Skip to main content

Category: References

Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen

CUSTOMER SUCCESS

Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen

Renowned research department at the
University of Gießen makes the leap from
Oracle Forms to Oracle APEX in record
time using FORMS 2 APEX Modeler

Justus-Liebig-University Giessen’s Transformation Goals

Replacing the Oracle Forms Application

Migrate in a
resource-saving way

Maintain and evolve application independently

Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU) is one of the oldest universities in Germany and the second largest university in Hesse. A century-long tradition characterizes the Department of Medicine, which is the contact for numerous clinics throughout Germany due to its intensive research activities.

The associated Institute for Medical Informatics runs an Oracle Forms application, which is used by about 90 customers and therefore has a particularly high importance. However, changes in the technical requirements as well as customer constraints have resulted in the already outdated Forms application having to be replaced at short notice for some installations. A web-based alternative already exists for a part of the application that is particularly specialized in the intensive capture of highly complex data. However, a large number of masks for storing catalogs and for configuration remained. A migration or modernization was inevitable, the only question was where to go and how?

In search of a feasible and cost-effective solution space to serve the requirements of its customers in the future, the Institute for Medical Informatics at JLU became aware of the attractive possibilities of the partially automated migration of PITSS.

Oracle APEX is exactly the right solution

Technical, financial and human resources should be optimally utilized within the Oracle Forms application modernization project – this was the main requirement of our customer. Once again, the limited solution scope and limited time and financial resources did not present our migration experts with an impossible task.

Based on all communicated requirements for the implementation of the modernization and after a multi-phase analysis, we were able to clearly identify Oracle APEX as the successor to the part of the application of the previous Oracle Forms environment that had not already been redeveloped with other technology. This was confirmed both by the joint assessment workshop, in which a proof of concept was developed, and by the in-depth migration analysis with presentation of the quantity structures and expected expenses.

Despite the change in technology, our customer would not incur any additional licensing costs with APEX and at the same time the future viability of the application would be ensured. Moreover, due to some technical similarities between Oracle Forms and APEX, especially the usability of PL/SQL, the development team of the University of Giessen would have an easy time maintaining and further developing the application. Only one question remained to be clarified: How should the migration proceed?

Migration tool FORMS 2 APEX Modeler plays an important role

As far as the speed factor is concerned, among other things, the tool-based approach of PITSS remains without competition on the market. Thus, our self-developed FORMS 2 APEX Modeler was able to win the trust of the Institute for Medical Informatics.

Since time was also a scarce resource for our customer, he could only benefit from the intelligent migration automatisms of the FORMS 2 APEX Modeler, which accelerated the technology change. Thus, the conversion from an outdated Oracle Forms application to the latest and future-proof Oracle APEX version was accomplished almost at the push of a button, and the customer was able to limit himself to the reprogramming of the functionalities that are not convertible due to conceptual differences between Forms and web applications for the majority of the masks to produce a functional application.

The results speak for themselves

In migration and modernization projects carried out using the PITSS tool-based approach, nothing less than unsurpassed efficiency can be expected. This is also confirmed by the current project figures:

  • 390 Forms modules were transferred to Oracle APEX in only 4 weeks in a partially automated way – assessment, migration analysis and APEX training included.
  • The originally estimated development times were noticeably reduced by the optimal solution finding and the automated migration.

“PITSS and the FORMS 2 APEX Modeler helped us with a problem that seemed difficult to solve at first sight within a very short time. Our previous Forms application got a solid and promising basis for the part implemented with APEX.”

Udo Altmann

Head of Coordination of Clinical Cancer Registries,
Institute for Medical Informatics

Individual consulting
for the modernization of your software

Ask without obligation

Your contact

Uta Daniels
Assistant of Sales Management
udaniels@pitss.com

+49 711/914-012-27











Continue reading

Success Story SV Informatik

CUSTOMER SUCCESS

More modern, more effective,
less expensive

German IT provider SV Informatik optimizes
business processes for insurance company
SV SparkassenVersicherung through web
services with PITSS.CON
SV Informatik is the IT service provider for SV SparkassenVersicherung and its association partners. SV SparkassenVersicherung covers all types of insurance, is the No. 1 in building insurance in the region and is one of the major public insurers.
In a state-of-the-art, market-leading insurance company, all processes with customers, agencies, partners and internal specialist departments are successfully guaranteed by IT in day-to-day business. High demands on IT systems therefore result from centralized and decentralized networking, immense data processing, manifold correspondence, customer-oriented services and automated processing. There is no business process at SV Sparkassen Versicherung that is not supported by powerful IT – set up and managed by SV Informatik.

