09.272.2004 - Mainframe Migration Alliance Helps Businesses Transition Their IT Environment to the Microsoft Windows Platform

REDMOND, Wash., Sept. 28, 2004 -- The German media company Bertelsmann found itself at a crossroads in 2002: Its COBOL-based mainframe system, which since 1984 had supported the operations of five of the publishing giant's book clubs, had become outdated. To upgrade the system so that it could adequately support the company's 3.5 million book-club members, and to make it flexible enough to meet the needs of the clubs' growing businesses, Bertelsmann's IT costs would have doubled. So the publisher opted to migrate its mainframe system to a client-server solution based on Microsoft Windows 2000 Server. When the implementation was completed 18 months later, Bertelsmann's operational IT costs decreased 67 percent. Performance also improved, and the productivity of the company's software developers increased tenfold. - View Press Release - Visit Microsoft Corporation