Quite a PerformanceAdAbAs And nAturAl plAy A leAding role for softwAre Ag’s customersBy David Broadbent, Member of the Executive Board, Software AG

as we kick off the new Year 2008 with an issue of tecHniques dedicated to “performance and productivity,” i’d like to

shine the spotlight on two of Software aG’s star performers: adabas and natural. Why do some Broadway or West end

shows run year after year, while others close after a few weeks? the answer is simple. the longest-running shows deliver

consistent high quality, dependable performances for their audiences every day.

inSide tHiS iSSue:

SPECIAL cuStomer eVent SPotLiGHt

customer events: Auteuil Racecourse, France; Annual

SPL-Software AG Customer Event in Israel Attracts 886

Attendees; Austrian User Group Celebrates Anniversary;

ETS Customer Conference in Poland...PAGE 2

tecHnoLoGY SPotLiGHt

improve Performance—How to deal with the new

iBm z/oS Parameter on the mainframe: Update infor-

mation for Software AG mainframe products using the

CSA Key 8 storage on the IBM z/OS platform...PAGE 6

ProfeSSionaL inSiGHtS

Introducing the ETS Competency Center...PAGE 6

adaBaS SPotLiGHt

improve Program Performance—minimize number

of file fields in adabas format Buffer: Use a minimum

number of fields in the Adabas Format Buffer...PAGE 8

improve Productivity and Performance: the adabas

SQL Gateway and JdBc in action at centerPoint energy

How CenterPoint Energy uses the Adabas SQL Gateway

and JDBC to improve productivity and performance...PAGE 9

naturaL SPotLiGHt

improve Your Productivity—Version control in natural:

Save time and improve your productivity while improving

the quality of your development projects with the Local

Versioning Plug-In...PAGE 10

improve Performance—Write Better code with Label

references: How writing better code improves your

performance as a developer and the performance of the

applications you help to write...PAGE 11

TECHniquestechnicAl tips And tricks for the softwAre Ag community

ne

ws

le

tt

er Get tHere faSter

Gaining greater performance and increasing productivity with

Adabas and Natural

Winter 2007/2008

Why do customers continue to rely on Adabas and Natural over

many years or even decades, while other technologies come

and go? Adabas and Natural are consistent star performers that

deliver true value day after day.

More than 2,000 active customers use Adabas and Natural,

spread across 60 countries. This includes one in every five of the

Global 500 businesses, 29 governments around the world, and

35 of the 50 US states.

For example, a major airline runs their business-critical

enterprise flight and crew scheduling application for 7,804

flights daily to over 497 cities in 87 countries on Adabas and

Natural. And a top insurance company manages 80% of their

$6.4 billion in revenues in an Adabas and Natural application.

Just as every successful show consists of three acts, the out-

standing performance of Adabas and Natural has three primary

aspects: speed, volume and reliability. With respect to speed,

Adabas was recently measured in a test environment at more than

300,000 transactions per second. Some other widely used systems

can handle about half that number—in an hour. Regarding volume,

the largest Adabas system handles 10 billion electronic inquiries a

day. As to reliability, Adabas has operated at one Global 200 finan-

cial services firm for seven straight years without any unplanned

downtime! No need for an understudy in this performance!

How to make a long run last even longer

The world’s best theatre companies know that long-run-

ning hit shows don’t happen by accident. It takes hard work,

expertise and careful planning to produce a true winner. How

does Software AG extend the successful run of Adabas and

Natural year after year? First, we invest heavily in Research and

Development. Since their introduction, Software AG has invest-

ed approximately 750 million Euros in Adabas and Natural,

(around $1 billion US). This huge investment has led to a con-

sistent stream of product innovations across the life of Adabas

and Natural.

Second, we listen to our customers. (Is our audience

giving us standing ovations every night or throwing tomatoes?)

Many executive councils and developer groups provide us with

continued feedback, which helps to keep Adabas and Natural

on the leading edge of customer satisfaction. Our customers

love to use our products, and participate actively in making the

products better.

Finally, just as a top-notch theatre company constantly

evolves the show, we continue to evolve Adabas and Natural.

We have incorporated new technologies such as AJAX, Eclipse

and Web services. We support Linux, UNIX and Windows

platforms. And Adabas and Natural provide a strong founda-

tion for SOA and business process improvement—a bridge to

our webMethods business line, giving customers a complete

suite of Business Infrastructure Software to support their

business goals.

As the curtain raises for 2008 the long and successful run

of Adabas and Natural for our customers continues—powered

by stellar performance. n

�

After a full, industrious morning, it was time to

move to the racecourse’s panoramic restaurant

for a relaxed gastronomic lunch that provided an

ideal opportunity to swap notes. The afternoon

was given over to racing; seven races were run in

total, with an introduction to betting and a guided

behind-the-scenes tour of the racecourse. The at-

mosphere was fantastic, with customers and

Software AG participants throwing themselves

into the betting and experiencing the highs and

lows of a day at the races!

Feedback from all present was very posi-

tive. The day met everyone’s expectations and

the quality of the presentations was rated good

or very good. The choice of venue, the activities

on offer and the organization also scored very

highly. Joe Gentry’s presentation on corporate

strategy and Nissan’s testimonial were particu-

larly well-received. The day’s events enabled us

to strengthen our relationships with our custom-

ers and share key information, putting us in an

excellent position to take on the challenges of

2008. n

What our customers said…“A very rewarding day, particularly with regard to recent developments at Software AG and the quality of the presentations. The event also gave me the opportunity to talk directly to my counterpart at Nissan about his perception and strategy in relation to SAG products.”

serge depuiset, production director, rci bAnque

“A full day that was both interesting and constructive for the future. The editorial plan is reassuring and shows that Software AG wants to bring continuity to its products, particularly Natural and Adabas. Software AG, now united with webMethods, has demonstrated the reality and viability of its technologies, and positioned itself as a leader in SOA and mod-ernisation. Combined with the warm welcome, the setting of Auteuil Racecourse and the highly enjoyable activities, it was a very successful seminar!”

AlAin bArthélemy, Architecture And methods mAnAger, crédit logement

“A very pleasant day learning about Auteuil Racecourse, the world of horse racing and its traditional and modern aspects. In terms of the seminar, I was particularly impressed by Fabrice Hugues’ presentation on setting up an SOA with Software AG/webMethods tools. Finally, a new way of looking at installing informa-tion systems!”

gérArd soler, it And orgAnisAtion director, ionis

“The morning was packed with presentations; I was interested in the WebService/SOA area. Combined with the Crédit Logement and Nissan talks, it gave an idea of the possibili-ties for modernizing applications in Adabas/Natural. It was a great idea to hold the event at Auteuil Racecourse.”

michel le guillevic, project mAnAgement support, Air frAnce industries

customer event sPotLiGht

on a beautiful october day, our customers en-

joyed a change of scenery in the lush sur-

roundings of auteuil racecourse. the course,

an oasis of greenery located to the west of

Paris, is renowned for its steeplechases and

enjoys an excellent reputation.

