Replace ASF without application changes

S4 Software Solutions have an enterprise scale product that will allow you to replace IBM’s ASF (Application Support Facility) with software that will 100% co-existence with existing ASF installations. In addition it offers a massive increase in functionality on par with the other software products currently in the market so you get the best of both worlds 1) no requirement to migrate all your legacy ASF applications onto a new platform. 2) All the new functionality you require to develop your business.

This means you can use the resources you thought you'd need for the migration for application enhancement or new application development.

Using DOPE/Dialog, the customer can process letters that have been generated with ASF and vice versa. Dialog will also administer the ASF resources via DOPE/Admin, the same holds true for ASF batch processing and output of DOPE documents. This makes replacing ASF with DOPE a case of testing rather than migration.

It is the customer who decides if and to which degree he wants to abandon the established ASF procedures, even a complete replacement is possible. As a consequence, basic ASF limitations (e.g. host dependence, limited modeling of document processing logic, limited model of variables) can be overcome.

Presently, many companies undergo changes in the field of application development. New applications are being developed using the latest client-server-architecture while existing applications are being used until they are replaced by new developments.

Through its flexible interfaces with decentralised applications, DOPE/Dialog offers the opportunity to link the entire text generation to these new applications, making full use of the existing ASF resources and processing techniques without changing media. Even the access to master data via existing parameter determination programs (PDP), that have so far been linked to ASF, can be fully used in the context of document processing.

Hence, a major burden is lifted off application development; it can now focus on the actual task of the new application and delegate text and output generation, which is often underestimated, to a well-established system that has already been integrated into the company’s processes.

This increase in development productivity by intelligently re-using existing solutions can easily be achieved and was the most important reason for some customers implementing a rapid roll-out of DOPE components.