Databorough Snapped Up By Fresche Legacy
September 9, 2013 Alex Woodie
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Databorough, the UK-based developer of application and database analysis and migration tools for IBM i, has been acquired by Fresche Legacy, a Canadian company devoted to helping customers modernize or migrate their legacy applications. The resulting company seeks to create a “powerhouse” in the field of IBM i application modernization. Fresche Legacy was formed in March 2012 when Speedware bought a collection RPG migration tools from the German company Sykora and took the fresh new name. Today, the Montreal, Quebec, company has hundreds of modernization, migration, and consulting jobs under its belt, including three IBM i engagements that we covered earlier this year. In addition to IBM i–its bread and butter–Fresche Legacy works with other so-called “legacy” platforms, including System z mainframes and the HP3000 systems. Andy Kulakowski, president and CEO of Fresche Legacy, says the transaction “unites two of the most powerful and knowledgeable players in the System i legacy modernization space.” In particular, Kulakowski cites Databorough’s 20-plus years of experience on the platform, a collection of more than 200 customers, and deep technical knowledge of the platform. The acquisition nets Fresche Legacy all of Databorough’s assets. The big get is the X-Analysis suite, a highly regarded, multi-function collection of tools that provide (among other things) cross-referencing, documentation, design recovery, re-engineering, and code generation (EGL and J2EE) capabilities. The software has also been used with database modernization, including DDS to SQL migrations. Garry Ciambella, Fresche Legacy’s vice president of research and development, called X-Analysis “absolutely best in class.” The software provides organizations with a “robust capability to analyze and understand their legacy System i environments and extract continued business value from their legacy application investments,” Ciambella says. Databorough started life in 1984 as a re-engineering company that also built documentation tools. It launched X-Analysis in 1989 and soon had a strong following in the cross referencing space. In 2005, it launched business rule extraction capabilities for RPG, followed by Java generation capabilities in 2006. In 2010, the company started targeting CA/Synon 2e applications for migration to Java, EGL, and C#. Today, X-Analysis contains hundreds of internal analytical tables and many hundreds of static analysis and reengineering programs, according to Databorough’s website. The company touts its relationship with IBM and the fact that it wrote an IBM Redbook on RPG application modernization. “It’s no accident because IBM itself is one among many of our customers,” the company says. Other customers include Canon, the banking software company Fiserv, Halliburton Manufacturing, Mazda Cars, Siemens, and Valeo. Mark Tregear, CEO and founder of Databorough, says: “We have been warmly welcomed into the Fresche Legacy family, and look forward to working with Andy and our Fresche Legacy colleagues to deliver legacy management and modernization solutions that are proven to provide real tangible business value to the System i marketplace.” While the ownership has changed, it is “business as usual” for Databorough customers, the company says. “The contacts you work with today will continue to be your points of contact,” Databorough says on its website. “X-Analysis will continue to be fully supported, and indeed, enhanced, as a key, highly strategic offering within the Fresche Legacy portfolio.” Databorough will continue to operate as a division of Fresche Legacy, Databorough says. Benefits to Databorough and its customers include access to the Fresche Legacy modernization professionals and its suite of products (including the code converter from Sykora). Tregear adds that “the company’s SCP-certified, 24×7 support center provides our customers with global support coverage, which offers up an entirely new level of assurance and confidence for our products.” Terms of the deal, which closed August 7, were not disclosed. RELATED STORIES Fresche Legacy Discusses Three IBM i Modernization Cases Fresche Legacy Debuts with Newly Acquired Code Converter for IBM i Speedware Says RPG-to-.NET Code Converter Is the Real Deal
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