“With PITSS.CON the modernization of SV SparkassenVersicherung can
be perfectly planned, evaluated and accelerated!”

Timo Frey

Head of IV2 – ICIS SL,
SV Informatik GmbH

Competitive advantages through web services

SV Informatik manages powerful, heterogeneous system landscapes and applications of SV SparkassenVersicherung and is responsible for the technically innovative implementation of new requirements from the specialist departments. For the internal and external sales force, SV SparkassenVersicherung and its association partners have an interlocked IT mix of Oracle DB 12c, SAP modules, the standard insurance solution ICIS and customer-specific Oracle Forms 11g, Java and other Oracle-based applications.

SV Informatik is currently implementing essential modernization projects to provide even better support for the business processes of SV SparkassenVersicherung with innovative IT. To this end, the company is increasingly relying on web services that enable interfaces to external services from third-party providers, such as lightning and storm queries from a weather service in the event of a loss investigation. However, integrating web services into the existing application carries risks if the effects of system changes are not known or taken into account. Performance problems and functional failures could be the result, with the consequence of difficult and lengthy remediation.


The analysis is the key to success

With an analysis function like that of the PITSS.CON tool, all affected modules can be identified, evaluated and processed in advance of an application change. This means that there are no nasty surprises in modernization projects at SV Informatik.

Timo Frey summarizes the results:

“If we want to change our applications or integrate new functionalities, thanks to PITSS.CON we know exactly where to start and whether we have taken all effects into account. This means we are not only faster in dependency analysis, but also error-free and more effective. We can quickly adapt new business challenges to help win customers and increase sales for SV SparkassenVersicherung. With PITSS.CON, we achieve significant cost savings in the form of effectiveness gains, both in further development and in maintenance.”

Timo Frey

Head of IV2 – ICIS SL,
SV Informatik GmbH

Individual consulting
for the modernization of your software

Ask without obligation

Your contact

Uta Daniels
Assistant of Sales Management
udaniels@pitss.com

+49 711/914-012-27











Continue reading

Success Story Sensis

CUSTOMER SUCCESS

PITSS.CON Multi-Language edition
paves the way to globalization
for Sensis.

When Sensis, a successful software
provider in the field of waste management,
designed an application as an in-house solution
for a German-based company, multilingualism
was not an issue either in the data model or in
the implementation of the interfaces.

Allow critical apps to be multilingual

Required simplicity and efficiency

Allow critical apps to be multilingual


Challenge

Sensis has been a force in the German market for 11 years and has developed a comprehensive industry solution for waste management with its Oracle Forms-based software TRAS. Municipal city cleaning companies, numerous landfills and recycling plants, as well as large waste disposal companies are among their satisfied customers.

In the age of globalization and the influx of small and medium-sized companies on the international market, Sensis identified a need to make their business-critical application multilingual. Thankfully, this task that can often lead to an enormous effort has been efficiently solved with the PITSS.CON Multi-Language edition.

For years, Sensis has relied on the services and consulting expertise of PITSS. We have come to know and appreciate the benefits of the PITSS.CON repository-based approach to software development [shortly after we] founded our company. Since then, we have stayed true to the tool across its various versions. So it was logical for us to use the functionality of PITSS.CON in the language changeover for multilingualism as well, which saved us time and money.

Jörg Boland

Managing Director,
Sensis GmbH

Solution

In a 2-day workshop, PITSS introduced the Sensis development team to the concept of multilingualism. PITSS demonstrated how simple and efficient it was to introduce multilingualism to the existing application.

PITSS.CON automated the entire implementation, from the identification of all necessary text modules, such as headings, lead texts, labels and text messages within the PL / SQL code, to the provision of a database backend. In order to be able to include the text modules with all their translations, the interface of the application was dynamically linked to the backend at all points. This resulted in all texts being displayed according to the set language at runtime.

Essentially, Sensis still had to translate the actual extracted texts. For this step, PITSS.CON supported with various options, from the interactive translation function within PITSS.CON, as well as the extraction of all text modules to the translation by a service provider.


Results

It wasn’t long before Sensis saw the first positive results. Shortly after the successful implementation of the multi-language function, Sensis succeeded in winning over their first international customer. The application is now optimally prepared for any number of languages, which only need to be maintained in the database backend. Soon, they can conquer their next foreign-language market.

