The Challenge
Becki Wagoner, Vice President of Strategic Innovation & Technology at May Trucking Company, knew she needed to futurize in order to save the drivers time and provide the best customer service possible. Her team – made up of just one AS/400 programmer, two web developers, one network administrator, one security administrator, and herself – had heavily modified their code.
“It was important that we be able to preserve all the custom code we had written, instead of starting fresh,” Becki explained. Her systems worked, but they were slowing down employees and limiting the resources available for other projects. Investing in an upgrade would save time and money in the long run.
May Trucking Company ran on IBM i 5.4, which is an older system that lacks the support of newer versions. If Becki was going to futurize, she was going to have to move to something more recent, eventually settling on 7.2.
I reached out to the Profound team to have a hosted space created to test a proof of concept, I was really impressed with the product, and the people.
The Solution
Becki immediately started testing products. “I reached out to the Profound team to have a hosted space created to test a proof of concept,” Becki said.
The high-level proof of concept was key to getting approval from May Trucking Company’s President. The visual nature of Profound UI, a component of the Profound AppDev suite, made building a pitch much easier. Once approved, her team began updating two departments, and is continuing to roll out futurized applications throughout the company.
“One of the main reasons I chose Profound was the people. The team of experts that include Scott Klement, Brian May, and Alex Roytman, worked quickly. And most importantly, they listened to my needs,” she explained.
Becki knew she wanted to move away from the green screen and prioritize the user interface for end users, as well as her team. To accomplish this, her team used Profound’s UI transformation tools from the Profound AppDev suite, including Profound UI, Genie, Atrium, and JumpStart.
Once they started the project, they realized that Profound.js, another key component of the Profound AppDev suite, would help them do things much more quickly and efficiently. Profound.js is Profound Logic’s enterprise solution for Node.js development on the IBM i platform. With Node.js, IBM i developers can deliver assets – like Web Services, API, and interfaces – much more quickly and easily than though RPG avenues. It was the final step towards full futurization for their applications and helped them move towards a more sustainable product.
The Results
The integration of Profound.js from the Profound AppDev suite allowed end users throughout the company to work more quickly and efficiently. For example: on the old system, a driver would have to navigate through three separate screens in order to fill up their tank. Now, they are just one click away. This futurization has even improved their ability to respond to customer service needs, allowing representatives to respond much faster than before.
Now Becki only needs to reach out to Profound occasionally. She regularly uses the online documentation on the site, and calls support if needed. Her team has rolled out the system updates to other departments and is still working on getting the whole company futurized.
“Any time I deal with outside vendors who have legacy systems I recommend Profound,” Becki explains, “It is a great product, especially if you can get your team invested in it.”
