CMS multitier architecture changes (inter)face of ERP on iSeries Company realizes strong ROI, high customer satisfaction, and rapid development environment on rock-solid platform. CMS , a 20-year ERP this one step [of separating business Overview provider headquartered in Canada logic, logic, and display Solution provider profile (with additional offices in four other logic] became foundational to the CMS Software countries), long relied on its expertly transformation of our application set • Headquarters: Toronto, Canada (offices in U.S., Germany, designed, green-screen applications, over the next fi ve years.” Belgium, and China) running on the IBM iSeries™ platform, The CMS management team knew that • 20-year-old provider of integrated to close deals. But as considerations supply chain and process a graphical had to be manufacturing ERP software surrounding graphical user interfaces developed to win new customers over • 2500+ plants worldwide (GUIs) became more critical to buying the long term. They also understood Challenge decisions, the software company Create graphical, flexible user the need to move quickly toward Web found itself in the unenviable position interfaces to extend applications to support their clients’ • 10 million lines of code and of asking prospects to compromise growing requirement for supply-chain 2,500 menu options look-and-feel in favor of superior • 600 man-years of work (B2B) applications. But, as Craven functionality, which is not always an (10 -15 years’ code development) mentions, “In the late 1990s, when we Needed easy sale. Now, having launched started down this path, seemingly no • Transition plan a new jGORich user interface, the • Increased skill sets one in the industry had it fi gured out.” • Development tools solution provider’s iSeries based ERP application, CMSi5, sports a Solution The considerations were as complex • Incremental rearchitecting approach visual “wow” factor and new business and interconnected as a Rubik’s cube. • Leverage RPG ILE backend process flexibility. This allows CMS • Multitiered architecture The selection of stable, competitively to participate in larger engagements (client/presentation/backend) priced tools was not what it is today. • Graphical front end and compete head-to-head with Key components There were issues regarding fat or thin Microsoft® Windows® applications in • Java Swing user interface client interfaces. Additional concerns • Java and XML the user interface battlefield. related to training, deployment, and • IBM HTTP Server, SOA, and CGI support for thousands of users who • RPG ILE The bottom line is that CMS achieved ultimately needed to interact with Benefits to solution provider record sales for fiscal 2006. • Experienced record sales in 2004 the new interfaces. Other factors • Engaged in larger projects Business rationale included performance, scalability, • Reduced deployment, training, and support costs Paul Craven, CMS vice president and investments in RPG skills and the • Protected investment in skills and code of development, explains that his iSeries platform. Internationalization • Retains larger clients • Develops new functionality company’s record sales performance was also a rising concern, especially as quickly and cost-effectively is the result of an ongoing commitment manufacturing facilities began looking Benefits to customer to a three-phased modernization effort at Asian geographies to save • No third parties that began in 1998 with a push to move operational costs. • Lightweight, rich client • Platform independence 10 million lines of RPG code to RPG ILE. CMS management developed a • Enterprise scalability “Getting ready for Y2K was only one of • Low bandwidth requirements strategy to sustain its leadership our considerations,” Craven says. “But • Highly stable, proven code base solution providers do, “You cannot get green screens out of the users’ hands, yet you cannot sell green screens.”

CMS knew it had to make jGO even better by adding functionality that did not exist in the green-screen user interface. Thus the next generation, jGO ll, was introduced in 2003.

