Beginning with this month’s newsletter we will occasionally highlight one of our global partners who sell and service Valence in their respective regions. Today we’d like to give a shout-out to our Ravensburg, Germany-based partner PKS Software.
“For ten years now we have been helping IBM i customers in Germany, Austria and other neighboring countries install and use Valence to quickly create web applications,” says Managing Director Heidi Schmidt. “We find many of these clients are quite surprised at how quickly they can build out their new apps, and that the apps are actually running on the same IBM i system that had previously been almost entirely green screen based.”
In addition to supporting Valence installations throughout mid-northern Europe, PKS offers a unique software product called eXplain that helps IBM i sites around the world quickly get a handle on their complex legacy applications. This tool provides a fantastic foundation for Valence modernization projects by analyzing the existing source and objects on any IBM i installation and “eXplaining” what all the elements behind the system are doing. The PKS consulting crew uses this tool as a starting point for many of the Valence modernization projects they undertake.
“By utilizing eXplain to provide a full schematic of an existing system, we find the time to complete a typical IBM i modernization project, such as going from green screen to web, is reduced by as much as 60%,” says Roland Müller, Co-Head of IBM i Software Solutions for PKS. “It helps ensure no part of the system is overlooked, and highlights opportunities to reuse existing program logic wherever possible.”
Gaining a thorough understanding of the established system is key to ascertaining the scope of modernization required for the existing applications, adds Stephan Urban, Co-Head of IBM i Software Solutions. “eXplain helps immensely in assessing whether an application can still be saved and modernized, or whether a replacement should be sought. Also data flow tracking and impact analysis are unbeatable tools in eXplain, particularly when it comes to changing database fields.”
The PKS specialists who work directly on modernization projects for clients have come to rely heavily on the tool. “With eXplain, I can very quickly penetrate every application to derive and implement the necessary steps required for modernization,” says Team & Project Lead Michael Blank.
For additional information or to schedule an eXplain demo for your IBM i installation, we encourage you to contact PKS directly.