Individual consulting
for the modernization of your software

Ask without obligation

Your contact

Uta Daniels
Assistant of Sales Management
udaniels@pitss.com

+49 711/914-012-27











Continue reading

Success Story Remondis

CUSTOMER SUCCESS

REMONDIS IT implements
multilingualism of its global
applications with the multi-language
solution from PITSS

One of the world’s largest recycling, service and
water service providers can dynamically and quickly
set up its applications in different languages with PITSS ML

Global Recycling speaks many languages

What happens to all our waste? REMONDIS, one of the world’s largest service providers for recycling, service and water, has the answer. The company recovers raw materials from waste, develops innovative recycling products, offers alternative energy sources and is involved in supplying water and treating wastewater. Furthermore, REMONDIS takes care of the low-pollution disposal of residual and hazardous waste that cannot yet be recycled in a sensible way according to the current state of technology.

The demanding, rapidly changing and complex tasks that result from this require a high-performance IT system landscape. It’s all about logistics, security, availability, reliability, adherence to deadlines, quality and global networking. REMONDIS IT is responsible for ensuring that everything runs as it should. And as REMONDIS’ global recycling and service network extends to over 30 countries, the IT systems have to function and interact in many different languages.

Does your company also need applications in

different languages or designations?

Your Oracle Forms applications can not only be translated into the various languages –
type or model designations can also be automatically and dynamically adapted.

LEARN MORE

One application in many languages

Initial Situation

Globally deployed Oracle Forms large-scale application, which maps all core processes of the company, must be available in the respective local languages.

Challenge

The application previously worked with the outdated Oracle Translation Hub, which was replaced by PITSS.CON Multi-Language. Language extensions must be possible without any problems.

Solution

PITSS.CON Multi-Language replaced the Oracle Translation Hub. In the process, the data was transferred automatically. The rollout was successful and in several.

Multiple target languages completely dynamic

REMONDIS IT relies on the Multi-Language solution from PITSS for the multilingualism of its ERP application. With PITSS.CON Multi-Language, texts and terms from the German-language application are automatically and dynamically translated into the respective target languages on the basis of a previously compiled dictionary. Dynamic means that every textual change or extension of an application is dynamically adapted and output in the respective target language.


Multilingualism seamlessly and automatically extensible

For successful global players like REMONDIS IT, IT-systems must always be prepared for future developments and changes. If, for example, additional languages are added, this is no longer a problem. Once fed into PITSS.CON Multilanguage, additional languages are seamlessly available worldwide within the ERP application at REMONDIS.

PITSS.CON Multi-Language at the service of REMONDIS IT

REMONDIS IT decided to replace the previous translation tool, the outdated Oracle Translation Hub, with PITSS.CON Multi-Language. For this, all masks and reports were automatically read in or transferred, translated and successfully rolled out in several countries.

“As a globally acting and highly networked company, our ERP solution must be easily available in the respective national languages and quickly adaptable. With PITSS.CON Multi-Language, we succeeded in doing just that. The data was read in by the PITSS tool and output in the applications of the respective countries in the correct language. We were very impressed with the performance of the PITSS tool.”

Roland Mann

Project Manager Application Development,
REMONDIS IT

Individual consulting
for the modernization of your software

Ask without obligation

Your contact

Uta Daniels
Assistant of Sales Management
udaniels@pitss.com

+49 711/914-012-27











Continue reading

Success Story Volkswagen

CUSTOMER SUCCESS

Volkswagen

PITSS helped Volkswagen migrate business critical application from Oracle Forms version 3 to version 11g, Oracle ADF and MS. NET.

And thanks to PITSS.CON, they performed their important Oracle Forms migration a price lower than anybody expected. Due to our work with Volkswagen, their business-critical systems are upgraded and will be easier to update in the future. This PITSS.CON project led the business to a true Volkswagen success story.


Upgrade Oracle from Version 3 to 11g

Easier to Install Updates in the Future

Upgrade Completed in a Fraction of the Time


Volkswagen Application Modernization

The VW application was in use since 1994, and was repeatedly expanded to provide new functionalities. Based on Oracle Forms version 3, their application also supported handheld devices and barcode scanners, and completely fulfills the complex requirements for automotive logistics.

We gave PITSS full responsibility for the migration and did not use the tool internally ourselves. The extremely quick deployment of the first test version made it clear just how important efficient automation is. All the deadlines were met; even those that we had classified internally as barely feasible.

David Christmann

Head of Project Delivery Systems ATLAS Dezentral,
Volkswagen
Since migrating to Oracle Forms 11g with the help of PITSS, their hardware and software risks are now a thing of the past. As a result, 14 of the 19 VW sites where the application is used were successfully migrated in 2013, and the rest followed in 2014.

