News

News

September 2017 - A Return To Good Health
New Zealand’s Ministry of Health has engaged the Porting Project Australia to restore the health of an important enterprise system by removing its Gupta legacy through a move to .NET.
As project director Denis Black described it, “The time had come to modernise the interface on the claims side of our provider payment system by extending a web interface to the providers and thereby eliminate much of the paper. But we did not want to take on the risks of attempting to implement these changes in the twenty year old code. When we compared system replacement with the Porting Project option the decision virtually made itself; a six month porting project with fixed costs was infinitely preferable.”
The decision to port the claims application will also mean that ongoing system maintenance and enhancement will henceforth be done in Visual Studio on industry standard C# code. This will neatly remove another risk factor for the Ministry as knowledgeable support resource numbers in the legacy Gupta code had dropped to just one.
The Ministry has also flagged an interest in the PPJ Web technology which would see the .NET app resulting from the Porting Project quickly ported to HTML and true thin client operation.
January 2016 - State Legal Agency turns to a trusted friend
Following the Porting Project Australia’s successful project in support of CDPP’s software modernisation initiative, the Office of Public Prosecutions has retained XEN Connect to deliver a similar program of legacy resolution using the much tried, tested and proven Porting technology for fast, accurate and virtually risk free translation of legacy Gupta to Microsoft .NET. The decision to port their own case management application follows ongoing difficulties of replacing the legacy software with a COTS package, proving that the value inherent in long used and maintained applications should not be lightly overlooked.
Porting Projects are demonstrably near zero risk, an almost unheard of profile for a major IT project. Compared with the many and difficult risks that inevitably accompany a rewriting or replacement solution as well as a far long timeframe, Porting is the most attractive solution to Gupta legacy. With no change to business logic or user interface the seemingly identical application is returned to service in around 3 to 6 months and with no requirement to retrain end users. Modernisation of the application in .NET can then begin in earnest with developers skilled in Visual Studio now able to do the work. The original ROI of the application is extended manyfold with a fully functional application now able to be enhanced through modernisation techniques using latest standards.
June 2015 - Federal Legal Agency calls in The Porting Project Australia
A valuable bespoke Case Management application has been given a new lease of life thanks to the Porting Project’s ability to rapidly and safely recreate legacy Gupta code in .NET as industry standard C#.
Applications that have been in service for many years often represent an enormous store of corporate know-how with years of tweaks and fine tuning creating the near perfect system resource.
This is especially so where the business process nature of the enterprise changes little and end users become adept and highly proficient with the application’s use. That said, being able to incorporate latest user interface features to applications can be of great benefit to the end user, typically the sort of advantages now taken for granted in .NET applications. This was the case for the Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutions who approached XEN Connect to move their case management application to .NET using Porting technology as a first step to implementing a range of enhancements such as remote operation not deliverable within the legacy environment of their application.
As has come to be expected of Porting Projects delivered by XEN Connect the application was successfully recreated as a .NET application on time and on budget with end users enjoying the improved performance and stability of the .NET version of their trusted application.
July 2012 - Australian Federal Government enlists The Porting Project Australia
The first investigations from Canberra have begun into the ability of the Porting Project to safely and cost effectively migrate valuable yet legacy Centura applications to .NET. The subject Department commissioned XEN Connect to provide a translation of the first of their applications as part of a larger initiative to resolve a years' old problem.
The Porting Project is well suited to the challenge presented by a portfolio of legacy applications. With a well-defined process demonstrating distinct phases individual applications can be effectively managed as individual projects. Further, the porting process provides ready scope for the involvement of in-house resources whose tasks are comprehensively scripted by the automated component of each project.
This approach serves several objectives. Existing expert resources may apply their domain knowledge within the project and remain engaged; expert knowledge helps shorten an already rapid project timeline and use of in-house resource helps further reduce an already low cost solution.
April 2012 - Fast Solution to Legacy for a Western Australian government agency
A Western Australian government agency joins the growing list of organisations from around Australia in seeking the assistance of The Porting Project to convert valuable software assets, originally developed using Centura Team Developer, to native .NET.
XEN Connect, the Australia and New Zealand Premium Porting Partner, has delivered the first of several core software system translations for the agency. Using Porting technology XEN Connect will quickly and accurately translate the legacy applications to .NET. Importantly, as Porting does not alter program logic or user interface, the rapid return of the translated software back to production is guaranteed. Ongoing development of the agency's systems will then continue in Visual Studio.
With the release this year by The Porting Project of a web conversion option, TD applications may now be safely and rapidly recreated as web deployable applications.
