ASNA Launches Technical Services Business

July 31, 2007 Alex Woodie

ASNA, a developer of .NET-based development tools and compilers for RPG programmers, is now providing System i application modernization and migrations services through its newly formed ASNA Services Group, the San Antonio, Texas, company announced this month.

ASNA will provide a range of services under its new ASNA Services Group, including: development of Windows, Web, and Web services for extending legacy System i applications; design, architecture, and implementation of Microsoft .NET applications; complete or partial migration of i5/OS applications to Microsoft .NET using its Monarch migration tool; and conversion of DB2/400 databases to Microsoft SQL Server.

ASNA, which is a member of Microsoft’s Midrange Alliance Program (MAP), launched the new professional services division because it recognized that the IT shops of many of its potential System i customers are already busy with other projects, and don’t have the time to devote to modernization or migration projects, according to ASNA president Anne Ferguson.

“Many of our customers have programming departments committed to existing maintenance and collateral projects, and as a result have limited developer resources,” Ferguson says. “We recognized that combining services with our growing product acceptance would provide our customers with complete solutions that fit their iSeries strategies.”

ASNA tapped Rick Farina to lead the new ASNA Services Group as director of software services. Farina, who previously owned his own business, called Farina and Associates, is a frequent speaker at COMMON and has also written articles for IT Jungle. He has 26 years of experience in the IBM midrange server, and 10 years of experience with ASNA’s Visual RPG and DataGate products.