Figure 2: CMS jGoRich application architecture The tree-like maneuverability position in functionality, while with RPG code and data definition delivered with jGO II succeeded in incorporating graphical, Web, and B2B specifications (DDS) to produce html dramatically reducing most users’ innovation. Four clear priorities were output was similar in functionality to reliance on green screens by allowing established: the more recently announced IBM them to navigate, quickly and • Leverage existing skills, while Host Access Transformation Services intuitively, between tasks directly. To embracing new graphical, object, (HATS). In 1999, this interface was accommodate those who embraced and Web technologies. converted (with half a man-year of change more slowly, CMS supported • Seek short-term ROI where effort) to produce a Java™ graphical both the new and existing presentation possible, while focusing on long- user client, which CMS named jGO. interfaces for one release. term returns (resulting from a This transition to a graphical interface Transform: Support for B2B better designed infrastructure). dramatically improved the aesthetic Brian Angle, CMS vice president of • Incorporate enterprise scalability, appeal of CMSi5 in initial presentations marketing and sales, comments, “B2B while sustaining reliability and and demonstrations to prospects, and was one of those trendy IT terms in the security. it provided a much friendlier conduit late 1990s that sustained a huge and • Avoid disruptions and inconven- into various applications. Users were positive impact on the way businesses iences to existing customer base. essentially self-trained because of the interoperate with their suppliers. Improve: Focus on user ubiquity of the browser interface. Almost every manufacturing dynamic experience has evolved into a global teaming It is worth noting, however, that given A prudent business executive will effort. CMS made a commitment the choice of using the graphical concern himself first with ROI, and that to support these relationships by interface or remaining with the familiar, is precisely what CMS management providing best-of-breed processes and highly efficient, green screens, did. In 1998, the company committed within our software.” CMS responded users tended to stick with what they one man-year of effort toward building by enhancing its existing purchasing, knew. Craven explains that CMS a screen-scraper in Microsoft Visual accounts payable, resource planning, faced the same situation many iSeries Basic®. Its ability to dovetail directly and job applications in a fully integrated real-time B2B “ The flexible workflow model supported by jGORich is very collaboration tool called the CMS Easy impressive during sales presentations. Our customers are e-Business Suite. happier, because their learning curve is shorter and our support role is lessened. We also now have a larger prospect This suite includes both a customer base, as most ERP evaluators do not worry about server and supplier component, enabling platforms, provided that the user interface meets their them to place and review orders, check expectations. We are winning more business, with shorter production schedules, and perform sales cycles. And, thanks to the iSeries platform, our clients many other business critical tasks in an enjoy the best of both worlds: flexible and friendly user efficient and secure setting. The Easy .” e-Business Suite also supports interfaces and a rock-solid platform 830/862 XML automotive data format –Brian Angle, Vice President, Sales & Marketing, CMS standards. With just two man-years of effort, these applications were reassembled to incorporate new Java classes with CGI and existing RPG business logic. (For details on the technologies used, see “Innovate: Creating new, differentiated solutions.”)

Innovate: Differentiated solutions Craven explains, “We simply ran out of real estate using the traditional RPG/client architecture. We needed to support Web services and SOA (service-oriented architecture).”