May 2011 - Division of Local Government calls in The Porting Project Australia
Division of Local Government NSW has again placed its faith in The Porting Project by selecting XEN Connect and Ice Tea Group technology to convert the balance of their portfolio of SQLWindows applications to .NET.
Porting technology will be combined with XEN Connect’s deep SQLWindows expertise to rapidly, safely and accurately recreate the legacy SQLWindows applications in .NET with ongoing support to be done in Visual Studio.
June 2010 - Tasmania's Motor Accident Insurance Board (MAIB) Selects Porting
The Porting Project Australia has successfully delivered its first major Australian public sector contract following the awarding of a tender to translate MAIB’s core service application MACS from Centura Team Developer to Microsoft .NET using The Porting Project. The award followed a rigorous proposal and assessment process that fully investigated the Porting Project’s methodology/technology, timing and risk minimisation advantages.
XEN Connect partnered with the agency's application developer and support provider to address the tender's requirements and then deliver the successful outcome. XEN applied its unique expertise with Porting technology to deliver raw converted C# code to the application developer for completion to the final complied code base. The project was delivered within budgeted time and cost parameters. The sizeable application, originally developed in Centura Team Developer, was fully translated, tested and redeployed to .NET via Porting services in a total of six months. Support of the new converted .NET application continues to be supplied by the original developer, a distinguishing feature of the Porting process within this project. The original Centura developers have been able to quickly transition their skills to supporting the same application, now in C#, using Microsoft Visual Studio.
September 2009 - XEN CONNECT joins with fecher to expand porting services in Asia
XEN CONNECT, the Premium Porting Partner for Australia and New Zealand and fecher e. Kfm., Europe and North America’s largest Premium Porting Partner, have agreed to co-operate in the provision of porting services to countries across Asia. The non-exclusive agreement will see XEN Connect and fecher share marketing, technical and project resource for the benefit of organizations across Asia seeking to secure the future of valuable Team Developer applications by providing certainty of support and maintainability through the porting of those applications to .NET. "The Porting Project offers Gupta SQLWindows/Team Developer users the world’s safest and most proven migration technology," said Stefan Biermann, Managing Director of XEN Connect, "and we are looking forward with fecher to assisting companies in Asia who are keen to continue to profit from the expertise contained in their Team Developer applications. Through Porting, we give these applications a new lease of life in .NET and there is no reason why they cannot continue to deliver benefits for many years to come."
June 2009 - Australian Volunteers International selects The Porting Project Australia to migrate key application to .NET
Australian Volunteers International has selected XEN CONNECT and ITG technology to port the organisation's core application system technology from Centura to C# within the Microsoft.NET Framework. Australian Volunteers International (AVI) is an independent not-for-profit organisation that manages people-centred development projects and programs in a wide range of countries. AVI's specially developed systems required to manage the organisation's complex projects and originally developed in Centura, represent years of accumulated specialist corporate experience and know-how. Using ITG technology XEN CONNECT will port AVIs applications to the Microsoft.NET environment for a cost effective solution to the problem of maintaining aging yet invaluable business systems application software.
May 2009 - The Porting Project Australia chosen to protect Nowra Shire Council's Centura investment
Nowra Shire Council recognised that whilst their Centura based application was still performing the job as well as when it was written, the fact remains that older development languages don't get any easier or cheaper to maintain. The Council asked XEN CONNECT if their ITG technology could solve this problem. In confirming a solution was achievable for the Council, XEN's experienced conversion team was able to overcome the challenge of a less than perfect code base to still achieve a rock solid new code base in C#.
January 2009 - Air New Zealand turns to The Porting Project Australia to port key application to Microsoft.NET
With valuable expertise captured in the company's Frequent Flyer Points application Air New Zealand needed a reliable solution to translate the Gupta based application to the more supportable .NET environment. Air New Zealand approached XEN CONNECT as the Ice Tea Group's Australia and New Zealand Premium Porting Partner to safely port the Points application to a C# code base.
The project was managed by XEN CONNECT who applied ITG Porting toolset technology to deliver the completed C# code base within the promised three month timeframe ready for end user acceptance testing. Within six months the application, now fully supported in .NET, was back in production to a user population of over 700 with no requirement for retraining. The porting approach, selected ahead of rewriting or system replacement options, represented less risk, had a faster turnaround and has ultimately been more valuable to the company.
Air New Zealand’s decision to port the application to .NET means that ongoing support and enhancement of the application may now be done using Visual Studio 2008. The valuable corporate memory and know-how represented by the original CTD development continues to generate returns to company. The combination of ITG technology and XEN CONNECT expertise successfully delivered a low risk, low cost solution to the challenge of retaining an aging corporate asset.