Fujitsu Software Joins Mainframe Migration Alliance; Fujitsu Software Extends Its Alliances with Microsoft by Joining the Newly Formed Mainframe Migration Alliance

Business Wire, Sept 28, 2004

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Fujitsu Software Corporation today announced that, having worked closely with Microsoft Corp. over the last few years in the area of mainframe migrations, it is enthusiastically supporting the recently formed Mainframe Migration Alliance (MMA), an organization created by Microsoft and other industry partners designed to help customers migrate workloads off the mainframe and onto the Microsoft Windows platform. The alliance represents a group of companies that have their interests aligned in making mainframe migrations easier and more efficient for customers.

Fujitsu Software, a subsidiary of Fujitsu Ltd., a $45 billion global provider of customer-focused IT and communications solutions, and part of the well-established Microsoft-Fujitsu global alliance, brings its CICS and batch COBOL migrations solutions to the group, along with its experience of helping companies migrate from the mainframe. Mainframe migrations have been a focus of the Microsoft-Fujitsu global alliance for over three years producing great benefits for organizations that make the move. Migration successes include:

--Washington Department of Licensing expecting to save $1 million per year in hardware and software maintenance costs and is already experiencing agility gains in quickly transforming existing applications into Web Services.

--Presidential Life made the break from the mainframe in the mid-90's and is finding greater promise and productivity from the latest Microsoft and Fujitsu Software offerings.

--Stanislaus County saved over $700,000 per year (approaching 90% of its previous budget) by migrating its CICS applications to a NetCOBOL for .NET solution AND experienced a six-fold improvement in response times.

--Stockholmshem, a major Swedish housing corporation, is expecting an ROI of less than 24 months and a much improved ability to find and retain staff with the appropriate competencies as applications are on a popular, growing platform.

"We started helping organizations migrate from the mainframe in 1999 when we worked with San Diego City Schools to move more than 2,000 COBOL programs to Windows-based servers," said Ron Langer, senior director languages group, Fujitsu Software Corporation. "They were able to make big savings in their budget while putting in place an infrastructure that would support their future growth. The case was convincing four years ago yet, in those four years, we've seen leaps in Windows-based server price: performance ratios and steadily improving migration-supporting software. Consequently many companies are now looking for a route that will take them away from their expensive mainframes to the much more agile Windows and .NET Framework-based environments. The founding of the MMA recognizes that need and is a group with which we are excited to be associated."

"It was a natural progression for Fujitsu Software to join the MMA," said Spyros Sakellariadis, Mainframe Migration Initiative Project Manager for Microsoft Corp. "We have been working together on mainframe migration projects for some time, as an offshoot of the global alliance between Microsoft and Fujitsu; the extension of our relationship makes sense for both organizations, as we have complementary products and expertise. The MMA provides mainframe customers who are seeking more agile and cost-effective platforms with a single location where they can research the best migration offerings available."

Fujitsu Software provides its customers a route to agile IT by:

--Helping them drastically reduce the costs of maintaining and operating their current applications,

--Moving the code to the highly productive Microsoft Visual Studio .NET development environment which accelerates both maintenance and new developments, and

--Giving CICS applications new ASP.NET Web interfaces (or Windows Forms interfaces) thus greatly increasing their useful lifespan.

The importance of this final bullet should not be underestimated -- CICS applications no longer need feel constrained by character-based interfaces. In one small step for each CICS program, but a giant step for organizational agility, applications move from being regarded as on-the-shelf and over-the-hill to being in the same stables as all the other Web or Windows-enabled applications. They change from being dogs to thoroughbreds.

The suite of products that deliver these benefits are NetCOBOL for .NET and NetCOBOL for Windows, NeoKicks and zBatch. Fujitsu Software works directly with customers or alongside system integrators and other MMA members to ensure successful migrations from IBM mainframes to Microsoft Windows-based server environments.

For more information, please visit www.netcobol.com.

About Fujitsu Software Corporation

Fujitsu Software Corporation, based in Sunnyvale, California, is part of the Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) family. The wholly owned subsidiary delivers one of the world's broadest lines of application infrastructure software products, including the Interstage(R) Suite and NetCOBOL(R). Fujitsu Software Corporation leverages Fujitsu's international scope and expertise in developing and providing information technology solutions, including more than 4,000 software developers worldwide. To learn more about Fujitsu Software Corporation, visit www.fsw.fujitsu.com.