Therefore, the mammoth task of Figure 3: The jGoRich Client Manager interface (Work Order Scheduling) redesigning the CMSi5 solution to running on Linux is that businesses The backend and legacy tiers: exploit the promise of true multitier have a choice of client operating Craven explains that this architecture application architecture became system environments for their users. allows them to leverage the existing a necessary and fundamental functionality of their applications. investment of CMS development time It is important to understand that As they continue to refactor more of and resources. Figure 2 (previous jGORich deploys old and new their original business code, CMS will page) includes the architecture of the to users, as you will gain the ability to respond even more client tier (or view), the presentation see when you read about the rapidly to support new features. tier (or controller), the backend tier (or presentation and backend/legacy model), and the legacy tier. layers. This new interface offers the In regard to portability Microsoft .NET look and feel, with the CMS jGORich is portable; the user The client tier: jGORich, with its stability, reliability, and robustness only needs a browser. However, newly designed, world-class user of the iSeries backend, and all Craven explains, “By design, our interface, acts as a presentation interactions are in real time. application code is fully entrenched shell (Figure 3) to deliver browser- on the iSeries and i5/OS platform. based, tree-like navigation between Because of this new interface, CMS This was a researched, and in all CMS applications and functions. is able to package its applications in our experience, prudent business The original jGO user interface had containers, which are scalable and decision, not just for CMS, but for to be fully deconstructed and rebuilt easily deployable delivery vehicles. our customers. In the 20 years we into the much more elegant jGORich have been in the midrange platform client, which no longer communicates The presentation tier: The world, IBM AS/400®, and now directly with RPG and DDS. jGORich presentation tier (Figure 2) primarily the iSeries platform, consistently dovetails with a presentation (middle) consists of a main server that delivers the strongest combination tier (Figure 2) using XML and Java. utilizes SOA to respond to Java/ of reliability, manageability, security, XML requests from the jGO client and scalability. This is what our Considering the level of redesign and forwards these requests to the clients expect us to deliver. In the required, it is impressive to note that backend tier for action. The main manufacturing world, where just- the efficient nature of using object server interacts with the IBM HTTP in-time (JIT) supply, production, technology allowed this new client Server for this purpose. All programs and delivery cycles are de rigueur, to be fully developed in only a half used in this architecture are reliability is paramount. The iSeries man-year. Additionally, because Java essentially Java classes running on platform answers this need.” is portable, Craven states, “Linux™ the iSeries system and listening on enablement required ‘zero’ man-years a socket, which is a very lightweight of effort.” The practical benefit of implementation. two, while the client and backend management had an issue with the teams do not often need to work presentation of the customer order together. However, all developers processing screens. They wanted to have some understanding of the rearrange those screens and fields. technologies used by the other Prior to jGORich, this requested teams; therefore, there is no change might have been cost- perception of writing code that prohibitive and might have created connects to a black box. “We support headaches. However, started training our RPG folks in OO with the new jGoRich client, CMS concepts in 1998, and the current developers were able to quickly development organization chart came respond and resolve the issue rapidly into place in 2003.” and at a low cost, resulting in a new For more information

customer for CMS and IBM. Contact your IBM sales representative, ROI CMS (CMS.com), or visit IBM at: ibm.com/ server CMS is now reaping the rewards Angle says, “Today’s marketing of their long-term redevelopment touch-points include: function, value, Trademarks and special notices investment. From a revenue and reliability, and the “wow” factor. The flexible workflow model supported © IBM Corporation 1994-2006. All rights sales perspective, Fiscal 2005 was reserved. a record year. CMS was able to by jGORich is very impressive References in this document to IBM products or compete and win more and larger during sales presentations. Our services do not imply that IBM intends to make them available in every country. deals than in previous years. customers are happier, because their learning curve is shorter and our The following terms are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in From a development perspective, support role is lessened. We have a the United States, other countries, or both: IBM, iSeries, AS/400, WebSphere, DB2 Universal Data- CMS can now recraft the larger prospect base, as most ERP base, DB2, ibm.com, and the IBM logo. presentation layer without having to evaluators do not worry about server Java and all Java-based trademarks are trade- distribute a new business layer to its platforms, provided that the user marks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both. customers. CMS can also be more interface meets their expectations. Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, and the Win- flexible in enhancing the product We are winning more business, with dows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, based on customer need. shorter sales cycles. And, thanks to or both.

the iSeries platform, our clients enjoy Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the A recent case-in-point involved a the best of both worlds: flexible and United States, other countries, or both. Japanese firm that was ready to friendly user interfaces and a rock- Other company, product or service names may acquire CMSi5, but the company’s be trademarks or service marks of others. solid platform.” Information is provided “AS IS” without warranty of any kind.

All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM products and the results they may have achieved. Actual environmental costs and per- formance characteristics may vary by customer.

Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products, published announcement material, or other publicly available sources and does not consti- tute an endorsement of such products by IBM. Sources for non-IBM list prices and perform- ance numbers are taken from publicly available information, including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages. IBM has not tested these products and cannot confi rm the accuracy of performance, capability, or any other claims related to non-IBM products. Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the supplier of those products.