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Firm Aims to Preserve Legacy Systems in Software Upgrades
[August 10, 2006]

Firm Aims to Preserve Legacy Systems in Software Upgrades


TMCnet Contributing Editor
 
Consolidation in the software industry is causing major headaches for enterprises that rely in legacy applications and platforms. Most software firms commit to supporting acquired technology for a certain period, but at some point, customers are forced to upgrade the systems, usually at the expense of large amounts of lost data and countless man hours spent in retraining.



 
So it’s no surprise that a cottage industry of sorts is emerging aimed at taking some of the sting out of the upgrade process.
 
One example of this new trend is a company called Queplix, of Princeton, N.J., which recently added PeopleSoft and Siebel components to its CRM Resuscitation Program. The system features a unique application that enables organizations to preserve legacy data and processes while upgrading to new platforms.
 
"These legacy systems represent huge costs for companies in terms of installation, customization and user training," said Paul Tenberg, director of business development at Queplix. "We’re trying to provide a means to save their investment."
 
The heart of the system is the QueCrawler, which sifts through metadata to extract business objects and other processes, which Queplix developers then use to recreate business rules and the look and feel of the prior installation in the upgraded platform.
           
Because the new system is now based on the previous metadata, the entire data migration process that is typical of most major upgrades is eliminated, cutting the installation process of a new system from months to weeks.
 
"Ours is strictly an application legacy replacement system," said Steven Yaskin, Chief Technology Officer at Queplix. "We offer the ability to replace legacy applications without losing features that customers have become accustomed to, or losing data in the migration process."
 
Queplix specializes in servicing legacy systems involved in high-profile mergers. The company has already designed its resuscitation system around Avaya (News - Alert) (News - Alert) AIC Business Applications, Quintus eContact, and Vantive Systems. It targeted Seibel and PeopleSoft specifically to guide customers through the eventual upgrade to the Oracle (News - Alert) (News - Alert) Fusion stack.
           
"Oracle says there is a migration path, but customers are faced with the complete abandonment of a product in which they have made a substantial investment," Tenberg said.
 
The company claims it can preserve up to 80 percent of an investment into a legacy CRM system, with virtually no training costs for the new software.
 
Queplix offers a number of modules designed for vertical markets, such as manufacturing, finance, freight and transportation and telecommunications, although Tenberg said the generic system will work across multiple systems.
 
QueCrawler is available as a standalone system or as part of the company’s QueWeb system, a hosted application that the company bills as "customer care" software, rather than traditional CRM, because it focuses primarily on after-sale processes. The system is built on J2EE with a thin-client architecture.
 
Tenberg said the company focused its legacy resuscitation system on the CRM space because that is where most of Queplix’s experience lies.
 
However, he added that there is no reason why the same technology could not be applied to other types of software, such as BPM or business intelligence.

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