KMR’s modernization and SOA strategy ensures a bright future.
Background
KMR Systems Corporation of Syosset (Long Island) NY, has been providing consulting and application solutions for the IBM midrange since 1982. They provide customized state-of-the-art software solutions for Benefit Funds, Labor Unions, Claims Processing and Pension Systems to name a few. KMR's software is fully integrated, IBM Server Proven, HIPAA compliant and meets the latest market requirements such as SOX. KMR's services include application modernization, business consulting, High Availability and network services. As an IBM Business Partner, KMR has the System i certifications required to plan and implement successful hardware upgrades.
Their focus on customer satisfaction emphasizes quality, integrity and on-time implementation and has resulted in partnerships with customers that remain strong after 20 years.
Challenge
Like many System i application solution providers, KMR’s products have evolved to lead their markets for functionality and robustness. However their ability to win against new competitors had become a challenge. KMR needed to be able to provide modern UI’s and integration with the web and popular desktop applications like Office. They also needed support for Web Services and multiplatform integration using for example, an SQL Server membership database.
Despite feature-rich applications, green screens are inevitably perceived as outdated today and the growing need within organizations for improved mobility and ‘anywhere, anytime’ access was becoming more important to KMR’s customers.
Solution
KMR evaluated modernization and webfacing alternatives over a period of 2 years, before selecting looksoftware as its strategic modernization partner.
Their initial interest was in newlook but since investigating the ‘looksoftware Modernization Suite’, KMR have now expanded their interest to include the capabilities of soarchitect, mobileclient, smartclient and lookdirect. As with so many other application solution providers who have selected looksoftware’s products, the differentiating features were ease of use, rich functionality, product quality and outstanding support and training.
Implementation
KMR’s marketing was underway and within 3 weeks they were able to build - with looksoftware’s assistance - a demonstration pilot which included:
- Browser-based, rich graphical user interface
- Mobility support for ‘anywhere, anytime’ access
- Elimination of 5250 OLTP requirements
- Integration features enabling business process automation for Cobra letters and member emails
- Support for two-way Web Services
The pilot covered 75% of the functionality of KMR’s Benefits Funds application and focused on delivering new capabilities including integration with MS Word, Excel and Outlook. The rich smartclient interface delivers the performance and functionality required by transaction users, while thinclient and mobileclient provide zero deployment access and support for PDA’s.
What’s more, Michael Galligan Jr – KMR’s Senior Software Development Engineer - is confident that the whole suite of applications will be ready within 2 months, an amazing achievement in Michael’s view!
Benefits
Now, having utilized the looksoftware product suite, KMR is in full competition mode with vendors who have a Windows interface to their applications. This is expected to increase sales significantly. The initiative will also lead to improved (existing) customer satisfaction, enabling customers to significantly improve their workplace productivity and demonstrating that KMR is delivering the benefits derived from the very latest technologies.
Michael G. Galligan, President and CEO of KMR said, “I’m comfortable we can compete and win against any platform. lookdirect means our applications can leverage the Power5 System i Standard Edition, reducing total solution cost. We have maintained the high level of functionality and robustness that has driven our success to-date, but now we also support the latest technologies. Our sales team can be more aggressive in pursuing the large industry sector we serve. Our current outlook anticipates significant growth in all aspects of our business.”
Michael added, “The strong functionality of the looksoftware product suite will set us apart from our competitors. We have been very impressed with the timely and helpful assistance we have received since joining looksoftware’s partner program.”
Having done their homework and investigated the alternatives, KMR realized that modernization is much more than having a nice graphical user interface. looksoftware’s focus on reuse means KMR’s existing application investments are protected and they can continue to leverage their RPG skill set. Others make the claims but looksoftware is delivering the result - and a bright long- term future, in a very diverse range of organizations all over the world.