m2o Announces Successful Application Migration of Tara Mines' Main Business System from Computer Associates Platform

Tara Mines increases query response times with a 200% improvement in online and batch performance and achieves significant savings on IT outlay through legacy system conversion project

Oxford, UK - February 23, 2006 - MOVE2OPEN (m2o), Oxford, UK - Move2open - a specialist in transforming legacy systems announces the successful migration of Tara Mines' main business system. When Computer Associates (CA) revealed in 2003 that it was going to drop support for the platform that Tara Mines was running its main business application on, it realised that it was going to have to undertake a major IT project. With over 30 years of data and business logic in the system, this posed quite a challenge for the organisation. Tara Mines selected Move2open (www.move2open.com) to help it migrate to a supported platform, achieving ROI in under two years and experiencing significant performance improvements in the process.

Legacy migration leads to improved application performance

When lead and zinc mining company Tara Mines was faced with a migration of its main Business System the company needed to find a solution that would provide a supported platform and comparable or improved efficiency. Tara Mines is highly reliant on its IT systems, which account for its business systems, its industrial process control systems and its mine design applications. I2C from Move2open was selected and the result was a two year ROI and significant performance improvements.

Move by CA to drop platform forced Tara to act

Tara Mines realised in 2003 that it was going to have to undertake a major IT programme after CA revealed that it was going to drop support for the platform that it was running its main business application on. With over 30 years of data and business logic in the system, this posed quite a challenge. Gerry Harte, Head of IT, explains; "The fact that the CA decided to drop the product meant that we had no choice but to find another alternative." It was imperative for Tara Mines to find a solution that would ensure low risk and smooth deployment, whilst maintaining all the data amassed over 30 years. "We were sitting on a time bomb," notes Harte. "However, we only had a handful of options. We could have implemented an ERP system, but it wasn't easy to find a product that would provide the functionality we had."

Improved system functionality a key requirement

One of the principle requisites of the project was that, when the new system was up and running, there was comparable or improved functionality. An automated conversion was also the key as Tara Mines did not have the resources to run a manual migration. The project to move away from CA Ideal commenced in April 2004 and in August 2005, Tara Mines had successfully converted one million lines of CA-IDEAL to Micro Focus COBOL and thousands of CA-DATACOM files to ORACLE. During the process, Tara Mines were trained by m2o to use the i2c conversion tool and completed the project with three staff who also continued with their normal tasks.

A more flexible environment with a familiar user interface

Since the system went live in August 2005, Tara Mines has been impressed with the results. "It's been running very well since August," continues Harte. "Our environment is more flexible and any queries we have can be responded to much more quickly, meaning that we are able to break new ground. The application itself is identical, except that the user interface is now in colour, which is easier to view." Tara Mines has also seen a 200% improvement in both online and batch performance. Additionally, there has been a significant cost saving aspect, even though the project was not originally undertaken with this in mind. "The project took place out of necessity," continues Harte. "However, it was certainly a welcome surprise to see that were able to make significant savings on out IT outlay as a result. Conservative estimates predict a return our investment in 2008."

About Tara Mines

Based in County Meath, Ireland, Tara Mines is the largest lead and zinc mining company in Europe. It is run by the Swedish mining and smelting group, Boliden, and currently produces 2.6 million tonnes of ore annually. Tara is credited as being one of the most environmentally responsible mines in Europe and adheres to a strict environmental protection policy. It began production in 1977.

About Move2open

m2o is a leading provider of data migration and application conversion solutions that unlock the value of relational databases and legacy systems. m2o specializes in transforming legacy applications, including automated conversions from CA-IDEAL to open languages such as COBOL and Java and migrations from CA-Datacom to open databases such as CA-Ingres, Oracle, DB2 and SQL Server. m2o provides automated conversion tools and migration services that offer wide platform coverage, exceptional accuracy and clear Return on Investment that are unmatched by any other vendor or solution. m2o has over ten years experience with a worldwide customer base of blue-chip organizations that benefit from its unique expertise and automated tools.

Contact Details:

Nick Jones (Sales Director)

m2o Limited
The Oxford Centre for Innovation
Mill Street
Oxford, OX2 0JX