Micro Focus and M2O Help Tulane University Unlock Vital System from IBM Mainframe

MOVE2OPEN (M2O), a leading provider of data migration and application conversion solutions, today announced that Tulane University, a premier research-based academic institution located in New Orleans, has gone live on one of its vital systems following the full implementation of an M2O migration project from the IBM mainframe.

OXFORD, UK (PRWEB) June 19, 2004 --- MOVE2OPEN (M2O), a leading provider of data migration and application conversion solutions, today announced that Tulane University, a premier research-based academic institution located in New Orleans, has gone live on one of its vital systems following the full implementation of an M2O migration project from the IBM mainframe.

Tulane's Budget Development System (BDS), which is used by every department to build budgets for the upcoming financial year, both salary and non-salary related elements, is critical to the university's operations. Similar to many institutions, Tulane was experiencing a period of limited resources and the continued sky-high annual maintenance fees for its mainframe software reduced the level of flexibility of its financial systems. The university knew a change was in order. Facing a fast approaching deadline for its maintenance contract renewal, as well as a looming due date for 2004 budget submissions, Tulane had to act fast and smart to come up with a solution. A language conversion, database migration and a move to Windows proved to be the answer.

"Like many private institutions, Tulane was struggling with a technology infrastructure that was locking them in to high cost maintenance fees and hindering data consolidation," says Huw Price, Managing Director of M2O. "However, utilizing our conversion suite technology, we were able liberate Tulane's system by moving it to a more flexible and cost-effective platform."

"Time was of the essence in this project. We were extremely impressed with the speed of M2O's conversion and the team's ability to meet our tight timeframe", says Mary Walsh, Director of Software Application Services at Tulane University.

Gary Valence, Technology Services Application Analyst at Tulane University continues, "Although we have not established any formal metrics, it appears we are experiencing a three to four fold increase in the speed of the mainframe's batch processes".

"ROI within twelve months, ongoing annual cost savings of over $240,000, improved performance, simplified architecture, and legacy data consolidated into our strategic database," summarizes Dr. John Lawson, Vice President for Information Technology and CIO at Tulane University. "I think we can say this project was a resounding success."

About Tulane University
Tulane University is a premier research-based academic institution located in New Orleans, Louisiana. Throughout its eleven schools and colleges, almost 12,400 students are enrolled in Tulanes graduate or undergraduate programs in law, medicine, architecture, engineering, and liberal arts and sciences, among others.

About M2O
M2O is a leading provider of data migration and application conversion solutions that unlock the value of relational databases and legacy systems. M2O specializes in transforming legacy applications, including automated conversions from CA-IDEAL to open languages such as COBOL and Java and migrations from CA-Datacom to open databases such as CA-Ingres, Oracle, DB2 and SQL Server. M2O provides automated conversion tools and migration services that offer wide platform coverage, exceptional accuracy and clear Return on Investment that are unmatched by any other vendor or solution. M2O has over ten years experience with a worldwide customer base of blue-chip organizations that benefit from its unique expertise and automated tools.

For more information, contact M2O at http://www.move2open.com/ or +44 1865 812048.

Media Contacts:
        Huw Price -- Managing Director
   M2O Limited
   The Oxford Centre for Innovation
   Mill Street
   Oxford, OX2 0JX

Phone:   +44 1865 812048
Email:   info@move2open.com
Web:   http://www.move2open.com/