Why Modernize?

Future of the Organization:
Few of us realized twenty, even thirty years ago that code we wrote then would still be in use today. The unfortunate part about code written 20 years ago is that our skills have improved, our understanding has grown and the technology underlying the environment has made dramatic steps forward. How does one keep up with change?

The cost of doing nothing:

• Manually written applications are time consuming to modify - we often forget the conventions that were used.
• It is often difficult to determine what should be changed when multiple programmers made multiple changes on a piece of code that may barely resemble the original instruction set.
• Handwritten code is costly to modify. Adding fields, enhancing validations, updating multiple files often require "stretching" the capabilities of the code or force modifications to the design engine.
• Is it more effective to continually modify a homegrown toolset, or is it better to spend that time enhancing the applications that generate revenue for the business?

Justifying the Nucleus modernization:

• Modern look-and-feel with Nucleus that is familiar to Windows users. Training is simplified.
• Few development sites have the expertise, the patience, dedication and perseverance to maintain and continue to enhance an application development environment or toolset.
• Reduction in maintenance costs - Common business objects drastically reduce the time required to modify or enhance applications.
• Securing your code set through integrated Source code and change controls.
• Efficient documentation of changes and auditing controls are essential in many regulated businesses.
• Release library management
• Empowering the user (often with only minimal training), to accomplish tasks that formerly required the attention of a programmer/analyst.
• Enhancing the capabilities of the existing environment - Pop-ups, drill-downs, validations, lookups and more can be quickly added and easily supported
• Improved consistency of applications reduces help-desk support calls
• Secure files, verbs, commands, screens, menus, source code, and actions
• Security - available down to the field level. Hide or disable fields. Hide or enable pages of a screen or rule-set. Protect or set individual fields as nochange, enable or disable drill-downs.
• Integrated change and audit controls
• Forms management - Design and print modern laser forms on plain white paper.
• Reporting
• Rule-based data export and import capabilities using NuQL
• Technology partnership - with acknowledged leaders in information technology

Ask yourself...:
Is practical for an organization whose strength lies in a vertical application and in the knowledge of a market, to continue to support an internally developed set of tools? Considerations include:

• What happens when the key developer of the toolset wishes to retire?
• Is there a core group of programmers able to support the toolset?
• Is there a core group of programmers able to effectively use all the features of the toolset?
• Is there a core group of individuals who can enhance the documentation? Nucleus offers almost 500 pages of supporting documentation
• Is there a future for the existing toolset?
• Is there a future for the product that makes the money, after the key developer retires?
• Will new connectivity be required due to new banking regulations, governmental restrictions or mandates, etc.?
• What happens when a future need arises to add toolset functionality?
• Does a need ever go away, if functionality can't be added in the required timeframe?
• Where is the expertise of the organization - In the application or the toolset?
• What is perceived as limitations of the current toolset?
• Who is keeping up with new technology? How much time is spent in doing that?

Kick-start or Quick Start - Empowering the organization:
An effective environment for developing and maintaining software and efficient developer tools includng , tor, intelligent stacker, source code management, functions library and extensive utilities libraries, a programmer can increase productivity by 500% or more. Time-spent tracking down data errors falls. Managers, programmers and end users become more effective through improvements in data reliability.

Empowering the users:
Concentrating the system development resources toward enhancing the applications that run the business, generating the revenue and driving the sales, "makes money" for the business.

Long term support and maintenance effort is minimized (therefore less costly) due to the easily managed and quickly addressed structure that Nucleus offers. Effective testing and debugging tools quickly speed application deployment.

Training time for new users is often greatly reduced. Improved operational consistency and the ability to utilize skills learned outside the organization reduce the end-users reliance on internal help desk personnel.

Web applications- expanding the scope and the reach:
Browser based applications can be designed using "rule-sets" defined in Nucleus screens, reducing the code that must be maintained, improving data reliability and simplifying maintenance. A single rule-set will support both high-availability back-office and web applications. Nucleus StarSite offers centralized management of web components in a host based development environment.

Other benefits:

• Integrated corporate messaging (outside of email)
• Integrated email (even on dumb terminals)
• Fully integrated help, easily added validations
• Simplicity of adding search routines and "drill-downs"
• GUI can help decision makers buy because of a "perceived need for GUI" in the marketplace
• Future programming effort can go into enhancing the applications that make money for the company
• Ability to provide client specific applications without having to build "special" applications, as a benefit of the Nucleus function library.
• Platform independence. Nucleus applications can be quickly and easily moved from one multi-dimensional platform to another with usually only a re-compile and re-licensing.
• Development tools, debugging utilities and deployment systems in the Nucleus environment speed application delivery.
• Secure Inquiry capabilities for the end-user, greatly extending the security of the Pick model
• Nucleus allows Pick code to be written in an event-driven manner.
• The approach of Nucleus is NOT top-down but fully event-driven.
• Nucleus uses standard Pick programming convention and syntax. Programmers can be proficient with Nucleus in 3 days and achieve expert status in 3 months.
• Existing applications written in System Builder or other development environments can be transformed and empowered for the future with Nucleus, capitalizing on your existing application investment.

Migration to Nucleus: Technical procedures and issues