Services

Since 1982, we are a computer software engineering and consulting firm specializing in the development of software systems and applications for clients in the scientific, engineering, and business communities.

We are also the developer of a unique technology for translating computer programs from one computer language to another and for converting applications from one computer platform to another.

1. The Tool-assisted Rewrite
2. Software Conversion Services
3. Legacy System Migrations
4. Implementation Partners

 The Tool-assisted Rewrite

The Great Migrations Methodology (GMM) is designed to migrate VB6/ASP applications to .NET and do so in a way that is "agile": producing valuable results very quickly and facilitating predictable, incremental quality improvement through an iterative process we call "translation tuning".

Each iteration has the following steps: Preparation, Migration, and Verification.

Preparation means capturing your migration requirements in the tool's configuration. At a minimum this is defining three things:

• The location of the legacy code that you want to upgrade
   
• The .NET language to which you want to upgrade (C# or VB.NET) -- our default is C#.
   
• The version of .NET framework and IDE you want to use -- our default is .NET 3.5 and VS2008.

Translation (a.k.a. Migration, a.k.a. Tool-Assisted Re-Writing) means using the tool to produce an upgraded version of the legacy code that is written in a chosen language and compatible with the target platform.

Verification means determining how well the translation meets your requirements and deciding if you should do another iteration by tool or finish the task by hand.

The above steps are repeated several times, each time refining the design of the target application and the conversion process. The process of moving from the proverbial "first translation" into iterative "translation tuning" is a smooth one as the initial preparation work sets up your migration workspace and produces the baseline scripts that you can then refine in subsequent tuning cycles.

Cut-Over means doing your final translation of the source codebase. When the team agrees that the conversion process is "good enough" and the only issues left are those that were identified as being easier to do by hand, they do a final translation. This is followed by a short Fit & Finish phase to certify the new system and deploy it to production.

Should you Port or Rewrite? Our answer may surprise you.

 Software Conversion Services

The need to keep up with advancing hardware and software technologies is evident - and inevitable. Sooner or later the platform hosting a mission-critical software application becomes obsolete, either because it is too expensive to maintain or because it has less functionality or performance compared to what it could have if on a newer platform. The price/performance ratios are almost always in favor of the newer platforms. The economics of "open systems" are irresistible. Almost everyone agrees that by migrating to open architectures one can capitalize on their inherent flexibility and cost effectiveness. The transition, however, from an existing platform to a new one is by no means automatic; it is usually costly and time-consuming and requires skills and resources that may not be available in house.

We provide the products, services, and expertise to help clients meet the challenges of their software migration needs. We are either developing machine independent code or we are doing work revolving around the problems of moving code from one environment to another - with minimum effort, cost and time. Our purpose is to provide our clients with technical services and software tools aimed at the following ends:

• Conversion of existing client applications to (a portable subset of) the C language
   
• Conversion of VB6 and ASP applications to .NET via translation to C# or to VB.NET
   
• Production of tailored translation tools for nonstandard languages and special portation needs

We believe that our work must be of the highest quality and consistent with time and budget goals. To achieve our goals, we subscribe to the following principles:

• Simple, integrated project management procedures
   
• Experienced staff with specific technical skills and dedication to quality
   
• Efficiency and responsibility

Performance on the job and the timely delivery of promised results explains our long and respected track record.

Organizations in the process of planning a VB6-to-.NET or ASP-to-.NET migration will benefit from our "proof of concept" assessment service. Or if you prefer to work on your own, please e-mail us here to request a copy of gmStudio Demo Edition.

 Legacy System Migrations

A legacy system is an information system that you've built, shaped and used over the years in support of your business or your work. It is a valuable asset in which you or your company may have invested heavily. Unfortunately, it may reside on an "older", perhaps limited, hardware/software platform and it may depend heavily on the particular infrastructure of that platform.

Because you want to preserve its intrinsic value, you may want to re-host such a legacy system to a "newer" platform (rather than re-write it manually for that platform) - especially if the re-hosting can be done in a cost-efficient and timely manner.

With our translation tools and migration services, legacy system re-hosting is an attractive option relative to other migration options.

For FORTRAN-based applications, we have proved the power of our methodology many times over, in several hundred migration projects worldwide. We are now applying the same methodology to the migration and upgrade of Visual Basic legacy systems.

 Implementation Partners

We are always looking for solution providers with complementary capabilities to our own who would be interested in partnering with us to deliver world-class migration services to our clients.