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| Success Story |
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| Client: |
Jardine Lloyd Thompson |
| Project: |
Migration of WANG - PACE to ORACLE |
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"American Cybernetic Corporation conducted this project with a high degree of professionalism and skill; its migration tools, staff and management far exceeded our expectations. I never imagined that such a smooth process could occur for this complex project."
Steve Duckett, Manager
JLT System Applications
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"In February 2001 we approved a recommendation to convert all our Wang based core processes to Oracle thereby removing our exposure to the risks associated with our Wang systems. Throughout 2001 and 2002 we have
had a dedicated team working on this very important project and this week completed the third and final phase of the conversion which means our Business Units have been transferred to the new Oracle platform."
"This is the culmination of 18 months concentrated effort and we should not underestimate the effort required to keep such a large and complex project on track. It is to the team's credit that the Wang conversion to Oracle has been delivered according to plan and within budget cost. This is a major achievement in terms of reducing an increasing business risk to Risk Solutions as the Wang technology became outdated."
--Tony Roberts, CIO
October 2002
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Eliminating Risk
Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT) is a leading international provider of risk solutions and insurance services, employing over 4,000 people in over 100 offices in 30 countries. JLT is the largest quoted UK insurance broker and the fifth largest broker in the world. As part of the group, JLT Risk Solutions provides major corporate clients with comprehensive professional advice and an innovative risk solution and transactional services. It brings together the London market insurance and reinsurance operations and is responsible for related overseas offices.
JLT's business is predicated on risk assessment, and as such, it became clear that continued dependence on outmoded and obsolete Wang computers for its core business operations had reached a critical level. JLT's strategic review recognized that there was considerable risk associated with the continued, uninterrupted support from the ageing Wang systems. The company was not confident that the Wang based applications would continue to support the business, providing the ability to take advantage of more advanced software and hardware options such as opportunities for web enablement and the integration of a variety of software tools. In addition, JLT was not confident that hardware maintenance, supporting three VS16000s, would be provided as required in the future.
JLT did not believe that neither a redevelopment nor the tailoring of an off-the-shelf product would be fast enough to offset the risk. JLT therefore decided to investigate the manner in which the existing applications could be migrated to an alternative environment.
"We knew that it would take some time to plan and execute a migration project for our core business applications", said Steve Duckett, Manager of the JLT System Applications. "There will be a lot of co-ordination to consider: hardware selection and installation, preparing for the test of migrated systems, merging and cleaning data, and staff assignment and training are a few obstacles."
Inside of JLT's Systems
JLT's core applications ran in two environments: PACE/COBOL on the Wang VS and Powerbuilder/Sybase on HP UNIX. The four applications included Broking, Direct Claims, XL Claims, and BFE Interface functions that were running on three Wang VS 16000 systems (requiring the merging of data from the three systems.) The applications were accessed by users throughout the organization, including complex external interfaces that are critical components of the overall daily functions at JLT. The project would consist of converting 812 base tables, 468 AB programs, and over one million HLI lines.
JLT required that the four major Wang based systems, Broking, Direct Claims, XL Claims and PC-BFE Interface, collectively known as BFE, are moved to another environment on an alternative hardware platform as soon as is practical. The primary objective of this undertaking is to safeguard
the systems' capability to support the business, however it would be seen as an added advantage if the migrated systems were capable of closer integration with other JLT's e-commerce initiatives.
"We decided that Oracle would be the database offering the greatest advantage in moving forward because of its great flexibility, the stability of the company and the accessibility of Oracle skilled personnel," said Duckett. "Our decision for the target hardware was HP/UNIX server and Windows/NT clients."
"We knew that we needed the support of an experienced migration firm in order to achieve our objectives with manageable risk. We needed to find a consulting firm that had a strong reputation in Wang Pace to Oracle migration. We had to have a project with as close to zero risk tolerance as possible. This also suggested that strong project management was an absolute necessity," said Duckett.
After a comprehensive proposal evaluation process, which also included visits to reference sites, American Cybernetic Corporation was selected. The ACC approach offered an outcome with the vast benefits of increased efficiency, reliability and flexibility for future growth including full functionality of the WANG PACE applications, with equal or better operational performance and reliability. As an added benefit, ACC provided a web enabled incident-project management system, allowing all members of the team, wherever or whenever their need, could review and update the project status.
The project had major milestones within the delivery of each application. The cutover was completed as planned without a problem.
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