switched off
there was no disruption to data or services.
The whole project was brought in on time and within
budget by the Transoft team, who have unrivalled expertise in
complex system migrations.
Failure to deliver on time could have left Paymaster
facing another 12 months’ licence fees for its legacy
system; an unnecessary expense.
The
Paymaster Banking Suite runs critical code for the control and
reconciliation of payable orders which Paymaster process on
behalf of the Office of HM Paymaster General, which is now
part of HM Revenue and Customs.
“The
Banking Suite was the last remaining application on our ICL
mainframe which was planned to be shut-down and removed by the
end of April 2006,” explained Ralph Tigwell, Director
Business Technology, at Paymaster. “It was imperative that
along with removing the ICL Trimetra mainframe, the migrated
suite had to run with almost total transparency to the staff
who use it.
“I
am very pleased to report that after a month’s parallel
running we were able to go live mid-April as we originally
planned at the start of the project last October, and now we
have switched off the mainframe. The new HP
DL360 2 processor Microsoft Windows
2003 platform has not only saved significant costs but is
processing the work many times faster than before, allowing us
to reduce to a single shift operation.”
Karl Noakes,
Director of the Partner Development Group at Microsoft,
commented: “As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Transoft
is among the elite of the Microsoft partner community. Our
Gold partners are highly equipped to deliver business-driven
technology solutions like this to their customers and are
highly valued by Microsoft; congratulations to everyone at
Transoft on this
project’s achievements.”
Transoft Legacy Liberator
COBOL Converter was used to migrate both the on-line and batch
ICL COBOL and DDS definitions to ANSI standard open systems
Micro Focus COBOL and the files to Micro Focus FileShare.
Transoft Legacy Liberator TP monitor replaced the ICL TPMS and
screens to provide the same look and feel and the Transoft SCL
converter and the ICL9 system services replacement library
were also used. The Fox IT Helmsman scheduler was replaced by
the Transoft U/QuBE Queue and Printer Manager. The system was
then installed on a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 platform.
David
Nunn,
Paymaster’s
Banking Services Director, commented: “We selected Transoft
because we believed it had the tools and the people to get the
job done at the right price. If
we had not been able to migrate the Banking Suite application
off the ICL mainframe we would have had to renew its lease for
a further year at considerable cost. We now have the
application on a much lower cost platform and with the
increased performance we are now able to take additional steps
to further automate the suite and reduce the cost of its
operation.”
Geoff
Baker, managing director of Transoft, said: “Organisations
like Paymaster, with applications on platforms that are either
costing too much or nearing end-of-life, have three choices.
They can rewrite their code from scratch, replace with a
package or migrate. Paymaster, like many other companies,
found that migration proved the most cost effective and least
risk option.”
About
Paymaster
Paymaster is responsible for the administration of large
volume public and private sector benefits including pensions
and annuities. Established
in 1836 to co-ordinate the payment functions for public sector
organisations, in particular pensions and payroll
administration, Paymaster became part of Hogg Robinson plc in
1997 and subsequently Xafinity Ltd in July 2005. Since 1997 it
has provided services for both public and private sector
companies. Paymaster
offers pensions and payroll administration, payroll
processing, data cleansing, annuities management services for
insurance companies, and back office functions for banks and
investment services.
Contact us for further information
Read more news |
