ContactMOST completes first phase of a major Legacy Modernization project in Japan
Sunday, December 14, 2008
MOST Technologies Ltd. (MOST), successfully completed the first phase delivery of their project with Aflac Japan - a project to modernize Aflac's legacy mainframe applications by migrating these applications to DB2.
This phase of the project included transformation of Aflac's legacy applications from Software Ag's 4GL NATURAL to COBOL, performing the ADABAS to DB2 design and generation of all the components to support the migration processes required to migrate Aflac corporate data to DB2.
The delivered application included an upgrade to Aflac's database access infrastructure. This infrastructure now allows legacy COBOL to access ADABAS and migrated DB2 tables over the duration of this multi-phased migration project in a totally transparent manner.
This Phase was delivered on schedule and culminated a period of intense work between the two company's project teams. MOST had their senior Project Manager and Lead Technical Architect working with the Aflac team in Japan, with the migration work done off-shore at MOST's Migration Factory in Israel, using MOST's OnTarget migration tool set.
"Such a successful delivery was made possible largely due to the support and co-operation received from Aflac Japan and the involvement of Aflac's IT professionals in every detail of the project", says Hadar Israeli - MOST's VP Projects overseeing the project. "Such involvement" says Hadar, "ensured that there were no surprises on either side."
MOST is working along side Aflac, in cooperation with local SI companies. MOST's undertaking includes onsite presence in Tokyo throughout the multi-phased project and from its home office in Israel.
Yukio Fukushima, Aflac Japan's CIO, commended MOST's project team members for the level of professionalism displayed and their technical contribution to the project. Fukushima also noted favorably MOST's rapid adjustment to Japanese work practices and culture.
Aflac Japan is the largest foreign insurance company operating in the increasingly competitive Japanese market based on premiums and profits, with over 10's of million policy holders. Aflac Japan's revenue is at the US $10B level. A survey by the Nihon Keizai newspaper found that Aflac had the highest name recognition among any foreign financial services company operating in Japan.
MOST Technologies is the leading provider of automated legacy modernization solutions that transform ADABAS/Natural applications to new, modern, functionally equivalent systems based on mainstream application infrastructure such as DB-2 and COBOL. MOST's automated transformation technology, OnTarget, provides an integrated tool set to manage all aspects of legacy modernization.
Danny Marom, MOST CEO, notes that the Aflac project is a breakthrough for the Israeli-based Mainframe technology company into Asia-Pacific and Japan in particular. MOST's far-reaching participation in all technology, infrastructure, project planning and related activities for a major Mainframe user that is a leading Japanese company, is a reflection on the professional qualifications of MOST staff.