PITSS Delivers High-Quality Oracle Forms Service

Immediately after receiving the order, PITSS impressed with an enormously quick project start. After the kickoff in July 2012, the first working version of the application, which consisted of around 350 Forms modules, was already available for testing purposes at the beginning of September.

After adjusting the various associated C programs, VW was responsible for quality assurance, including comprehensive testing and acceptance workshops with the users.

The PITSS team performed the Oracle Forms migration using PITSS.CON, a powerful Oracle based development platform that is used for the modernization and development of Oracle Forms and Reports applications.

A hardware incompatibility with Oracle Forms 11g became apparent at the end of the test cycles and could not be solved by an automation tool like PITSS.CON. We had to find a special solution for the approximately 25 Forms modules that run on the mobile devices.


Modern and mobile: Oracle ADF and MS NET

PITSS met the January deadline without any problems because the mobile devices were not used in Portugal. However, a solution had to be developed by early summer that fulfilled all of the requirements for the wide range of handheld devices.

In addition to support for new devices and operating systems such as Android, iOS, etc., all the old devices also had to remain functional. This meant that even the now obsolete platform Microsoft Windows CE 5 had to remain functional.

Support for a wide variety of platforms was only one challenge the PITSS team faced. PITSS recommended a certified runtime environment based on Oracle best practices.

PITSS protected VW’s investment to reduce future developments and the need for migration, as well as ensured an attractive interface. After all, end users are now used to modern apps for mobile phones and expect an appropriate user interface.

At first glance, Oracle ADF Mobile offered the necessary functions. In principle it also ran under the mobile version of Internet Explorer for Windows CE 5, however not completely as desired.

Therefore, PITSS decided to use a combination of Oracle database, ADF application and a .NET user interface. The Forms functionality migrated with the help of PITSS.CON in three layers: a thin .NET user interface and a thick database and ADF-layer; all in a development period of just two months.

The PITSS team significantly contributed to the fact that we were able to meet the scheduled international rollout dates, something we strongly doubted was possible due to the surprise with the handheld devices.
PITSS proved to be a very reliable and flexible service partner. Our users are also extremely satisfied with the new version of ATLAS Dezentral. We have received nothing but positive feedback.

David Christmann

Head of Project Delivery Systems ATLAS Dezentral,
Volkswagen

Sustainable Oracle Forms Modernization

In the course of migrating to Oracle Forms 11g, we improved the authentication and access protection mechanisms and brought them up to company standards. This added security alone is greatly appreciated by VW. The company now enjoys a considerable increase in reliability and high availability. Since the application now runs on virtual machines just like all the other applications, it can be installed on the standard hardware in VW’s data center.

Modernization easily fulfilled the high-availability requirements for such a business critical application. Thanks to redundancy across multiple locations, the system is now protected against a regional disaster. This means that the production lines will never come to a standstill because we do not know where to send the finished vehicles.

We are finally able to once again use Oracle’s current standard technology and will be able to easily implement future version updates. All the project goals were achieved in what I consider to be record time. And the best part: it was all possible for just one third of the budget VW originally calculated.


About the Volkswagen Group

The Volkswagen Group with its headquarters in Wolfsburg is one of the leading automobile manufacturers in the world and the largest carmaker in Europe. In 2012, the Group increased the number of vehicles delivered to customers to 9.276 million, which corresponds to a global passenger car market share of 12.8 percent. In Western Europe, nearly a quarter of all new cars come from the Volkswagen Group. Twelve brands from seven European countries belong to the Group: Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Audi, SEAT, ŠKODA, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Ducati, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Scania and MAN.

Individual consulting
for the modernization of your software

Ask without obligation

Your contact

Uta Daniels
Assistant of Sales Management
udaniels@pitss.com

+49 711/914-012-27











Continue reading

Powersouth Success Story

CUSTOMER SUCCESS

ENHANCING LEGACY
APPLICATIONS THROUGH
INNOVATIVE FUNCTIONALITIES

Power South Energy Cooperative, headquartered in Andalusia, Ala., is an electricity generation and transmission (G&T) cooperative. Power South’s field inspectors needed a way to take photographs, collect GPS coordinates, and fill out reports in the field without a laptop. This project was an Oracle Forms modernization that provided support for offline work and data synchronization. PowerSouth chose Oracle ADF Mobile as the development platform for the project because it offered simplified mobile development and easy integration with native device features providing field inspectors with all the functionality required on a mobile tablet.

Not only does the application collect rich coordinate and photographic data, it ensures high data quality through an excellent user interface built with an iterative design approach. Power South’s inspectors now do their work faster and with higher data integrity, leading to more reliable reporting and business intelligence. Power South’s internal team is better prepared to support tablet (iOS) technology going forward.