Around 50 decision-makers and specifiers from

key customers attended this exceptional day out

on October 3, 2007. The 26 companies represent-

ed included Sofinco, Société Générale, Air France,

Barclays, RCI Banque, Renault, Ionis, Darva, Crédit

Logement, AzurGMF, BNP-Paribas, Macif, PSA,

Total, Alstom and Thalès.

The purpose of the day was to present

Software AG’s new strategy and latest products,

and to introduce webMethods; whilst providing

an opportunity for networking in a relaxed and

friendly setting.

In the morning, after an introduction from

Didier Constant, Director of the ETS Business Unit,

and Frédéric Fuchs, Director of the webMethods

Business Unit and France Representative, Vice Presi-

customer event at auteuiL racecourse, France: you cAn bet on the 3rd of october!By Béatrice Crombet, ETS France Marketing Manager, Software AG

dent and ETS Technical Director Joe Gentry, who had

made the journey especially for the event, gave a

presentation on Software AG’s new strategy.

There was also a testimonial from Michel

Lavernhe, Information Systems Director at Crédit

Logement, France’s leading provider of non mort-

gage-secured loans, which embarked on a modern-

ization project with Software AG a few months ago.

Our customers also had the honor of meeting

Ian Porter, Director of Architecture at Nissan UK, who

gave a presentation on the SOA project successfully

implemented with the support of Software AG. Our

customers also took part in expert-led workshops:

• How to modernize your legacy applications,

with Angelika Siffring, Sr. Director Product Man-

agement and Product Marketing, Application

Modernization, Software AG.

• Setting up a Service-oriented Architecture (SOA),

with Fabrice Hugues, Pre-Sales Director, web-

Methods Division.

• Innovating with Natural and Adabas—economic

impact and ROI, with Joe Gentry, Chief Technology

Officer, Software AG.

Attendees enjoy lunch and a panoramic view of the Auteuil Racecourse.

3TECHniques | winter �007/�008

8:30 am: A warm welcome.

9:00 am: From left to right:

Frederic Fuchs and Didier Constant.

Below: Introduction by Frédéric Fuchs.

9:15 am: Strategy presentation by Joe Gentry.

Above: Simultaneous interpretation of presentations.

10:00 am: Testimonial from

Michel Lavernhe, Information

Systems Director at Crédit Logement.

10:45 am: Networking Break. From left

to right: Didier Constant, Jim Close, Michel

Lavernhe DSI Crédit Logement and Souheil

Chami (Software AG Account Manager for

Crédit Logement).

1:30 Pm: Start of racing and betting.

5:00 Pm: Champagne !

11:15 am: Workshops commence.

12:00 Pm: Testimonial

from Ian Porter, Director of

Architecture at Nissan UK.

1:00 Pm: To the panoramic restaurant for

a well-deserved lunch.

�

austrian user GrouP ceLebrates anniversary By Peter Leibl, Municipality of Vienna and Karlheinz Kronauer, Product Marketing Manager, Software AG

in 1971, the municipality of Vienna made the

decision to build a database using Software aG’s

‘adaptable database System’, adabas. this

was the first adabas installation in austria and

also the first outside of Germany. When in 1979

Software aG began to market the application

development system natural, the municipality

of Vienna was the very first customer to use

natural in a production environment.

During the 1980s, Software AG steadily expanded

its customer base in Austria. Government agen-

cies, banks, insurance and industrial firms began to

use both Adabas and Natural. At this time, several

Austrian users were meeting informally in order to

exchange information and experiences regarding

their use of these products. In 1987, over 20 years

ago, the first meeting of all Austrian customers of

Software AG took place. Since then, this User Group

meeting, which occurs annually in late autumn, is

firmly fixed on each Austrian user’s calendar.

In 1992, exactly 15 years ago, the Österrei-

chische Benutzergruppe der Anwender von

Produkten der Software AG Darmstadt (Austrian

User Group for Users of Software AG Products) was

officially established. Its objectives were twofold:

• To represent and communicate the interests of

Austrian users to Software AG.

• To encourage and facilitate an extensive ex-

change of product know-how and experiences

among users. Additional information is available

at www.sag-bgoe.at.

This year’s meeting therefore marked not

one, but two, anniversaries—20 years since the

first user’s meeting and 15 years since the formal

organization of the Austrian User Group. The Hotel

Moselbauer in Kärnten was a most worthy setting

for such an occasion and the weather co-operated

fully, with not a single rain cloud to be seen

throughout the 3-day conference. The conference

was attended by practically every Austrian user

of Software AG products.

The main themes of the conference were

Modernization and Migration, the Enterprise Trans-

action Systems Adabas and Natural, and the new

WebMethods products. Representing Software AG

were: Joe Gentry (USA), Karlheinz Kronauer,

Michael Münster and Wolfgang Weiss (Germany),

and Walter Weihs and his staff from Software AG’s

Austrian subsidiary.

Peter Leibl from the Municipality of Vienna

greeted the participants and also forwarded anni-

versary congratulations from Dieter Stoor, represen-

tative of the Software AG User Group of Southern

California and Arizona USA. This was followed by

the Software AG user presentations. Mr. Prenner

and Mr. Vorstandslechner from sIT Solutions pro-

vided a summary of the International User

Group meeting recently held in Mainz, Germany.

Mr. Vorstandslechner also described sIT’s recently

completed Configuration Management System

which was developed using the Software AG prod-

uct Predict Application Control. Mr. Leibl’s presenta-

tion, entitled Natural Migration and Modernization,

described Natural migration scenarios, as well as the

usage of the Software AG product Natural Business

Services which is being used for the development

of new services at the Municipality of Vienna.

Mr. Lassnig from the City of Salzburg described

some initial experiences with the new product

Natural for Ajax which enables the easy creation of

Natural-based Rich Web applications. Mr. Scherndl

described the initial experiences of using Natural

for Eclipse at the Provincial Government of Salzburg.

Walter Weihs of Software AG Austria provid-

ed a summary of the acquisition of webMethods

by Software AG. Joe Gentry, Karlheinz Kronauer,

Wolfgang Weiss and Michael Münster updated

the participants regarding the strategy and road-

map for Adabas and Natural. The third and final

day of the conference was entirely devoted to

webMethods. The staff of Software AG Austria,

Martin Weisslechner, Christoph Strnadl, Christian

Schultes and Helmut Schiner, summarized recent

developments from CentraSite and presented new

solutions and user scenarios from the webMethods

portfolio.

