Mainframe Migration: Functional Workforce Management at Reduced Cost
HR professionals are becoming more and more familiar with modern software applications and solutions that streamline workforce management
. However, the underlying hardware/software structure that houses and administers these functions is not something HR professionals generally think about. Thats not surprising. Until fairly recently, companies had limited infrastructure choices. Centralized mainframes run by industry giants like IBM were the only viable option for reliably handling complex processes involving massive volumes of data. As with any case of severely restricted competition, these companies have charged whatever the market will bear in terms of license, service, and maintenance fees for access to their proprietary systems. Since no sizeable corporation can afford to forgo access to such services, employers have (until now) paid whatever price demanded by these few providers. Unfortunately, this has often limited the amount of capital available for upgrading HR systems and processes to make them more efficient and user friendly. Instead, a significant ongoing investment was required to simply maintain existing capabilities. Additional Drawbacks of Traditional Mainframes There are a number of problems posed by legacy mainframes. These are custom systems that have become increasingly complex and unwieldy over time. The underlying structure has been built upon and modified over many years. The original programmers are now in retirement or even long since deceased. Now, even expert IT developers can no longer fully comprehend how these systems work. Attempting to make modifications under these circumstances is a task fraught with the potential for disaster. Mainframes also frequently use obsolete coding languages that are not platform-neutral and cannot be easily interfaced with more modern software. In addition, todays SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture) software models tend to loosely couple data and processing functions rather than building them together as a single unified feature. This allows greater flexibility, extensibility, and compatibility across multiple applications. Traditional mainframes are not designed using this concept, so integrating new software into a legacy system requires many additional steps. How This Impacts HR Because of these complications, requesting IT to create a custom HR workflow application in-house is usually met with great resistance. Often, it can take months for even a simple change to be put into effect if it involves any programming modifications with code running on the mainframe. With the increasingly rapid changes to HR requirements and functions, such delays hamper the ability of employers to manage their human capital effectively. It also makes it difficult to fully comply with government regulations. Having the ability to install and integrate off-the-shelf products with minimal complications is critical. This is where open system architectures like the Microsoft.Net come into play. The .Net Revolution With the decentralization, breadth of functionality, reliability, and scalability provided by the .Net platform, employers can choose to stop paying exorbitant support costs associated with proprietary platforms. Todays distributed .Net infrastructure now has the capacity (and scalability) to handle the same data volume, batch processes, and complex functions as a mainframe. Is it safe to decentralize critical business applications in this way? Most companies are already doing this with many of their HR functions from payroll to benefits management. What about outsourcing HR functionality (infrastructure and/or applications) to a .Net infrastructure service provider, or even the cloud? Todays shift toward SaaS (Software as a Service) applications clearly demonstrates that enterprises are comfortable with this type of partnership. Reliability, security, trouble free maintenance/upgrades, and lack of down time are all of paramount importance to providers that offer these alternative servers. They have to be in order to compete with mainframe companies. Their track record so far is impressive. Can HR Make The Switch? Migrating from a legacy mainframe to a .Net platform doesnt have to occur all at once across an entire corporation. Human Resources applications can be switched over in a series of separate modules if necessary. Certain functionality can be migrated or translated, while other functionality might be replaced with newer off-the-shelf applications that didnt exist more than a few years ago. This means HR executives dont have to wait for IT to decide that it is time to make a single, monolithic migration. They simply need to make the case for transitioning their own departmental processes as business needs and efficiency dictate. However, having an understanding of the potential ROI for a full migration doesnt hurt. The costs associated with implementing and maintaining a .Net infrastructure are a tiny fraction of that required for traditional mainframes. The more completely a company reduces its reliance on legacy systems, the greater the savings. (c) 2010,
Emerald Software Group, LLC Mainframe Migration: Functional Workforce Management at Reduced Cost
By: Chuck Ros
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