Collect Data Valuable to Their Organization

Create an Intuitive, Easy-to-Use Interface

Capable of Working Both Online and Offline


Organization

The intended users of the Power South mobile application are inspectors internal to Power South. These inspectors needed the ability to replace the existing paper report and Oracle Forms Application with native device functionality running on an iPad. The ability to collect meter reading data on equipment, take pictures of the equipment, collect GPS coordinates for the location of the equipment and refer to the prior inspection report for each piece of equipment were essential to the solution.


The Business Drivers

Power South had prior experience with mobile devices for data gathering in the field. Their team had previously assembled some impressive Forms-based solutions accessed via handheld Windows laptop computers. However, these machines were an order of magnitude more expensive than iPads and did not provide camera or GPS capabilities. Learning about Oracle ADF Mobile spurred Power South to consider a new iPad-based solution to bring all these needs into one device.


Why PITSS?

Power South asked PITSS to propose a new solution with Oracle ADF Mobile, emphasizing that the application required an intuitive, easy to use interface. In addition to the camera and GPS location capabilities, the application had to be easy to use and intuitive for a variety of users. The iPads would need to operate in full daylight, so a high contrast, visually clear layout would be important. Lastly, the application needed to work offline, so it would be necessary to store locally all relevant tables from the server when working in a disconnected mode.

PITSS began by reviewing the existing Forms application and proposing a new set of application design wireframes for review. After discussions and review the application wireframes were finalized. (See “Interface Design and Application Views” below for more detail.) The wireframes were used to guide the initial development and once an initial version of the interface was developed, a series of iterative build-and-review steps began. This iterative process would continue until the mobile application was complete

Leveraging Oracle ADF Mobile, we were able to transition our employees to use new mobile devices (iOS) leveraging the latest device capabilities and allowing for offline work.

Kenneth Jones,

Business Applications Supervisor,

PowerSouth

Hardware / Software Architecture

The mobile user interface is an Oracle ADF Mobile application running on an iPad communicating over VPN-secured wireless internet to an Oracle WebLogic server configured for Oracle ADF. The iPads use a VPN client application available from the Apple App Store, configured to connect to Power South’s network.

The application had to function when inspectors worked at remote sites without data coverage so an “offline sync” process was required. All the relevant inspection records, equipment tables, photographs, and meter readings had to be stored on the iPad and refreshed and synchronized when a VPN-secured internet connection became available.

This offline mode was accomplished with the following components:

  • Web Service: The ADF application on the WebLogic server exposed a SOAP-based web service to view objects on each relevant entity.
  • Sync User Interface: When online, the iPad user begins a one-button “Sync” operation to upload all completed inspections to the web service and then download the latest records. This keeps the iPad up to date with server state.
  • Java customization code: In the Java code, the application leverages the AdfmfJavaUtilities class to programmatically access the web service for this upload/download process. The customization code includes model and collection classes for the record types in the web service. This allows the data to be provided through Java Bean-backed DataControls in the AMX page views.
  • SQLite Encrypted Database: The Java customization classes interact with a local SQLite encrypted database for persistence. SQLite was deemed the ideal long-term storage method because of its table-based approach and the ability to query data with SQL, mirroring the structure of data in the server and reporting environment where the data originates.

Key Software Design Considerations

Configuration driven interface: PITSS developed an innovative approach that allowed them to dynamically show information on a page, based on dynamic requirements. This is used in both list components as well as outside of lists. This provides control over which AMX page elements are shown and when.

Managing photographs: Generically using large images in mobile applications can be costly and influence performance and storage aspects of mobile applications. Images captured as files use up device storage and images captured as Base64 strings are very processor-intensive to show on screen.

To avoid this problem PITSS leveraged the support for using Java in Oracle ADF Mobile and created a Java component to handle Base64 encoding and decoding. A PhotoUtil class handles the logic of capturing photographs with the normal ADF Mobile APIs, writing the files to disk, and updating the relevant data models. The same class is used when synchronizing with the server. It is used to encode image files as Base64 Strings for upload and to decode Base64 Strings from the server to write as local files. With this process, the mobile application is never showing Base64 images or dealing with the upload and download of file attachments.


About PITSS

PITSS modernizes, customizes, migrates, and extends the life of valuable legacy systems. Using data, proprietary software, and deep-dive analysis, we reduce the cost and scope of your digital transformation effort by focusing on the highest ROI processes first. Then, we pave the complete road between you and your new horizons with confidence and expertise. Our full-stack team of experienced UI/UX designers, developers, engineers, technical leads and project managers can guide you through each step of a project. No one knows Oracle Forms like we do—we can take you from planning, to pilot, to the cloud and beyond.