After 3 days and 18 presentations, the Austrian

User Group Meeting of October 12, 2007 came to

a successful conclusion. Nonetheless, the User Group

leaders were already seen making plans for the

many activities planned for 2008. n

annuaL sPL-soFtWare aG customer event in israeL attracts 886 attendees By Michal Mordowicz, SPL Software, Isreal

SPL Software held its annual customer event in

tel aviv, israel on the 16th of october, 2007. the

event celebrated the 30 year anniversary of the

existence of SPL and Software aG in the israeli

market. the record number of participants—886

in all—demonstrated the loyalty of the israeli

customer to SPL and their eagerness to hear

more about Software aG and its products.

The event started with Mr. Eran Alroy, SPL CEO,

explaining how the acquisition of SPL and web-

Methods by Software AG this past year is a major

step forward in Israel and in other territories. Up

next, Mr. Karl Heinz Streibich, CEO, Software AG,

presented the new Software AG. Mr. David Mitchell

followed with a presentation on the webMethods

products. Mr. Sami Keinan, CEO of iTeam, a major

ETS customer in the banking sector, presented the

success of his company’s new mortgage applica-

tion built with Natural, EntireX and Applinx.

The Adabas and Natural strategy and road-

maps were presented by Mr. Yoram Ben Bassat,

VP Systems Software, Software AG. In addition,

Mr. Ben Bassat gave out Excellence Certificates to

selected customers. These customers, listed below,

are using new versions and features of Software AG

products to drive their businesses. We call these

customers “pioneers” because they are not afraid

of technology and are implementing new features

in a myriad of exciting new ways:

• The National Insurance Institute is one of the

largest Natural development sites in the world.

This organization is always seeking new en-

hancements and helped to trigger Software AG

to develop the Turbo Performance Buffer Pool in

Natural version 3.1. The National Insurance Insti-

tute was the first company to take advantage of

XML within Natural and the first in Israel to up-

grade to Natural 4.2. The DBA group communi-

cates with Software AG on needed features and

enhancements in Natural and pushes within their

organization the use of new features.

• Bank Leumi is the second largest bank in Israel.

This organization took advantage of Adabas

Cluster Services in order to work 24x7 and to

continue working even if one of their computers

went down for service or because of a failure.

• Israel Electric Company is a customer that is not

afraid of new technology. This company was the

first to implement the Single Point of Develop-

ment (SPoD) in Israel. Using SPoD, they were

able to recruit new, younger programmers to

work with Natural. In addition, the company

is now in the middle of POC on Adabas Event

Replicator and is eager to start using Natural

for AJAX.

• Tel Aviv Stock Exchange is implementing Adabas

Vista to separate current and historic data to re-

duce the operational database size, improve

performance and reduce backup time.

• Ministry of Transportation has always been a

“pioneer”. This organization was the first to use

EntireX and Tamino, and to implement SOA,

even before SOA became an acronym. This year

the Ministry implemented Natural Engineer,

saving development cost in upgrading their

drivers and vehicles systems.

• Ministry of Welfare was the first to implement

Adabas SQL Gateway, allowing the organization

to retrieve Adabas information directly from the

.Net environment. This has saved the need to

transfer the data to SQL. It also provides up-to-

date data to their Web customers.

Mr. Guido Falkenberg, Vice President,, ETS

Product Strategy, Software AG, gave a presentation

on legacy modernization. This great event ended

with a Gartner presentation of BPM and SOA. n

customer event sPotLiGht

�TECHniques | winter �007/�008

In the evening, attendees had the opportunity

to participate in a Roaring Twenties party. Suitable

props and scenery helped everyone to go back in

time to Al Capone, Prohibition and illegal casinos.

The party lasted all night long.

Bia_owie_a, Poland, where the conference

took place, is an excellent tourist attraction. It is

located in the midst of a National Park. It is well

known not only for its excellent air, but also for

very rare animal species living in the surrounding

woods. The wisent (the European bison), the sym-

bol of Bia_owie_a and the entire region, lives

only in this part of Europe. This excellent atmo-

sphere allowed everyone to work out ideas and

projects, which shall hopefully bring significant

value in the future. n

separate technology and business sessions along

with presentations for all invitees.

The key goal of the conference was to join

forces in seeking new opportunities for coopera-

tion to enable ZETO companies to win customers in

new business areas. Software AG representatives

focused on sharing up-to-date information on

Adabas, Natural and other areas of ETS. Additionally,

the capabilities and functionality of webMethods

solutions were presented.

Mr. Karlheinz Kronauer, Product Marketing

Manager, Software AG provided several presenta-

tions on Adabas and Natural. He also strongly sup-

ported Software AG Polska experts in responding to

customer queries. Other presentations were given

by Software AG Polska experts and Glob-Invest staff.

on november 15-16, 2007, Software aG hosted

a customer conference in Poland. this confer-

ence focused on new cooperation opportuni-

ties and Software aG product usage areas in

the context of customer and partner business

requirements. the conference, dedicated to etS

customers, highlighted the Zeto network which

has used adabas, natural and other etS tools

to develop and enhance their applications for

many years.

Co-hosted by Glob-Invest, a local Software AG

Polska partner, more than 50 representatives of

ZETO companies attended the conference. The

mix of participants—both managers and technol-

ogists—also reflected the conference agenda;

ets customer conFerence in PoLand Contributed by Software AG, Poland Office

etS conference—PoLand

annuaL SPL-SoftWare aG cuStomer eVent—iSraeLAttendees gathered to hear SPL and

Software AG speakers.

event rePLicator: “did you know” By Helene Nassar, ETS Marketing Manager, Software AG

“We get the best of all worlds: real-time audits, great response times and maximized concurrency with minimal processing.”

mAxine howe, director of ApplicAtion services, boston university

You may already know that event replicator for

adabas makes sure your business has instant ac-

cess to the latest data. But did you know…?

…As a market leader with more than 4,000

customers worldwide, Software AG helps organi-

zations address their time-critical business infor-

mation needs.

…Event Replicator for Adabas is the ONLY

replication solution available today that is closely

integrated with Adabas.

…Event Replicator for Adabas provides real-

time data publishing capabilities—with lower

systems costs and without sacrificing high per-

formance.

…One of the world’s top securities firm

stated that if its Adabas database went down for

more than 3 hours, it would be out of business.

…A major international airline measured

the CPU usage of Event Replicator for Adabas on

their production system and said the CPU it used

was so low that it barely registered!

…One of the world’s top telecommunica-

tions companies stated that a single minute of un-

planned Adabas downtime would cost $900,000

in lost business! How can Event Replicator help?

did you know that event replicator for adabas

can be tailored to provide adabas customers

with the following four solutions?

