Based in Italy, Multi Consult Milano (MCM) creates enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions for more than 1,000 small and midsize clients in the transport and logistics field. Since 1986, MCM has offered IBM i RPG software. When the company decided to expand its offerings to include the .NET platform, it needed to minimize the resources required to integrate its functionally critical and proven RPG code while still safeguarding its development investments. It turned to The SYKORA Group.

SYKORA has been delivering solutions to the i marketplace for more than 20 years. The SYKORA Group's ML-iMPACT product focuses on i modernization from a perspective of legacy preservation, helping companies extend their core i software assets into C# or Java for Microsoft .NET and a services-oriented architecture (SOA).

MCM tests revealed that the ML-iMPACT solution was optimal for integrating its RPG applications with the Windows operating system. The product converts RPG and CL to C# or Java with efficient automation. Customers can make any subsequent modifications and additions to the source code in RPG and then run through ML-iMPACT to generate the parallel code that is compatible with .NET-based software. This feature is important to MCM, which plans to develop both versions of the application.

MCM Expects to Double Its Business

"ML-iMPACT guarantees a continued return on our investments in RPG skills, and it provides the means for us to take advantage of modern and highly productive development tools such as Microsoft Visual Studio," says Enzo Gattini, MCM development manager. "We forecast that having our ERP solution available on the Microsoft .NET platform will double our business in just a few years, therefore easily justifying our investment in ML-iMPACT."

Gattini says the new solution offers additional benefits to prospective clients. "Beyond the greater integration and the contained costs with respect to the IBM technology, the new application architecture lets us increase the effectiveness and usability of the solution to satisfy our customers' demands," he adds.

With ML-iMPACT, MCM engineers can not only maintain the software, but they can also design enhanced graphical interfaces to offer clients better use of their i systems. "A multiplatform platform application package supports the maximum productivity in the development phase," Gattini reports.

Further benefits, MCM notes, include modernizing RPG software for its i customers, an extended market, a single codebase to ensure efficiency in code development, the rapid evolution of application services, and integration with other .NET software.

A Robust Situation

"MCM was our first customer in Italy and proved how easy it is to work with clients internationally," says Thomas Sykora, CEO of SYKORA-ML. "It certainly helps that MCM has such good technicians who quickly understood how ML-iMPACT works, but it also shows the stability, easy of use, and completeness of the solution. I would also like to thank the excellent team members at Microsoft who helped with this migration. Their work showed Microsoft's commitment to help i users take advantage of the .NET platform."