Page 56 - GCN, Aug/Sept 2017

MODERNIZATION
can analyze the existing application, see what’s in there, see how it works, figure it all out and then decide on the best way to modernize that.”
In some cases, Morphis did the full conversion, but for others, the county bought licenses for Morphis’ Kuscos analyzer and Transformer conversion tools to partly convert the applica- tions. “Then we take it from there and complete the conversion with their framework,” Camner said.
She added that she and her team identify the programs they want to convert then run Kuscos against the Oracle Forms application, and it pulls out the information needed for the conversion.
“One of two things happens at that point,” Camner said. “We take the re- sults of that converter tool — it con- verts about 60 percent of the appli-
cations for us — and from there, we have to do the rest.”
Or Morphis finishes the conversion and delivers the source code and the executable file, for .NET or Java, to the county. “We test it, and there’s some back and forth with quality assurance and validation,” she said. “Once that’s resolved, it goes to production.”
The impact fee system for the coun- try’s Solid Waste Management and Public Works departments was the first to be converted to Java in 2013. By Sept. 30, all 60 applications that had been on OAS will be converted, retired or merged into something else, Camner said.
Morphis is converting about 30 of them. So far, it has completed 13 and has nine in progress. The company also migrated the county’s database from Oracle to a SQL server.
Decreased costs and improved se- curity are the main benefits that Mi- ami-Dade can expect to see from this modernization, Hartley said. Because OAS ran on Microsoft Windows 2003 servers and required Internet Explorer 8, the lack of support for the technol- ogy put the county at risk.
“They’re now in a position where the technology is way tighter, so they’re able to protect whatever data they have in their systems much bet- ter,” he said.
County workers who use the appli- cations shouldn’t notice much of a dif- ference. Although the interface might change slightly, the functions won’t, Camner said.
Morphis is trying to make the new programs “look as much like the old applications...so that users aren’t lost,” she said. •
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48 GCN AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016 • GCN.COM