…disaster recovery: by receiving ongoing, real-

time transfers of data changes in Adabas, “hot

standby” systems in remote facilities ensure that

there is no disruption to business or loss of data

in the event of a disaster.

…business event notification: when a single

piece of data changes, there are business systems

(and users) that need to be notified. Business

Event Notification ensures that these systems are

alerted as soon as the change occurs.

…data warehousing for business intelli-

gence: by replicating data from the production

database to a data warehouse (on Adabas or any

relational database), business users have direct

access to up-to-the-minute information from

Adabas for real-time decision making and busi-

ness analytics.

…real-time information synchronization:

business data managed in Adabas is available

when and where it needs by proactively delivering

real-time data updates to business applications.

customers around the world are more than

satisfied with event replicator for adabas be-

cause it offers flexible replication scenarios

with clear business benefits. did you know…?

…A german software and it services provider—

servicing over 4,500 customers—chose Event

Replicator for Adabas over their homegrown rep-

lication solution to provide one of their customers

with 24x7 data availability, as well as a hot stand-

by system for disaster recovery. By using Event

Replicator to push data in real-time from the

mainframe Adabas database to a hot standby

Adabas database on the Linux platform, this cus-

tomer avoids the cost of a second mainframe da-

tabase while benefiting from a more automated

and efficient replication process.

…To achieve 24x7 availability for their child

welfare services system on Adabas, one of our us

state government customers created a hot stand-

by copy of all Adabas data for immediate deploy-

ment in the event of a disaster. Event Replicator

for Adabas also allowed them to move data from

Adabas to various relational DBMSs for real-time

data warehousing.

…ireland’s leading general insurance com-

pany uses Event Replicator for Adabas to move

towards a 24x7 business model to further grow

their business. With Event Replicator for Adabas,

real-time synchronization between Adabas data-

bases is now possible and changed data is proac-

tively pushed from Adabas to the Oracle data

warehouse to meet the company’s reporting

needs.

…A prestigious university in the US made

student degree information available in real-time,

anytime—24x7. To keep the University’s Degree

Audit system in sync with the Student Informa-

tion System, Event Replicator for Adabas notifies

the Degree Audit System immediately of an up-

date to the Student Information System.

…one of europe’s national railway com-

panies can now make fundamental enhancements

to their complex cargo application. First, Event

Replicator for Adabas allows for a smooth transi-

tion from the old cargo application to the new

application by ensuring real-time synchronization.

Secondly, it enables the replication of Adabas

data on the mainframe to the SAS data ware-

house for analysis purposes, thus eliminating the

time and resource currently needed to perform

ETL (extract, transform, and load) processes to ex-

tract data from Adabas.

So, you may still ask…how can this product

make your life easier? if you only knew…!

…Unlike Changed Data Capture (CDC) products

that replicate data at the table level and process

the entire Adabas protection log, Event Replicator

for Adabas publishes discrete data elements and

selected content—that is, only the changes to the

subscribed data—which leads to lower overall

system costs.

…Event Replicator for Adabas provides a

complete copy of your Adabas production data-

base for reporting and analysis use by business

users, freeing up your production database for

mission-critical applications.

…By updating hot standby systems at one

or more remote locations in real time, Event

Replicator for Adabas ensures business continuity

and avoids time consuming recovery procedures

in the event of a software or hardware failure,

power outage or other disasters.

…By feeding changes from Adabas into

your data warehouse in real time, Event Replicator

for Adabas eliminates the need for cumbersome ETL

batch jobs that often result in end users performing

business analytics on out-of-date information.

How about we make your life easier now?

To find out more about Event Replicator for Adabas,

visit our website at www.softwareag.com/adabas.

do you have some interesting facts about event replicator?

e-mail your facts to:

techniqueseditor@softwareag.com

today! if your submission is

published, you’ll receive a

techniques members only

thank you gift.

�

Software aG’s Global Support organization is

dedicated to providing you with the highest

level of service around the globe. one of the

many valuable services we provide is through

our ServLine24 offering. ServLine24 customers

have access to a comprehensive Knowledge

center that allows you to search for resolutions,

technical tips, early warnings, ZaPs, and fixes.

There is a new parameter ALLOWUSERKEYCSA

(YES | NO) in the SYS1.PARMLIB member DIAGnn

available with z/OS Version 1.8 and above. Please

note that this is a global option for the complete

z/OS system that you are running.

The default value for this parameter in z/OS

Version 1.8 is YES, but the z/OS documentation

recommends specifying NO (which prevents user

key CSA from being obtained).

importAnt: The default value for this

parameter in z/OS Version 1.9 is NO. Setting

ALLOWUSERKEYCSA to YES in z/OS Version 1.9

results in the same overall security level of your

working environment as with z/OS Version 1.8

and below. Until further notice, the Software AG

products listed in the table below require this pa-

rameter set to YES in order to operate correctly.

Setting the parameter to NO prevents user

key CSA from being allocated by failing any attempt

to obtain user key from a CSA subpool (through

GETMAIN or STORAGE OBTAIN) with a B04-5C,

B0A-5C, or B78-5C abend.

There is a “Health Checker” check in z/OS

Version 1.8 which warns you if, in the installation,

the value NO is not specified. This check is shipped

as inactive in z/OS Version 1.8 and the customer

can choose to activate it.

This article was recently published to the

Knowledge Center and provides you with impor-

tant update information for Software AG main-

frame products using the CSA Key 8 storage on

the IBM z/OS platform. With z/OS version 1.9,

the default value for the ALLOWUSERKEYCSA

(YES|NO) parameter is NO. This default may cause

some Software AG mainframe products to oper-

ate incorrectly, negatively impacting product and

application performance for your organization.

Changing the default to YES will help you improve

overall performance of the Software AG products

and your applications.

Software aG Products affected

The products listed in the table on page 5 use

KEY-8 storage in (E)CSA and are affected by pa-

rameter ALLOWUSERKEYCSA. For details, refer to

the individual sections below.

AdAbAs cluster services (Als)

For Adabas Cluster Services (ALS) Version 7.4.2 it is

necessary to set the parameter ALLOWUSERKEYCSA

to YES when using the V7 SVC or the SVC delivered

on the LX distribution that accompanied Adabas

Parallel Services (ASM) 7.5. When using the V8 SVC

with any supported release of ALS or ASM, place

an entry in the z/OS Program PropertiesTable (PPT)

to run these programs in a system key (1-7). For

more information refer to the release notes of

these products.

