Markant: Serverization & GUI-fication

The Situation

The MARKANT Handels und Service GmbH Deutschland has positioned itself as a business co-op for middle-sized companies and its goal is to secure the independence of wholesale and retail enterprises in Germany. Markant offers its members a wide array of services ranging from purchasing and central processing, to logistics and even marketing and financing. Its virtual marketplace www.markant.net provides partners with a modern trade platform.  Updated, structured and custom edited information is made available here, giving the dealers a decisive advantage over their competitors.

A modern IT infrastructure is the basis for the flexible, highly efficient implementation of Markant’s services. To offer its customers optimal support, a wide variety of applications are used. The core system is the EZR, a German acronym for “Europäische Zentralregulierung” or European central processing. The master data for the EZR are administered by around 1,300 dialog programs. Development is done in Cobol on the System i platform with a proprietary program model characterized by a high degree of standardization and modularization.

In order to meet the increased demand for resources over a long-term basis, the existing production system was replaced by a model 570 in 2005. Preference was given to a batch-oriented system upgrade in doing so, but the corresponding reduction of interactive performance (int. CPW) had to be compensated. Compared to the previous green screen, response times for the roughly 150 users had to be relatively good.

A high degree of investment protection and optimal integration in the existing IT landscape were the crucial factors in Markant’s decision for PKS’s Server Builder 400 and Universal Client, which allowed for a two-phase migration scenario.

The Solution

In the scope of the two-phase concept, master data administration was converted with the PKS tools, opening up the opportunity for Markant to equip the existing 5250 apps with a Windows GUI with a calculable amount of effort, and execute them on a batch server without the interactive constraint.

The migration and the rollout were done in two phases:

• In just a one-day workshop held together at Markant, the configuration file was prepped for 1:1 migration to the PKS text client. The necessary conversions were taken up by the change management system at Markant so that the entire migration process could be automatically carried out. With the short-term availability of the text client, users made a smooth transition to the new Windows GUI.
• In the second phase, migration to the PKS Windows client was tackled. This phase kicked off with a three-day workshop held together, where under the instruction of the PKS consultants, Markant’s IT team migrated its first dialogs for operation. The subsequent migration of over 1,300 displays was done independently by just two employees within six months, parallel to daily business. For the few problems that arose, the PKS support team always found a fast solution. The final productivity switch went smoothly.

The Advantages

• Standardized interface, easy for Windows users to operate
• Very good response times thanks to the extension of dialog applications in batch mode
• Excellent integration of the procedure in the maintenance and development process
• Cost savings in the acquisition of a new server thanks to which a ROI was possible within just one year

The Customer’s Testimonial

“From our point of view, there is no other comparable alternative to PKS’s concept of application modernization on the market! We’re completely satisfied with the tools, know-how and service PKS offered. We can recommend PKS to other System i customers as an ideal partner for any such project. This was definitely not our last project together with the team from PKS!”
Mr. Pejo Iwanow
CIO, Markant

Branch of trade: Commerce
Employees: 400