Individual consulting
for the modernization of your software

Ask without obligation

Your contact

Uta Daniels
Assistant of Sales Management
udaniels@pitss.com

+49 711/914-012-27











Continue reading

Success Story AAR

CUSTOMER SUCCESS

AAR – Aviation

AAR is an independent provider of aviation services to commercial and government customers worldwide. Incorporated in 1955 and today has revenues approximately $1.7 billion with more than 4,500 employees in 20 countries.

Digital Services is a small team of individuals at AAR who are tasked with business transformation for AAR’s offerings and services. Facing aggressive new markets and technology trends, Digital Services wanted to transform their Oracle Forms-based sales quoting application. With a plan to unlock their legacy systems, it was crucial to keep valuable business logic in legacy systems while enabling newer applications.


Increased Business Development

Drive Incremental Revenue

Create Modern Scalable Solutions


The Challenge

Digital Services began the journey by measuring current processes and systems. They needed fresh data on how their team collected customer demand and how efficiently sales employees were able respond to opportunities. AAR found a lengthy process slowed down both decisions and quotes. Direct feedback revealed that customers expected responses in minutes to a half-hour at most.

Slow response times were due to changes in sales processes outpacing updates to the supporting quote and sales systems. Since their legacy application was homegrown over a couple of decades, AAR employees were accustomed to a shorthand way of processing the application’s complicated workflow. Unfortunately, these workarounds led to a loss of data over the years. Ultimately, data is an important asset to AAR.

The challenge was to improve the efficiency, speed, and effectiveness of the quoting system with a project now known as Quote Accelerator.


Why PITSS?

The Digital Services Group at AAR knew they wanted a modern application and extreme performance. AAR chose PITSS to carve out a roadmap for Quote Accelerator. However, they wanted to accomplish this without changing the underlying data structures. Thereby they could preserve the existing IT investment.

This meant the large Oracle Forms legacy system, which serves many vital functions, would incur very little technical debt to interoperate with the new Quote Accelerator. PITSS architected the project to avoid radical changes to the underlying system, all while enabling the business’s objectives.

Between our knowledge of backend systems and past performance, PITSS’ experience and expertise put us ahead of the pack for this project.

PITSS […] has a great knowledge of our specific infrastructure. We are an Oracle shop and we’ve got an Oracle database with an Oracle forms application […] PITSS having that background knowledge enabled them to more quickly understand what we were facing.

We’ve certainly looked at the relationship [with PITSS] as more of a partnership and a transfer of knowledge on both ends…I think we’ve become more effective working together as a result.

Mike Czerniak

Director – Digital Products,

AAR Corp

The Digital Transformation Process

It was important to AAR to get a partner like PITSS involved early and often so that they could engage in a deep discovery process. AAR had ideas about how they wanted Quote Accelerator to move forward.

PITSS brought in a small team to listen, gain knowledge from stakeholders, and understand the specific, in-depth business processes. The discovery stage was important because it allowed all stakeholders to come back with ideas and put them on the table.

We used our experience to take those ideas and improve them using modern technologies. Fully understanding the business requirements led us to recommended an architectural approach for Quote Accelerator that would help AAR achieve their goals. This technical solution included a plan for fast, responsive, and modern user interface.


An Aviation Digital Transformation Success Story

One of the key goals for Quote Accelerator was to unlock AAR from their legacy Oracle application. PITSS helped do just that. They helped plan for a powerful API that delivers data quickly, securely, and can be exposed to more modern applications. This allows new digital investments to remain unaware of the underlying system, reducing duplicate work and leveraging legacy system investments.

After PITSS helped develop the roadmap for the API, AAR created a single-page application that focused on user experience. AAR employees can now process a quote in fewer clicks, page changes, and tab changes. All of this while also retaining crucial data that was previously lost in transit. Using this fast new interface, the AAR sales team moves on with their other day-to-day activities including more sales and quoting.