AdAbAs pArAllel services (Asm)

For Adabas Parallel Services (ASM) Version 7.5.1 it

is necessary to set the parameter ALLOWUSERKEYCSA

to YES when using the V7 SVC or the SVC delivered

on the LX distribution that accompanied ASM 7.5.

When using the V8 SVC with any supported re-

lease of ALS or ASM, place an entry in the z/OS

Program PropertiesTable (PPT) to run these pro-

grams in a system key (1-7). For more informa-

tion refer to the release notes of these products.

technology sPotLiGht

professionAl insiGhts...

introducing the enterprise transaction System (etS) competency center—Leverage industry and solution experts to extract greater roi from your it investments.

Software AG’s ETS Competency Center brings together a team of seasoned industry, best-practice, and ETS experts who work with you to quickly analyze your current IT environment, identify issues, of-fer expert advice for improvement, and craft solutions—all tailored to your needs.

The ETS Competency Center team brings together the diverse skills required to help you build and ex-ecute world-class strategies in areas such as mainframe application in-tegration, application moderniza-tion—in addition to performance and tuning solutions for your exist-ing Adabas and Natural systems.

imProve PerFormance: how to deAl with the new ibm z/os pArAmeter on the mAinfrAmeContributed by Software AG’s Global Support/ServLine24

To find out how your organization can take advantage of this team’s industry and ETS expertise to get the most out of your next project, please contact your local Software AG cus-tomer account representative.

7TECHniques | winter �007/�008

AdAbAs fAstpAth (Afp)

ALLOWUSERKEYCSA(YES) is required. The next ma-

jor release (Version 8.2) will introduce an option

to avoid the use of ECSA.

AdAbAs vistA (Avi)

ALLOWUSERKEYCSA(YES) is required. The next ma-

jor release (Version 8.2) will no longer use ECSA.

AdAbAs trAnsAction mAnAger (Atm)

ALLOWUSERKEYCSA(YES) is required. The next ma-

jor release (Version 8.2) will no longer use ECSA.

entirex broker services (ebv)

ALLOWUSERKEYCSA(YES) is required.

nAturAl (nAt)

The usage of Natural Global Buffer Pools requires

ALLOWUSERKEYCSA(YES).

The next release following Natural Version

4.2.4 will allow ALLOWUSER KEYCSA(NO). To ac-

cess, register, and/or login to your Servline24 ac-

count, go to: http://servline24-dev.eur.ad.sag/

SecuredServices/

conclusion

Setting ALLOWUSERKEYCSA to YES in z/OS Version

1.9 means that your Software AG products will

operate correctly. This will help you ensure that

your critical applications will also continue to op-

erate correctly, improving their performance. n

Product Product code VerSion

Adabas Cluster Services ALS 7.4 and 8.1

Adabas Parallel Services ASM 7.5 and 8.1

Adabas Fastpath AFP 7.4 and 8.1

Adabas Vista AVI 7.4 and 8.1

Adabas Transaction Manager ATM 7.5 and 8.1

EntireX Communicator EXX 7.2 and 7.3

Natural NAT 4.1 and 4.2

vaLuabLe Guidance From the eXPertsget the most from softwAre Ag technologies

Could you benefit from faster response times? Would you like to get the greatest benefit from new upgrades as soon as possible? Turn to our experienced systems engineers for expert guidance and hands-on help. No one knows our technologies better!

Systems Engineering Services from Software AG offer valuable expertise when you need it most. Our highly qualified systems engineers—each with 20+ years of experience—can enhance how you use our products. They can guide, support and educate your team as well as help you successfully complete important upgrades.

for more informationE-mail: Kris.Jennings@softwareagusa.comOr phone: 1-800-776-3390

the ets comPetency center team

Peter neVermann Peter has distinguished mainframe integration and application modernization experience: specifically around ApplinX and Natural for Ajax.

micHaeL KoHLen Michael has vast experience and ETS product expertise to include main-frame integration and application modernization: specifically around EntireX, and ApplinX.

rainer Herrmann Rainer is world-renowned for his Adabas and mainframe knowledge. His specialty is performance and tuning.

iZaK BotHa Izak heads the ETS Competency Center. He brings many exemplary years of Software AG product and delivery experience with a strong Application Modernization background.

8

Adabas sPotLiGht

fields returned to the program should be kept to

the absolute minimum. Natural will be used for

subsequent examples.

The format buffer created by Natural is con-

trolled by the userview defined in the Natural

program. In Natural reporting mode programs,

the userview is defined in two ways. First, all file

fields used in processing statements in the FIND/

READ/GET loop are included in the format buffer.

Second, all file fields specified in any OBTAIN

statements are also included in the format buffer.

In most reporting mode programs the OBTAIN

statement is not used, which results in the Natu-

ral compiler creating the userview using only file

fields that are actually used in the program. This

results in a format buffer with the minimum

number of fields.

In Natural structured data mode programs

or structured mode programs, the file fields re-

turned to the program are determined by the

userview defined in the global data area (GDA)

or the local data area (LDA). Since the GDA or

LDA is under control of the programmer, this

leaves it up to the programmer to develop an

efficient userview. It is easy to include fields in

the userview that are never used in the process-

ing statements of the program. For example, a

field may be added to the userview because it is

needed in a particular MOVE statement. Later the

MOVE statement is removed without removing

to improve the performance of your applica-

tions, seriously consider minimizing the num-

ber of file fields that will appear in the adabas

format buffer. the more file fields specified in

the format buffer, the larger the amount of

processing adabas will use to return records to

your program.

When a program reads records from an Adabas

file, Adabas read commands are used. These are

the Lx commands documented in the Adabas

Command Reference manual. If you are using a

3GL program using direct calls, you code the con-

trol block and all buffers yourself. If you are using

Natural, Adabas Native SQL, or any other Adabas

interface, the control block and buffers are created

“behind the scenes” for you. But no matter what

method you choose, a format buffer is used

to specify the file fields that you want returned

to your program. There is also a corresponding

record buffer where Adabas will put the values of

the fields from the record.

The number of fields returned to your pro-

gram directly affects the runtime of your pro-

gram. This is the case because Adabas must de-

compress the individual file fields from the data

block to the record buffer. Every additional file

field specified in the format buffer adds to the

amount of processing Adabas uses to return the

record to your program. Therefore, the number of

the field from the userview, which results in an

unneeded field in the userview. It is also easy to

return more file fields than necessary when us-

ing external LDA’s. Often, standard external LDA’s

are used that return many more fields than nec-

essary by any individual program. Although this

improves programming productivity, it also re-

duces runtime performance.

It is now time to see how much perfor-

mance is affected depending on the userview.

Two programs were executed, the only difference

being the number of fields in the userview. Keep

in mind that timings given below were gathered

on a particular CPU, so your results will vary.

