Aqua Global, headquartered in London, England, is a 25-year-old solution provider for users of IBM i financial applications. Aqua Global's products include middleware, messaging, and a range of integrated business processing modules to suit client business requirements.

A few years ago, Aqua Global began considering updating its IBM i application suite. With the advent of the SWIFT ISO 15022 securities messaging standard, the company decided to add compliance features and thus improve its software in many other areas as well.

Committed to its IBM i on the backend, Aqua Global needed a modern development environment that afforded superb i system access.

The company chose ASNA Visual RPG (AVR), a Windows-based development system that uses ASNA DataGate for its connectivity to the i system. DataGate offers improved performance and security, which is essential for financial applications. With AVR, developers can produce Windows or browser-based applications that run natively on Windows (with all the expected graphical user interface elements) and provide communication with the i.

"We needed to extend the power and reach of our software. We are committed to System i and needed a modern development environment that afforded superb System i access," says Peter Truckle, Aqua Global sales manager. "After a little shopping around, we found that AVR offered the best fit for our business and our development team."

The ASNA DataGate Component Suite for .NET (DCS) offers Visual C# and Visual Basic .NET, a robust .NET assembly that provides fast, reliable, and scalable access to IBM i physical and logical files. It also provides a high-speed program call, letting Visual C# and Visual Basic .NET programmers easily call i system program objects.

To better serve its customers needs, Aqua Global used AVR, with its ASNA DataGate i System connectivity, to write Intercept e2gen, a new generation of Aqua Global applications. Intercept e2gen lets Aqua Global customers improve process workflow, reduce costs, and increase transaction processing reliability and competitiveness.