Individual consulting
for the modernization of your software

Ask without obligation

Your contact

Uta Daniels
Assistant of Sales Management
udaniels@pitss.com

+49 711/914-012-27











Continue reading

Success Story Maryland

CUSTOMER SUCCESS

PITSS INSPIRES WITH
ORACLE FORMS UPGRADE
FOR MARYLAND AUTO
INSURANCE

BUSINESS-CRITICAL ORACLE FORMS APPLICATION NEEDED UPGRADING

Maryland Auto Insurance Fund (MAIF) is a mission-driven insurance company dedicated to reducing the number of uninsured drivers on Maryland roadways by providing accessible, affordable insurance to drivers who currently are unable to obtain coverage from standard carriers.
Maryland Auto was established in 1972 by the state of Maryland to protect its citizens from the risks and costs associated with uninsured driving. Maryland Auto Insurance has been working with two Oracle Forms applications for some of their mission critical business processes. One of these applications was on an older version of Forms and the decision to upgrade to the current version was made by management.

NO PROBLEM WITH THE RIGHT PARTNER

Initially, it was decided to bring back some developers who worked on the application that used to work at the agency. The work did not proceed as planned and eventually it was decided that this may not be the route to go down in order to upgrade the application.
MAIF went out to the market to see if they could contract with a company to help them reach their goal. After coming to one of the PITSS’ webinars, MAIF’s CIO reached out to PITSS to investigate the capabilities. PITSS was engaged and demonstrated their modernization approach with starting the preparation phase. In this step, the application is analyzed in depth, evaluated and prepared for the upgrade through cleanup processes.

Who: Maryland Auto Insurance Fund (MAIF), Maryland
Industry: Insurance
What: Oracle Forms upgrade and modernization
How: Automated upgrade with the PITSS tool-set
Why: Reliable application and a modern environment
Time required: 30 days

A QUICK AND HASSLE FREE UPGRADE

PITSS received the Sources from MAIF and loaded them all into the PITSS Application Data Cube to parse and analyze the Forms, menus and other objects for the upgrade. After this preparation phase a proposal was made and accepted.

PITSS not only upgraded MAIF’s application, but did it on time and within budget. They also did some additional work like cleaning up the dead code in both the applications. MAIF can thus optimally further enhance its Oracle Forms application.

AN INSPIRING UPGRADE AND THE BEGINNING OF A SUCCESSFUL RELATION

Butch Milligan, CIO at Maryland Auto Insurance was delighted with the work performed. He is looking at PITSS as an extension of his development team. The PITSS engineers and architects not only upgraded the application but showed them how to run it better and keep it up-to-date.

PITSS is looking forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with MAIF as they work together to ensure that the Forms application continues to perform at a level expected by the business.

“We look at PITSS as an extension of our development team. My employees were really enthusiastic about the tool-set and the collaboration.”

Butch Milligan

CIO at Maryland

Auto Insurance

Individual consulting
for the modernization of your software

Ask without obligation

Your contact

Uta Daniels
Assistant of Sales Management
udaniels@pitss.com

+49 711/914-012-27











Continue reading

Success Story Bernardaud

CUSTOMER SUCCESS

BERNARDAUD modernizes its central
enterprise application with PITSS

BERNARDAUD, one of the world’s most renowned
producers of exclusive porcelain products, realizes
its upgrade to Oracle Forms 12c with PITSS.CON

Tradition relies on modernization

How do tradition and modernization go together? Perfectly! The French family business in its fifth generation stands for luxury, elegance and first-class craftsmanship in table services, decorative objects and gift articles and sets the course to remain at the top in global competition. To achieve this, Bernardaud relies not only on modern design, but also on proven IT systems from Oracle – and has been doing so for years!

With the thoroughly reliable Oracle Forms application, they therefore upgraded to the latest Oracle Forms version 12c using the PITSS.CON product Forms & Reports Modeler. In addition, PITSS.CON implemented multi-language enhancements in order to be prepared for business relations with the Asian markets. The Japanese market in particular is of great importance to Bernardaud.

Are you still using old Oracle Forms applications?
You are not yet on Forms 12c?

In some companies, Oracle Forms applications of versions 6, 10 and 11 are still in use. This is risky! You will lack support if there are problems and if things go bad, it can lead to system downtime!

Upgrade to Oracle Forms 12c

Tradition & luxury go modern ways

Initial Situation

Oracle Forms application should be maintained, become more understandable and meet the latest requirements such as server migration and multilingualism.

Challenge

Clean up of the application, upgrade to Oracle Forms 12c and extend with multilanguage. The whole thing should run automatically and be easy to control in the further course itself.

Solution

Analysis, cleanup and upgrade of the application to Oracle Forms 12c with PITSS Forms & Reports Modeler including documentation. Language extension “Japanese” with PITSS.CON Multilanguage. Training for self-use of PITSS products.

