<<so far,I've not read of a single post here that will answer the question:
WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT MATRIDIGM COMPARED TO THE OTHER
PRODUCTS OUT THERE ?>>
Warren, here's the first such post, then. (This is from Matridigm's new Web page, www.matridigmusa.com. There you'll find that the logo of the company has the 9 letters in the word Matridigm arranged in a cute 3-by-3 matrix--just to annoy the Zitel shorts, I suspect.) --Wade
TECHNOLOGIES AND SERVICES
MatriDigm Corporation has, and continues to refine, a unique and comprehensive suite of services and
technologies that automate and enhance the maintenance and development of legacy systems.
MatriDigm's solution is based on the business rules, linkages and interactions of an entire application.
The company's solution to the Year 2000 problem builds on this robust foundation to provide a fast,
cost efficient approach to Year 2000 compliance.
The MatriDigm Year 2000 Conversion Service:
MatriDigm provides the fastest, most complete, highest quality, and lowest cost Year 2000 conversion
service on the market. The MatriDigm Year 2000 Conversion Service scans, modifies and tests all
date-dependent logic and data structures within an entire application, substantially reducing
maintenance time and conserving valuable programming resources for other tasks.
The MatriDigm Code Analyzer, the foundation for this MatriDigm Conversion Service, captures the
complete business rules and data interactions of each application in the MatriDigm Relational
Hyper-linked Database. This allows MatriDigm to analyze applications as a whole; as a result,
MatriDigm is able to employ its unique data identification technique to find virtually all of the date
fields and logic within an entire application.
MatriDigm's recommended Year 2000 solution uses a set of MatriDigm Packed Binary subroutines to
detect and process date fields at execution time, providing a unique 2-byte representation of a 4-digit
century date field. (MatriDigm's solution also allows the expansion of date fields to a traditional
4-byte, 4-digit zoned decimal date field if desired.) This novel 2-byte "packed binary" approach
enables both converted and non-converted applications and data files to coexist in the same production
environment. Furthermore, by avoiding the expansion of the century field to 4-bytes, the need to
change online screens and reports is greatly minimized.
Five primary elements differentiate this MatriDigm conversion solution from traditional Year 2000
approaches: speed, flexibility, scope, automation and testing.
Speed < the MatriDigm system can find, fix and test code at least 20 times faster than any other
known approach. This means that customer code maintenance can be frozen for a very short period of
time, while MatriDigm completes the year 2000 code conversion, thus eliminating the need to
reintegrate continuing code maintenance. As a result, complete conversion of an IS organizations
applications portfolio can be accomplished in a non-disruptive fashion in weeks or months instead of
years.
Flexibility < both converted and non-converted applications, programs and data files can coexist in
the same production system, enabling a step-by-step conversion process if desired. This is facilitated by
the MatriDigm Date Subroutines which, during program execution, identify converted and
unconverted date fields. Unconverted fields are converted to the MatriDigm 3packed binary2 format
for date calculations. Upon completion of the date calculations the results can be written out in the
originating date format if specified.
Scope < the MatriDigm System looks at each program routine in the context of an entire application,
meaning that all references, branches and embedded calls are traced, recorded and analyzed. The
MatriDigm Date Classifier examines how data fields are manipulated and is able to identify each data
field as a date or not a date. This means that the entire application can be automatically converted,
without the delays imposed by traditional approaches.
Automation < the MatriDigm Date Modifier employs a rules based approach to modifying the code -
in no instance does a programmer modify the customers source code directly. If an exception is
encountered, the rules are modified and the source code is rerun through the systems. This approach
minimized the opportunity for normal human errors to be introduced into the source code.
Testing --- not only is the date identification and conversion process automated, saving months of time
and a tremendous number of errors; the MatriDigm system also uses an automated and proprietary
testing process to ensure that converted code functions exactly as did the original. MatriDigm1s testing
process tests code fixes at the code fragment level, which enables the exercising of essentially all
boundary conditions on the converted code, insuring that a correct program is returned to the
customer. As a result, only minimal system level testing is required.
Maintenance Programming Services and Tools:
For over thirteen years, the founders of MatriDigm have been developing maintenance programming
services that will soon be offered to all of MatriDigm1s customers. MatriDigm's Maintenance
Programming Services take individual programs, extract their data structures and computational logic
into MatriDigm's specification language, reduce these specifications to the simplest terms, and create
the MatriDigm Relational Hyper-linked Database that completely describes the application in terms of
both its data elements and the business rules that manipulate those data elements. From this complete
application description, various reports are produced to supplement the existing program
specifications. The current end product is a set of reports used by maintenance programmers to
identify the portions of a given program which require modification. This approach greatly reduces
the effort and time required for a programmer to understand and modify a program or set of
programs in an application. MatriDigm plans to develop additional tools and services to enhance this
offering.
Using conventional maintenance techniques, a programmer would have to study an entire program or a
set of programs in an application before making a modification in order to ensure that the modification
was not affecting other areas of the code as well. Using the MatriDigm System however, the
programmer would be able to determine the location of all relevant program logic. Because of this, the
programmer need only consider the small, relevant and defined portion of the overall application.
In the future, MatriDigm will also provide a program or application modification service. A customer
will be able to express the changes required in terms of their business rules. MatriDigm will use its
Legacy Code Analyzer to make the changes to the customer source code and return an updated
program or application to the customer. Further, MatriDigm will be able to do this at a lower cost due
to the more productive environment the tools provide.
Maintenance Outsourcing:
MatriDigm will also soon offer complete Maintenance Outsourcing. This offering is similar to
Maintenance Programming Services, but will allow the customer to contract for MatriDigm to
perform periodic maintenance services. The customer will retain the resulting specification and
comprehensive testing information. More importantly, use of the MatriDigm Code Analyzer and
extensions will provide a much lower cost basis for these services in relation to other, more traditional
maintenance models. |
