How a Global Industrial Leader Began Its Transformation Journey with Java and Azure

Overview

A global leader in industrial solutions, this company operates over 550 facilities across North America and nearly 200 locations in Asia-Pacific, serving diverse sectors from automotive to chemical manufacturing. With a $1 billion inventory and more than 10.4million SKUs, its reputation is built on exceptional customer service, industry expertise, and a robust distribution network.

As part of its long-term digital strategy, company leadership recognized the need to modernize their IBM mainframe environment, positioning the business for greater agility, improved developer access, and future cloud enablement. To ensure a low-risk transition with long-term flexibility, they partnered with Amdocs to refactor and convert critical legacy applications.

The Challenge: Legacy Systems Limiting Future Growth

For decades, the organization relied on an IBM z/OS mainframe with Db2, which supported its most critical systems and operations. However, technology leaders understood that this legacy infrastructure posed mounting challenges:

• Limited agility for integrating with modern systems or cloud environments
• Increasing cost and complexity of maintaining mainframe systems
• Dwindling COBOL talent, making it difficult to support and enhance existing applications
• A desire to future-proof their infrastructure without disrupting business continuity

The leadership team wanted a modernization strategy that would reduce technical debt, avoid vendor lock-in, and open doors to hybrid or multi-cloud strategies—all while maintaining the performance and reliability their business depended on.

The Solution: Strategic Refactoring with Amdocs

Choosing a phased approach, the organization prioritized the conversion of COBOL-based stored procedures to Azure as the first step in a broader modernization roadmap. After evaluating multiple vendors, they selected Amdocs for:

• Its deep domain expertise in mainframe systems
• A proven track record in large-scale code transformation
• Powerful automation tools via Amdocs' proprietary FastTrack Migration Factory

Amdocs began with a detailed assessment of the client's mainframe environment, aligning modernization efforts with long-term strategic goals. Using its automated tooling, Amdocs converted the application’s COBOL code to modern Java, delivering a high-accuracy transformation—on time and within budget.

The Results: Unlocking Flexibility and Future Readiness

This successful initiative marked a pivotal step toward modernization for the client. Key benefits include:

• Greater flexibility to adopt modern, cloud-ready database systems
• Improved developer recruitment and retention by transitioning to widely-used, modern programming languages
• Lower ongoing maintenance costs and simplified code management
• A strategic foundation for future modernization initiatives, including cloud migration and micro services architecture

By eliminating reliance on aging COBOL code and empowering their teams with Java-based systems, the organization is now better positioned to scale, adapt, and compete in a rapidly evolving industrial landscape. Technology leaders at the organization have adopted a gradual approach to mainframe modernization that keeps their options open, saves money in the short term, and offers maximum flexibility without sacrificing performance or system capabilities. After this successful project, they are well-positioned to take the next steps on their modernization journey.