The first program includes many more fields

than necessary.

When this program was executed, the aver-

age duration of the Adabas read (L3) command

was 64 microseconds. n

imProve ProGram PerFormance: minimize number of file fields in AdAbAs formAt bufferBy Jim Bando, Systems Engineer, Software AG

DEFINE DATA LOCAL USING FB2L

* Userview in FB2L contains:

* 22 elementary scalar fields, ADDRESS-LINE(1-8),

* CURR-CODE(1-20), SALARY(1-20), BONUS(1-20(1-10)),

* LEAVE-START(1-20), LEAVE-END(1-20), LANG(1-20)

END-DEFINE

READ (20) EMPL BY NAME

WRITE PERSONNEL-ID FIRST-NAME

NAME CITY

END-READ

END

SHARE TECHnoLogy ExCHAngE ExPo24 - 29 February 2008

orlando, Florida, United States

visit software Ag at booth �07 at the

shAre technology exchange expo at

disney’s coronado springs resort,

lake buena vista, florida.

shAre is the conference for it profes-

sionals working with ibm technology

to learn new ways to achieve business

results at their organization. Attendees

become part of a diverse community

where they can receive training on

software and services from ibm and

other vendors, network with it peers,

keep up-to-date on industry news and

observe live product demonstrations

from solution providers.

CEBIT 2008—THE #1 mARkETPLACE FoR dIgITAL BUSInESS4 - 9 march 2008

Hanover, germany

mark your calendar and visit software

Ag in hall �—booth A 11 and A 1�.

cebit, the world’s largest information

technology trade show, offers you

unparalleled insights into future

development and technology trends.its

For more information on our event

schedule, go to: www.softwareag.

com/Corporate/Company/events/

soFtWare aG events

�TECHniques | winter �007/�008

”We opted to keep adabas/natural as our application development and deployment

environment. this decision brought the same conceptual advantages of the

mainframe platform. it also enabled us to develop a more modern platform, to

which we could gradually incorporate enhancements and improved functionality.” cArlos cAstillejos, heAd of technicAl support At cvg AlcAsA

techniques creditsWinter 2007/2008

contriButinG autHorS

David Broadbent, Member of the Executive Board, Software AG

Béatrice Crombet, ETS France MarketingManager, Software AG

Michal Mordowicz, SPL Software, Isreal

Peter Leibl, Municipality of Vienna

Helene Nassar, ETS Marketing Manager, Software AG

Karlheinz Kronauer, Product Marketing Manager,Software AG

Jim Bando, Systems Engineer, Software AG

Centerpoint Energy

Georg Schmitt, Natural R&D, Software AG

Hardy Dreesen, Werner Becker, and Achim Lotz,Natural R&D, Software AG

editor-in-cHiefjoseph j. gentrycto, ets, software Ag

executiVe editorruth Ann richdirector, ets marketing programs, software Ag

featureS editorleslie berryets marketing, software Ag

deSiGn and LaYoutmelanie sackscreative director, bydesign studio

meter data dates are correctly being entered in

Oracle. Since Adabas contains the original source of

meter data, if the meter data being entered into

Oracle does not match the meter information in

Adabas, the Oracle meter data is corrected.

According to IT Manager, Emmett Oliver,

CenterPoint Energy is starting a pilot project to see

if the Adabas SQL Gateway can retrieve Adabas MF

data faster than a current system using RPC calls

issued from Java and .Net applications. They plan

to run some benchmarks to determine this. One of

the benefits would be that .Net and Java developers

would be able to access Adabas using true SQL

access methodologies. They are also looking at

using the Adabas SQL Gateway with Crystal

Reports for Pipeline users to provide enhanced and

easier ad-hoc reporting capabilities. n

The Pipeline Group of CenterPoint Energy was

one of Software AG’s first users of the Adabas SQL

Gateway. In fact, they were a beta site for the

product before its release in May 2004. They also

bought the CONNX Adapter for Oracle and CONNX

Adapter for SQL Server. They immediately recog-

nized the value and productivity gains of their users

all working in the same environment to access

Adabas, Oracle and SQL Server. Also, it allowed

users to do heterogeneous joins between the

three different data sources.

They currently have a pipeline application

written in Java that is a server-based application that

runs on Oracle. As part of this application, a Java stored

procedure calls the Adabas SQL Gateway which

queries mainframe Adabas. The stored procedure

checks meter data in Adabas and determines if the

centerPoint energy is the nation’s third-largest combined electricity and gas utility and operates in five primary businesses: electric transmission and

distribution, natural gas distribution, interstate natural gas pipelines, field services, and natural gas sales and services. the longtime adabas and natural

customer (since 1982) has more than 5 million metered electric and natural gas customers and provides electricity transmission and distribution service

for the Houston metropolitan area and natural gas distribution service in arkansas, Louisiana, minnesota, mississippi, oklahoma and texas.

imProve Productivity and PerFormance: the AdAbAs sql gAtewAy And jdbc in Action At centerpoint energyContributed by Centerpoint Energy

inside adabas study Guidenow Available!

inside Adabas is a “concepts and facilities” course that not only explains the various components of Adabas, but also how they interact with each other. www.whobooks.com/pub.html#ada

soFtWare aG events

10

natural sPotLiGht

imProve your Productivity: version control in nAturAlBy Georg Schmitt, Natural R&D, Software AG

history. In CVS, files need to be deleted and cre-

ated once more, losing the version history.

• CVS creates a revision/version number for

every file. The Subversion concept is different;

you may need to get used to it. In Subversion

there is only one version number (global

revision number) for the whole repository.

This version number will be incremented by 1

with every commit. A commit may include one

file or a whole project archive (a set of files and

directories). Reversed, one specific Global Revi-

sion Number identifies one file or the whole

project archive, which has been committed for

one specific solution. The Global Revision Num-

ber in Subversion may be used as a tag is used

in CVS.

• Access to Subversion is possible with several

protocols (WebDAV via Apache Server, Subver-

sion protocol); existing transmission protocols

SSH, RSH and HTTP are included.

• Subversion does not permit a checkout of single

objects; you always must checkout a whole di-

rectory. In fact, Subversion is designed to check-

out objects only once, at the start of a project.

New or changed objects (e.g. from other team

members) may be obtained from the repository

using the update command. This is done to en-

sure consistency of a project.

• Subversion commits all or nothing. This transac-

tion logic has been taken over from databases.

Using CVS, parts of a commit may be lost, e.g.

caused by any abortion.

• In Subversion it is possible to save additional

information for one file or directory.

• Subversion is subject to Apache licence; CVS is

subject to GNU General Public License. n

connection. Changes may be committed later into

the main development branch.

comparison of Subversion and cVS

Natural Open Systems R&D chose Subversion to

replace an existing RCS-based source control sys-

tem. Subversion, a further development of CVS,

also continues to be developed and enhanced.

