March 22, 2012 - Profound Logic Software announces the release of its latest case study which details the story of Baker College (www.baker.edu). This case study explains how Profound Logic worked with Baker to ensure the success of a large-scale IBM i modernization project through the use of the Profound UI product.

The Baker College System, the largest independent college in Michigan, provides world-class education for more than 43,000 students in more than 150 programs at 17 campuses and one virtual site. Baker College maintains its original mission: to provide quality higher education and training which enable graduates to be successful throughout challenging and rewarding careers.

Pictured above, Baker College Campus

After accumulating a large number of disparate business applications, more than 1300 menu items, and well over a million lines of legacy RPG code over several decades of working with the IBM i platform, the IT team at Baker, led by Mike Andritsis, realized the need to streamline and modernize the end-user experience. "The feedback we received from end-users at the college is that the applications they accessed on 5250 looked old," said Andritsis. "We would get asked frequently why we were using programs that looked like DOS from several decades ago."

Andritsis's team took on the challenge of creating a portal system to improve the efficiency of the users working with these business applications, and application modernization was a large part of the effort. The Baker team could have chosen to simply "re-face" or "screen scrape" their 5250 applications, but that wasn't good enough. Instead, they chose Profound UI from Profound Logic Software. Profound UI is an easy-to-use, integrated and native suite of products that convert existing and create new RPG applications away from the 5250 data stream, and leverage RPG Open Access to launch stunning, dynamic Web and mobile interfaces. Now Baker could give end-users applications with features that are just not possible in 5250, thanks to Profound UI's more than 125 pre-built user interface widgets.

The Visual Designer in Profound UI 3.3

Andritsis also chose Profound Logic based on their ability to support Baker College at all stages of the project. "We knew of Profound Logic's reputation as an RPG application modernization platform provider, but we wanted to meet them face-to-face to see if they could work with a project of this scale. We have nearly 2,000 end-users who would be impacted by this change, and we needed to make sure it was done right. We weren't disappointed."

Today, Baker College's end-users find the modernized applications much easier to use and more intuitive than the 5250 green-screen versions, which has boosted overall user efficiency. The college plans to continue gathering feedback and making improvements to their new system. "We're always learning as we go to see what interface elements work best, and what new functionality makes sense," Andritsis said. "And we're always looking for ways to make end users more effective and efficient. Thanks to Profound Logic and Profound UI, we now have a platform to take our applications anywhere without the restrictions of 5250."

To read the full case study of Baker College's experience with Profound UI, Click here.

For more information about this study or Profound UI, please contact:

Profound Logic Software, Inc.
562 Congress Park Drive
Dayton, OH 45459
(937) 439-7925 phone
(877) 224-7768 toll free
sales@profoundlogic.com

About Profound Logic Software, Inc.

Profound Logic Software, an advanced IBM business partner, provides best-of-breed solutions to support the development and modernization of applications on IBM i. Over the last 10 years they have facilitated the modernization of many million lines of legacy RPG code for thousands of customers, including Nintendo, Pepsi and General Electric. They continue to innovate today with products such as Genie, RPGsp, Atrium, iData, RPG-Alive and Profound UI.

The mission of Baker College is to provide quality higher education and training which enable graduates to be successful throughout challenging and rewarding careers. The Baker College System, the largest independent college in Michigan, provides world-class education for more than 43,000 students in more than 150 programs at 17 campuses and one virtual site. Learn more at www.baker.edu.