Micro Focus Enables Modernization of Core Business Systems to Capture Incremental Value and Drive Business Transformation

SUNNYVALE, Calif., July 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Micro Focus (LSE: MCRO; NYSE: MFGP) today announced the general availability of Visual COBOL 4.0 and Enterprise Suite 4.0, marking a major step in executing its digital transformation vision to help customers modernize core business processes and technology. The latest updates to Micro Focus's AMC portfolio help deliver greater business agility through DevOps, operational cost savings through new models like Hybrid IT, and improved access, security and governance.

According to a new IDC White Paper, sponsored by Micro Focus, Flexible Modernization Approaches Toward Digital Transformation (June 2018): "Businesses around the world are engaged in platform modernization initiatives to position their organizations for an era of business transformation, much of which is driven by new regulatory environments with such mandates as GDPR and PCI-DSS. In other words, businesses want to modernize to enable competitive differentiation, and they need to modernize, both as a competitive response and for regulatory compliance."

Modernization can serve as a more efficient and less risky alternative to wholesale replacement projects, particularly for core IT around which processes have been developed over many years. IDC continues: "IDC is seeing a shift from a "rip and replace" approach towards modernization strategies that are aimed at gaining significant business value in the form of agility, new business capabilities, and a reduction in TCO and risk."

With a broad portfolio and 40 years of domain expertise, Micro Focus is a market leader in modernization, helping customers bridge the old and new by leveraging previous IT investments. Micro Focus's newest offerings cover the three key aspects of modernization: application, process and infrastructure. Modernization strategies can be tailored to an organization's specific needs and initiated at any starting point for maximum flexibility, or can be holistic for optimal impact. 

"Our customers have built business-critical applications that are complex and sophisticated that encapsulate decades of process and know-how," said Chris Livesey, senior vice president and general manager, AMC at Micro Focus. "The continued execution of our modernization vision is in direct response to our customers' need to future-proof those investments, and to lower cost and improve speed, all in a flexible, holistic manner." 

The latest releases of Visual COBOL and Enterprise Suite supplement all three pillars of modernization:

• Application Modernization – New project migration and analysis reporting utilities; major IDE enhancements including upgraded analysis capabilities, code refactoring, IntelliSense updates; major debugging enhancements including Reverse debugging; additional JVM and Web Services features.
• Process Modernization – Project upgrade, analysis and build enhancements to further streamline how applications are assessed and built; major enhancements to make the build and delivery process more tailored and efficient.
• Infrastructure Modernization – New platform support added for new Web Application Server releases, SQL Server and database connectors; new support added for Docker containers; additional application Security capabilities.

Modernization strategies, approached from any of these vectors, often can deliver profound and wide-reaching benefits.

"This was initially a cost-saving exercise. It has delivered, and we are saving $1.5 million every year," said Richard Cleaver, CIO of Empire Life. "However, looking back on it, the cultural shift in making this move provided us with more than just cost savings. This has given us flexibility, development agility, increased team collaboration, and ultimately, a higher quality product and service for our customers."

IDC concludes, "Modernization can and needs to take many forms. Micro Focus represents that kind of flexibility with a portfolio of solutions that allow customers to implement the most valuable approach to modernization based on their specific needs."

About Application Modernization and Connectivity
Micro Focus' Application Modernization and Connectivity Portfolio helps customers lower cost, increase speed and improve access, security and governance for core business systems.  With a broad range of market-leading technology that spans COBOL, Visual COBOL, Mainframe Solutions, Host Connectivity and CORBA – combined with 40 years of domain expertise – it is uniquely positioned to help customers modernize applications, processes and infrastructure that serve as the lifeblood of the organization. 

More Information
Micro Focus Visual COBOL 4.0 and Enterprise Suite 4.0 are available. For more information on Micro Focus's AMC portfolio, visit here.  Links to a solution overview video and the IDC white paper are also available. 

Join Micro Focus on LinkedIn and follow @MicroFocus Twitter.

About Micro Focus
Micro Focus is a leading global enterprise software company uniquely positioned to help customers extend existing investments while embracing new technologies in a world of Hybrid IT. Providing customers with a world-class portfolio of enterprise-grade scalable solutions with analytics built-in, Micro Focus delivers customer-centered innovation across DevOps, Hybrid IT Management, Security & Data Management, and Predictive Analytics. For more information visit www.microfocus.com. 

Contact:
Bret Fitzgerald, Micro Focus
801-550-1745
[email protected]

SOURCE Micro Focus

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