Fujitsu Software offers Early Release Program to show early adopters how CICS applications can now cost-effectively move to Microsoft .NET with ASP.NET pages, Windows Forms, and Visual Studio .NET using wizards.

Sunnyvale, August 18, 2004 – Fujitsu Software Corporation is announcing an Early Release Program for NeoKicks™ V1.0, the latest enhancement to its mainframe migration solutions. NeoKicks delivers greatly increased agility to IT groups with CICS COBOL applications by lowering platform maintenance costs, giving interfaces new life as ASP.NET Web applications or Windows Forms client applications, and integrating with Visual Studio .NET for much higher developer productivity.

“Although the majority of CICS applications are critical to business operations, these applications are increasingly being viewed as an expensive burden, running on costly hardware provided by a single vendor, with little innovation in maintenance or enhancement options,” said Ron Langer, senior director languages group, Fujitsu Software Corporation. “Organizations with tight budgets have needed a way to reduce the cost of operating these applications but have had no hope that they could put them back in the mainstream of technical innovations until now.”

NeoKicks radically changes this picture by:

• Offering a Windows server based solution – bringing the applications to hardware platforms with highly competitive price-performance ratios;
• Migrating the code to the .NET environment – allowing it to benefit from the best tools (in Visual Studio .NET) for maintenance and RAD, as well as placing the latest technologies fully within the reach of the migrated CICS applications;
• Transforming the CICS BMS screens into ASP.NET Web pages (Web Forms) or optionally Windows Forms, freeing the applications from their character screen straightjacket.

NeoKicks is available now in a limited membership Early Release Program so that Fujitsu Software can ensure full customer satisfaction while fine-tuning the package to support the large numbers of organizations that need the increased agility it offers. Those interested in finding out how NeoKicks can revolutionize their CICS legacy should contact Fujitsu Software immediately to secure a place in the Early Release Program.

NeoKicks is a pioneer CICS migration solution that brings CICS code to the .NET environment and provides standard Web Forms and Windows Forms interfaces. Coupled with the fact that Fujitsu Software’s NetCOBOL for .NET is the only COBOL compiler that produces verifiable (memory safe) MSIL code, the unique features of NeoKicks make it a compelling product for those dealing with the financial and technological constraints of mainframe CICS.

The engineers who developed NeoKicks have years of CICS experience combined with in-depth knowledge of the .NET Framework based on their relationship with Microsoft and the Ecma CLI (Ecma International - European association for standardizing information and communication systems, Common Language Infrastructure) committee from the early days of .NET developments. The result is a product that supports CICS functions by taking full advantage of .NET architectural features, positioning the migrated applications so that they can take advantage of all that the .NET environment has to offer, such as scalable architecture and rich class library.

“The early users of NeoKicks are attracted by the large savings they see in moving from mainframes to Windows server environments,” Langer pointed out. “It’s easy for them to see that the cash they keep in their budgets will increase their ability to respond to changing business requirements. Their enthusiasm particularly ramps up when they also realize that their CICS applications will be fully integrated into the .NET Framework, able to take advantage of everything that environment has to offer – giving them easier maintenance, rapid application development and access to much new technology.”

Basim Kadhim, chief architect for languages, Fujitsu Software Corporation added, “Delivering increased agility was a major goal in designing NeoKicks. That’s why the product integrates tightly with Visual Studio .NET.”
Kadhim’s examples include:

• After using our Wizards to process CICS COBOL programs and BMS macros, NeoKicks developers have Visual Studio projects set up for them, ready to go;
• XML is used in the translation of BMS macros to Windows or Web Forms so that users can easily customize and configure the way that the user interface is rendered in the conversion;
• Screens can be modified and extended using the highly productive Visual Studio Designers;
• Behaviors such as file transaction handling are supported by plug-in components, giving users the option to easily integrate features of their online applications with other technologies.

For more information please visit www.netcobol.com.

About Fujitsu Software Corporation
Fujitsu Software Corporation, based in Sunnyvale, California, is part of the Fujitsu Limited family. Fujitsu Software Corporation leverages Fujitsu's international scope and expertise in developing and providing information technology solutions. Fujitsu Software Corporation's products include NetCOBOL® and Interstage®, e-business infrastructure software. NetCOBOL is a COBOL development environment and suite of tools to build fast, mission-critical business systems on open platforms, including Microsoft's .NET Framework. For more information, visit http://www.fsw.fujitsu.com

Copyright 2004 Fujitsu Software Corporation. Fujitsu, the Fujitsu Symbol Mark, NetCOBOL and Interstage are registered trademarks, and NeoKicks is a trademark, of Fujitsu Software.
All other registered trademarks, trade names, or service marks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.

MORE INFORMATION
Fujitsu Software Corporation
Andrew Mackenzie
(408) 746-6323
andrewm@us.fujitsu.com


Marilyn Green
(650) 218-9986
msg2004@comcast.net