Subversion has inherited many CVS functions.

The Subversion commands are closely related to

the CVS commands. However, it also comes with

enhancements.

• SVN does not copy files and directories. It creates

pointers. This saves disk space and is faster.

• Subversion is fast enough to handle bigger

projects (as Natural on Open Systems and our

Natural utilities); CVS may become rather slow

for projects with more than one hundred files

with a size of some hundred kilobytes.

• binary files: Subversion recognizes binary files

automatically; with CVS you have to tell whether

a file is binary or not. If you miss it, the auto-

matic expansion of assumed CVS keywords may

cause the file to be unusable. SVN stores the

changes of binaries only, CVS stores the whole

changed binary file claiming much more space

(important for images, office documents).

• Subversion holds a complete copy of the source

in the status folder (.svn). This needs disk space

locally but allows a user to work offline having all

benefits of Subversion available. With CVS, for ex-

ample, when checking if a file changed, you

need a network connection to the repository.

• Besides files, Subversion versions directories too.

This allows Subversion to rename and move

files and directories by keeping the version

Version control systems help developers im-

prove their productivity at the same time they

improve the quality and performance of an ap-

plication. Since natural version 6.1, Software aG

added the Local Versioning Plug-in to the

natural Studio in natural for Windows. it is

also substantially enhanced with natural ver-

sion 6.3.2 and 6.3.3. the Local Versioning

Plug-in allows natural users to directly access

the version control system Subversion or cVS.

Benefits Gained by using the Local Version-

ing Plug-in

If you are keen on programming, you are most

likely sitting in front of your computer monitor

right now with either a cup of coffee or tea and

you are feeling good. No one disturbs you and

you don’t need to answer your phone.

You are working on a Natural application in

your development environment, using the Natu-

ral Studio. You are focused; you don’t care which

modules you change because you can bring them

into the main development branch later on.

Maybe you make some changes in a pro-

gram. The program calls a subprogram. Its pa-

rameters need to be changed too. You right-click

on the subprogram’s name and open it. You

change the parameter of the subprogram. Since

the subprogram is also called from other Natural

modules, you right-click on the library, invoke the

Find Objects function and in the Contents tab you

enter the name of the subprogram. The find func-

tion returns all modules in the result view, which

call the subprogram. You click on them and

change the parameters. Please refer to Figure 1.

fiGure 1. find objects

After you finish development, you want to

know which modules you changed. You may want

to look at the changes again and finally bring the

changes to the main branch of your project.

At this point, the Natural Local Versioning

Plug-In and a version control system can help you

keep control of your project. You copy the whole

Natural library to the work space which is under

version control of your repository. The status com-

mand returns which modules you changed. The

diff command (either on the command line or

you use a freeware tool like TortoiseSVN/Tor-

toiseCVS) shows the differences of a module

compared to the original version. The commit

command brings only the changed modules to

the repository. You don’t need to worry about un-

changed modules. See Figure 2.

fiGure 2. using Version control to manage

Your Project

At the end of the day, you saved time while

your project increased in quality.

General remarks on version control

Version control not only means that the sources

are archived and versioned, it also means that

Subversion or CVS support the development pro-

cess itself. Subversion and CVS are client–server

applications. While the server part holds the

sources, the client part (accessing the server in

CVS) actively supports the development process.

Subversion or CVS systems help to keep

control of a project. The client identifies changed

modules using status information saved in sepa-

rate folders in the work space. A user may check

changes once more using the diff command. Un-

wanted changes may be reverted again. When

development is finished the commit command

sends the changed sources to the server and logs

the changes. When more than one developer

works on a project, subversion or CVS may deter-

mine conflicts and help to resolve them.

Since Subversion and CVS (to a certain

degree) hold status information of objects on

the client, it is possible to do development sepa-

rate from a project at different places without

differenceS of tHe LocaL VerSioninG PLuG-in uSinG SuBVerSion or cVS

cvs svn

checkout object not possible to ensure consistencylibrary committed with add command library committed separatelyremove deletemake branch/tag (cvs tag) make branch (svn copy)

11TECHniques | winter �007/�008

imProve PerFormance: write better code with lAbel referencesBy Hardy Dreesen, Werner Becker, and Achim Lotz, Natural R&D, Software AG

this technical article discusses why you should

use label references instead of line numbers

when programming. even though source-code

line numbering has been around since the be-

ginning of natural, now that label references

are available, we believe the use of these helps

you to write more readable code. Writing better

code helps you improve your performance as a

developer as well as the performance of the

applications you help to write.

Statement reference labels

Statement reference notation is used to refer to

previous statements. This may be used to override

Natural’s default referencing or for documenting.

Example:

A reference may be specified in the form of

a source-code line number (see the example

above) or a statement reference label:

As mentioned previously, source-code line

number references have been available since the

beginning of Natural, while statement reference

labels were introduced in a later version. Since line

number references were “first”, this may be the

reason why they are still in use today by many

programmers. However, we believe that statement

reference labels should be the preference because

they help you to write better, readable code.

avoid conflict with index notation

A conflict may occur when a line number reference

should also be a 4-digit index:

Referring to a statement does not cause a

conflict when using a label reference:

Save natural objects in a source

control system

Statement reference labels should also be used

when Natural applications are stored in a source

control system (for example, CVS). It is recom-

mended that objects be saved without line num-

bers. The source control system shows what has

been changed from one version to another:

The previous example shows how Natural

Engineer understands the source code.

After the Impact results have been reviewed,

the Modification function of Natural Engineer

can be used to apply the missing labels and to

convert any numeric back references to use the

new labels.

During the refactoring process that is sup-

ported as a special Natural Engineer function,

the conversion of line number references is a

mandatory step that is part of the first preparation

phase in the refactoring process. Please refer to

Figure 2.

conclusion

Label references are preferred over line num-

bers in writing code. With label references, you

avoid conflicts with index notations. Reference

labels are also more effective if your organiza-

tion uses a source control system to improve ap-

plication performance. If you need to refactor

code, reference labels are mandatory in ensuring

the final result—improved performance. Using

label references helps you to write more read-

able code. Writing better code helps you im-

prove your performance as a developer as well

as the performance of the applications you help

to write. n

This does not work appropriately with line

numbers because a difference is indicated for

every line:

Starting with Natural Version 6.3 for Windows

and UNIX, you can define that line numbers are

not written. The Properties dialog box for the library

is used to set the flag, see Figure 1:

fiGure 1. Properties dialog Box – Suppress

Line numbers

Line number references are replaced with

internal label references when the source is saved.

