Well, I haven’t done a good job of doing a case study each week. Actually a miserable job…I only lasted one week! I have now put it on my calendar (I know, this should have been done before).
This case study will focus on a project we did converting Gentran: Server Unix Visual Maps to Sterling Integrator Maps using the X-Link Conversion Engine tool.
Client Challenge
The food and food service distribution company was running both Gentran: Server for Unix and Sterling Integrator. The maps from Gentran: Server do convert to Sterling Integrator Maps, but there can be some tweaks, so each map must be tested. This lengthy process of testing over 120+ maps seemed daunting so it was delayed. The distribution company wanted to eliminate maintenance and support on two systems.
Our Solution
We came to the table with X-Link, which is a product that converts Gentran Visual Maps to Sterling Integrator Maps. Manual map unit testing, end-to-end testing, and tweaking can take up to 24 hours per map to complete and X-Link can reduce this time by as much as 80%.
The Results
We used the X-Link Conversion Engine to perform a proof of concept conversion on 4 maps of varying complexity. The client elected to perform the finalization of the converted maps internally by completing map logic for functions in the Visual Mapper not supported in the Sterling Integrator mapper, updating Sterling Integrator code lists, and testing to ensure maps produced similar results as Visual Maps.
After a successful proof of concept, we converted the remaining 123 maps. The maps were converted and returned to the client in less than one day. The maps were reviewed internally with an average time of 2-4 hours per map.
Techy stuff…
- Hardware(and OS): Unix
- Software(and version): Gentran Server for Unix 6.1, Sterling Integrator (GIS) v4.2
- Number of maps: 120+
To learn more about this project in detail, please contact us. To learn more about our Gentran or Sterling B2B Integrator services, please read our product pages.
