Customer Story
Global Manufacturing Company Improves Support of IMS
Syncsort Optimize IMS helps manufacturing firm improve support of IMS and reduce costs
Much like many IMS shops world-wide, IMS was working smoothly and reliably for the North American division of this global manufacturing company. However, the IT department was losing its IMS skills to retirement, their IMS version was out of support from IBM, and their continuing IMS licensing third-party support tools and services were costing them millions per year.
The obstacle was the knowledge and confidence that a solid, affordable solution existed that would allow for a transparent migration from their existing IMS solution to Db2, with minimal to no impact on their existing application infrastructure.
After engaging Precisely to run a proof-of-concept for Syncsort Optimize IMS, the decision was made to move forward with Syncsort Optimize IMS implementation. The results were clear- significant reductions in IMS software licensing charges, less risk of costly problems with IMS due to an expiring version being used, and improve support IMS.
After several years of the IMS issue being on a list of IT projects to be addressed, it became a priority when key IMS staff members began announcing retirements and asking, “Who should I help train to replace me before I phase out?” So in 2015, the company began exploring the possibility of using an IMS-to-Db2 migration software package from Precisely, a long-time trusted vendor of “sort” technology and related mainframe utilities. Syncsort Optimize IMS is a completely transparent solution to move IBM Information Management System (IMS) and Virtual Storage Access Method (VSAM) to Db2 on z/OS without requiring any application changes. The company engaged Precisely to run a Proof of Concept (POC) for Syncsort Optimize IMS to get a reliable estimate of expected ROI and ease of migration. The POC was completed in a few weeks and the decision was made to move forward with the Syncsort Optimize IMS implementation.
Most importantly, the company saw significant reductions in IMS software licensing charges as well as fees for third-party database and application support.