Bernardaud protects investment

For decades, Bernardaud has relied on Oracle technologies. This is to remain so. The central company application, via which all business processes from the merchandise management system to customer communication run, is based on Oracle Forms. The application contains valuable know-how, which the company wants to preserve. However, it has also become very complex over the years. This could become problematic for new IT employees at Bernardaud. In addition, the Oracle Forms application is to run on a new IBM server in the future. By upgrading the application with the PITSS Forms & Reports Modeler to Oracle Forms 12c, Bernardaud has managed to do all this.


With PITSS.CON Multilanguage successful to Asia

The Asian market is of greatest economic importance for luxury brands such as Bernardaud. Above all, the company would like to tap into the Japanese market even more. For this closer relationship, the modernized Oracle Forms 12c application also had to be made available in Japanese. Thanks to PITSS.CON Multilanguage, this was realized within a very short time. This is because the product has a function that automatically and dynamically detects and translates all texts and captions.

PITSS products and teams led to project success

Both the PITSS Forms & Reports Modeler and PITSS.CON ML were supported and trained by the PITSS team of experts throughout the entire modernization project at Bernardaud. A particular advantage was that, in addition to the technical know-how of the PITSS experts, the project could also be managed in French. Once again, the international composition of the PITSS team was a plus. The training of the Bernardaud team enabled the customer to efficiently process his application on his own.

“Our company has always combined craftsmanship and innovation, It is therefore natural that its IT environment has developed over several decades. It is important to keep a solution modern enough for our needs. Established in international markets, it was necessary to be able to modernize our application. With PITSS Forms & Reports Modeler we were able to upgrade and clean up our application to Oracle Forms 12c. Now the app is up to date again for us and more easily understandable. And thanks to PITSS.CON Multilanguage, it now also works in Japanese.”

Clément Mignon,

IT department manager at Bernardaud

Individual consulting
for the modernization of your software

Ask without obligation

Your contact

Uta Daniels
Assistant of Sales Management
udaniels@pitss.com

+49 711/914-012-27











Continue reading

Success Story Sheffield

CUSTOMER SUCCESS

PITSS modernizes and supports
central information system of
the UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD

One of England’s oldest and most prestigious universities
optimizes its CIS – Corporate Information System – by
upgrading to Oracle Forms 12c and efficient re-hosting

High demands on the CIS business platform

The University of Sheffield stands as a world-class institution dedicated to delivering life-enhancing research, innovation and education. The University is reliant on its Corporate Information System (CIS) to support its mission. About 70% of its operational processes use this set of applications and connected systems.

When systems get on in years

This system was created in the 1990s, but it couldn’t keep up with the demands of Higher Education. Updating the CIS would improve the software, working methods, and technology, allowing them to adapt and grow.


The modernization of the application with summa cum laude

First, the complete CIS was automatically loaded, analyzed and prepared using the PITSS.CON products. The CIS, which was now much easier to use and handle, was then easily brought up to date by upgrading to Oracle Forms 12c. The PITSS team guided through the entire modernization process and also provided support and training afterwards.

Do you also want to be up to date with your Oracle Forms application?
Would you like more transparency for your application?

Cleaning up your application and upgrading to Oracle Forms 12c will make everything clearer
and manageable again. And you’ll be up to date too!

Upgrade to Oracle Forms 12c

Successful modernization of a renowned educational institution

Initial Situation

Modernization of a long-standing and complex corporate information system (CIS) based on Oracle Forms technology with a connection to the cloud.

Challenge

Great expectations are placed on system availability, security, system growth, new requirements and changed regulations.

Solution

Upgrade of the application to Oracle Forms 12c with the products from PITSS.CON and efficient re-hosting and support from the experts at PITSS.

What has been achieved and what the future holds

The University of Sheffield has reached an important milestone with its CIS on the latest and supported Forms version 12c. Through efficient re-hosting, with a lift & shift to the cloud, it has succeeded in transforming the CIS to the AWS public cloud. As a result, Sheffield benefits from greater security, cost-effectiveness and scalability for its CIS. The University of Sheffield not only looks back on a venerable past, but also asserts itself as an elite university for the future.

“The collaborative work with PITSS to transition our core systems to a robust and secure cloud-based infrastructure has been a significant leap forward for the University. We’re making our technology future-proof and adaptable to emerging trends and challenges in the years to come. Thanks to the PITSS team and their product, PITSS.CON, we modernized smoothly and quickly while keeping our operations running.”

Bella Abrams,

Director of IT Services,

The University of Sheffield

Individual consulting
for the modernization of your software

Ask without obligation

Your contact

Uta Daniels
Assistant of Sales Management
udaniels@pitss.com

+49 711/914-012-27











Continue reading