Case Studies
Modernising a high-value financial asset management system
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Challenge
A major financial institution had a mission-critical legacy system which handled billions of dollars worth of transactions every year.
The system – which had been in operation for decades – had been modified significantly and, as the original vendor had gone out of business, there was no source code. The effect of system failure would have been catastrophic, so a solution was needed which removed this risk. Furthermore, the businesses needed the replacement system to fit into a
web-services architecture.
As with many legacy systems, the solution delivered could in no way impact on the performance of the existing system, while there was a very limited resource of domain experts available to the project.
The Erudine Solution
The first step was to capture the legacy system’s behaviour – without intrusion. The Erudine Behaviour Engine (EBE) capturesinput and output data and, with a minimal involvement of the domain experts, EBE rapidly captures the legacy system’s behaviour.
Once captured, the system was ‘cloned’ and the client presented with a fully functioning replica of their existing system, accompanied by a comprehensive requirements document.
100% accuracy was first proven, allowing the client to sign-off the replacement, which fulfilled the migration element of the project. In parallel to the current system, the ‘cloned’
system was then evolved to meet business requirements. EBE’s intuitive approach to change meant any conflict in the system was identified at the point of alteration, removing
the risk of failure and significantly reducing project timescales.
Benefits
EBE allowed risk-free modernisation of the legacy system, without interfering with the existing system or requiring major new build work.
A team of three engineers using EBE captured the legacy system behaviour and evolved it to meet business requirements in just two months – delivering a cost saving of 75% compared to traditional IT.
The end system fulfilled the new business needs of web-service architecture, while fulfilling the functionality of the legacy system, while EBE created a complete requirements document for the final system.