Case Study 1 - UK plc needing a strategic solution

The Problem

A large UK plc was moving away from the IBM i platform which hosts an instance of System/21 together with a completely bespoke application. The RPG development and support teams had already moved across to the new platform to begin development and configuration, leaving a skeleton staff of two to support the IBM i. The transition period was forecast to be three years but within the space of a week one of the remaining IBM i team retired and the other resigned.

​The client did not want the risk of recruiting a contractor and then having them leave, and having to continually manage knowledge transfers and handovers. A more strategic solution was needed

The Solution

Legacy Systems was contacted and asked to put together a proposal that would guarantee a level of support, spreading knowledge across different team members, and also allowing for extra development work that may be required on the IBM i

​Several days of on-site "discovery" allowed us to gather enough information to be able to propose a set number of hours per day to provide ongoing operational support (with the flexibility to ramp up or down as priorities changed), with increased cover for critical activities such as Invoice generation and Period-End processing.

The client is supported by two senior Legacy Systems consultants, backed-up by a second layer of support staff.