CCA Finds Window to Multiplatform Support for WMS with LANSA

by Alex Woodie

Creative Computer Associates knows warehouse management systems; it has been developing a WMS for IBM's midrange line since the Nixon administration. And while the New Jersey company was very happy with the performance and reliability of the venerable OS/400 platform, it feared it was losing potential sales because its software didn't run on Windows. Several years ago, the company began redeveloping in LANSA, and today CCA is ramping up sales efforts of its multiplatform WMS application, called FreightBlue.

CCA first considered advanced programming languages such as LANSA four to five years ago, when the client/server movement was in full swing. It wasn't that CCA was unhappy with the OS/400 platform; rather, it believed it could grow sales faster by offering its software on Windows and Unix platforms as well, says Art Tostaine Sr., the founder of CCA. "If it was up to me, I would have stayed on the '400," Tostaine Sr. says. "Four or five years ago, everybody was talking about Windows servers. That's why we did this thing."

The company first looked at Synon's fourth-generation programming language, and liked the tools, but it didn't like the state of the company, which was eventually acquired by Computer Associates. "We found out how strong LANSA was, and started developing under that," Tostaine says. "It allowed us to get that Windows look for the AS/400 and to be able to deploy to a different platform. Our customers are now able to deploy to PC, and if they want to move up to '400, they don't have to buy the code again."

With LANSA, the company can offer its client/server WMS system in several flavors of code. For pure Windows deployments, the LANSA-based WMS source code can generate C++ code for both the client and the server. For OS/400 environments, RPG can be generated for the server, while C++ code is generated for the Windows client. The company's WMS application also can run on a mix of database management systems, including DB2/400 for OS/400 environments, and either Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle for Windows or Unix environments. All of this is a result of rewriting in LANSA.

CCA has been rolling out core WMS modules for Windows for the last couple of years, and almost all of the application is now supported on Windows. The company received numerous inquiries about the application--along with the Windows-based transportation management system component of FreightBlue--at the Distribution/Computer Expo 2003 in Chicago last week, where Art Tostaine Sr. and his son and colleague, Art Tostaine Jr., took the first step in a new phase of increased FreightBlue marketing activities.

While the Windows-based software is good to go, an interesting thing has happened since rewriting in LANSA: Few of the new customers want to run on Windows. As Tostaine Sr. explains, the company lays out the cost benefits associated with starting on cheaper hardware, and somewhere along the sales path the customer "gets the whole world" and says " 'I'd rather be on the 400', " Tostaine says.

"People are not talking about Windows networks. They're talking about the '400 again," he says. "AS/400s aren't that expensive anymore." Since rewriting in LANSA, the company has managed to eliminate most of the interactive processor usage, and as a result his small and midsized business customers can get by with using a smaller box. In fact, the iSeries Model 270 is just about the ideal box for CCA's software, which averages about $40,000 per install, Tostaine says.

While the Windows side of the business hasn't picked up as quickly as CCA would have hoped, developing in Visual LANSA and LANSA for iSeries provided other benefits, the elder Tostaine says. "When customers need modifications made to the software, LANSA allows us to make them quickly and to provide them to my customers as a new release," he says. He estimates that LANSA's fourth-generation-language environment allows his developers to do the same job in three days that used to take 10 days writing RPG.

Sponsored By FAST400

What makes IBM different from Microsoft regarding Fast400?? What is Fast400? You are hearing a lot about Fast400 aren't you? But what is Fast400? Fast400 is a "tuning" product for the iSeries. Fast400 will allow an iSeries server to utilize the available CPW for interactive processing. IBM would have you believe that these interactive cards that cost thousands to millions of dollars, actually add value to your server. By buying Fast400, you do not ever need to buy another interactive card for your iSeries. For a free demonstration of Fast400, please visit www.fast400.net. Why Fast400? A few years ago Microsoft would not let other software companies build tools to work with the Windows operating system. Microsoft did all kinds of scurrilous things to stop other manufacturers' software from working on their platform. They would put code in the base operating system that prevented other companies code from working properly. IBM even had these issues with Operations Navigator. In the early days of Operations Navigator, the developers in Rochester had to scrap early versions because Microsoft did not want IBM leverage on what was proprietary to them. Netscape also had a few problems using the Windows operating system. The result Now we all know what happened to Microsoft. After spending tens of millions of our tax dollars in the trial, the US government told Microsoft that they were acting as a monopoly and what they did was not right or fair. The similarity IBM is doing exactly the same thing to Fast400 as Microsoft did. IBM has changed the operating system of the iSeries 400 to prevent Fast400 from working. In fact this has been done several times now, and each time the Fast400 developers produce a new fix to circumvent the IBM action. Why does IBM do this? because Fast400 takes money out of IBM's pocket. The potential for IBM to make billions from its user base, for delivering virtually no product is tantamount to corporate deception! Did IBM change the operating system when EMC introduced a low cost storage solution for the iSeries? The future The cat and mouse game between IBM and Fast400 is already a year old. Every time IBM changes the operating system to disable Fast400, the developers of Fast400 produce a new version within days to enable it again. Does Fast400 have a commercial agenda? Of course it does. Fast400 is in business to provide its clients with added benefits, which will maximise the interactive performance of iSeries 400 servers. And as we are a business, why shouldn't we charge a nominal fee for that service? A fee that our clients see as being fair and proper. After all, it's not Fast400 that is making enemies in the user base. As long as IBM wants to play "David and Goliath" we will continue to "out" the giant. Fast400 is not running, you can be assured!! For more information, please visit www.fast400.net.