Internal label references are replaced with the

original line number references when the source is

loaded into the editor again. The system command

CATALL with new option SAVE (available as of ver-

sion 633) may be used to replace all line number

references with internal label references.

Local Versioning

Local Versioning is an optional plug-in for Natural

Studio. Starting with Natural Version 6.3.2, you can

use Local Versioning to archive and version Natural

source objects either in the source control system

Subversion (SVN) or Concurrent Versions System

(CVS) from within your Natural environment. Single

source objects, libraries or system files can be cop-

ied to the source control system and imported back

into your local or remote Natural environment.

For more information, please refer to the

article, Versioning with Natural for Eclipse, in the

September 2007 issue of TECHniques. Please also

refer to the following articles in the December 2007

issue: Improve Productivity and Performance:

Version 1.0 Version 1.1 Compare 1.0 n 1.1

* new comment line <<< new line inserted

DEFINE DATA LOCAL DEFINE DATA LOCAL

1 #A(A10) 1 #A(A10)

1 #B(N7) 1 #B(N7)

1 #C(I4) 1 #C(I4)

END-DEFINE END-DEFINE

Version 1.0 Version 1.1 Compare 1.0 n 1.1

0010 DEFINE DATA LOCAL 0010 * new comment line <<< changed

0020 1 #A(A10) 0020 DEFINE DATA LOCAL <<< changed

0030 1 #B(N7) 0030 1 #A(A10) <<< changed

0040 1 #C(I4) 0040 1 #B(N7) <<< changed

0050 END-DEFINE 0050 1 #C(I4) <<< changed

0060 END-DEFINE <<< new line inserted

0110 FIND EMPLOYEES-VIEW WITH NAME = ‘SMITH’0120 FIND VEHICLES-VIEW WITH MODEL = ‘FORD’0130 DISPLAY NAME (0110) MODEL (0120)0140 END-FIND

0150 END-FIND

...

READ1. READ VIEWXYZ BY NAME ...

AT BREAK (READ1.) OF NAME...

1000 FIND ...

1010 ...

1020 DISPLAY DATA-ARR(1000) /* refer to line 1000 or use the 1000th

/* occurrence of DATA-ARR ?

note: use dAtA-Arr(/1000) to force that 1000 is treated as an index

naturaL developers handbookversion �.� now Available!

An absolute must for newcomers to natural and a very helpful book for experienced programmers and developers too. www.whobooks.com/pub.html#nat

FIND1. FIND ...

...

DISPLAY DATA-ARR(FIND1.)

fiGure 2: natural engineer refactoring

Preferences

0130 /* 0140 READ VEHICLES 0150 DISPLAY MAKE(0140) MODEL(0140) COLOR(0140) 0160 END-READ

:::: 0220 REPEAT UNTIL #INDEX GT 12 0230 MULTIPLY #INDEX BY #MULTIPLY-2 GIVING #ANSWER

0240 ADD 1 TO #INDEX

0250 END-REPEAT

::::

the statement in line 01�0 is affected for a database loop which does not have a label. the statement in line 01�0 is affected three times, once for each numeric back reference. the statement in line 0��0 is affected for a non-database loop which does not have a label.

Debug and Execute Natural Applications with

Natural for Eclipse and Improve Your Productivity:

Version Control in Natural.

To show the real differences between two

source versions, Local Versioning removes the line

numbers and replaces the line number references

with internal label references when the source is

copied to the workspace. Thus, not all lines are

marked as different because only the line number

has changed.

When the source is imported again, line

numbers are added and the internal labels are

replaced by the original line numbers. This does

not apply if line number suppression is set for the

library as described above.

How to change line numbers to label

references with natural engineer (nee)

Natural Engineer offers the ability to convert line

number references automatically to labels. To ac-

tivate the conversion, use the Impact Analysis

function “Convert Back References to Labels” of

Natural Engineer. Impact Analysis looks for any

database and non-database loops that do not

have labels, and any numeric back references

which can be converted to labels.

1�

at a GLancesoftwAre Ag customer reference story

HonG KonG air carGo terminaLS (HactL)

HactL iS tHe BuSieSt air carGo terminaL/oPerator in

tHe WorLd. naturaL and adaBaS ProVide, reSPectiVeLY,

tHe aPPLication deVeLoPment and data manaGement

infraStructure for HactL’S tWo KeY carGo HandLinG

SYStemS: tHe communitY SYStem for air carGo (coSac)

and LoGiSticS controL SYStem (LcS).

As underpinnings to COSAC and LCS, Adabas and Natural face

heavy database call and application processing loads; a high vol-

ume of cargo arrives with some 600 flights daily, many of which

are Boeing 747s and other big-body aircrafts. Along with each

consignment comes a huge amount of information that Hactl

must handle quickly.

At Hong Kong International Airport, Hactl)

garners more than 80 percent of the total

air cargo business—thanks in large part

to its long-term, ongoing investment in

Software AG technology. In the fickle world

of information technology, a vendor-user

partnership spanning almost three decades

is a rare commodity—but that’s exactly

what Hactl has enjoyed with Software AG.

According to Andy Bien, Hactl’s General Man-

ger of Information Services, “Software AG’s

Natural, Adabas and application modern-

ization solutions are crucial to Hactl’s 24

by 7 operation, providing speed, reliability,

and accuracy to our daily operations. This

is no easy task given the sheer amount of

cargo and business-related data that we

handle every day.”

moving into an Soa paradigm

What’s next for Hactl? To be even more effi-

cient in the next decade, Hactl has embarked

on a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA).

As Bien puts it, “The way we see the future

is software componentization, which is the

ability to reuse software components to

enable new business services. Having a

componentized framework will help us de-

liver these services quickly. I am happy to

hear that SOA is a main focus for Software

AG because that’s where we are going.”

Highlight

Hactl can accurately track and move high-

speed, high-volume air cargo arriving from

its diverse partner base of international

airlines and freight forwarders

Benefits

• Increased responsiveness to volume fluc-

tuations and tight deadlines

• Increased agility, with the ability to use dis-

parate applications across legacy systems

• Reduced costs through reuse of home-

grown software components

results

• No application-related downtime since

adopting Software AG applications in the

late 1970s

• Improved ability to manage high vol-

umes of cargo and the corresponding

information

• Increased productivity and efficiency in

all key operational aspects n

© Copyright 2008 Software AG, Inc. and/or its suppliers. All rights reserved. Published by Software AG, Inc. Software AG, Inc. and/or all Software AG, Inc. products are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Software AG, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

“reliability, a proven track record, and consistent follow-through

are the reasons why our partnership with Software aG has been

so enduring.” Andy bien, generAl mAnAger of informAtion services, hActl