Ace Hardware Purchases Corporate Site License for Netron Fusion; Retailer to Triple Its Use of the Reuse-Based Development Environment.Business/Technology Editors TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 23, 2000 Netron Fusion the standard tool for new development and reducing maintenance of hundreds of core applications Retail leader Ace Hardware has significantly increased its investment in Netron Fusion(TM) to accelerate development of new mainframe and AS/400 applications and connect back-end systems to browser-based applications. With 72 seats of Netron Fusion currently in use, Ace Hardware has purchased a site license that will allow the retailer to triple its use of the component-based development technology from Netron Inc., a provider of transformation solutions that helps organizations move to e-business through legacy systems renewal. Netron Fusion is the standard tool within Ace Hardware's Corporate IT area for all new mainframe and AS/400 development. The purchase of the site license ensures all developers and system analysts at Ace have access to Fusion's development tools. "We are absolutely committed to the full scale deployment of Netron Fusion within our development environment," said Jay Heubner, Ace Hardware's manager of corporate IT application development and support. "The product improves our ability to get to market quickly with strategic business applications and reduces the application management burden on the back-end." When Ace Hardware chose Netron Fusion three years ago as the development platform for its Warehouse Management System, which controls the distribution of its multi-million dollar assets, it found a solution that could be used for all platforms including the web. Since adopting Netron Fusion, more than 250 batch and online systems have been built at Ace Hardware with the technology. Developers are now utilizing Netron Fusion to build server components on the back-end to support web-enabled internal systems for users within various Ace Hardware departments including finance, merchandising merchandising Element of marketing concerned especially with the sale of goods and services to customers. One aspect of merchandising is advertising, which aims to capture the interest of the segment of the population most likely to buy the product. , and warehousing which support the wholesale side of the business. Ace developers are leveraging the reusable re·use tr.v. re·used, re·us·ing, re·us·es To use again, especially after salvaging or special treatment or processing. re·us Cobol components built in the Fusion environment over the last few years to implement mainframe programs that pass information to new browser-based applications. The architecture has consisted of an HTML/Active Server Page front-end that communicates via a Visual Basic communication object and third-party communication software to an application running on the mainframe developed with Netron Fusion. More recently Ace has begun to use Netron Fusion to create Stored Procedures In a database management system (DBMS), it is an SQL program that is stored in the database which is executed by calling it directly from the client or from a database trigger. When the SQL procedure is stored in the database, it does not have to be replicated in each client. , Cobol programs for displaying mainframe DB2 data in GUI (Graphical User Interface) A graphics-based user interface that incorporates movable windows, icons and a mouse. The ability to resize application windows and change style and size of fonts are the significant advantages of a GUI vs. a character-based interface. applications. The Supply Management and Replenishment replenishment the addition of an appropriate quantity of properly prepared solution containing the correct concentration of chemicals to the developer solutions used in radiography. Tool (SMART) Project is the first Intranet-based project utilizing Stored Procedures. The Ace merchandising department will use the SMART system in the daily management of open purchase orders. It will allow them to be more pro-active pro·ac·tive or pro-ac·tive adj. Acting in advance to deal with an expected difficulty; anticipatory: proactive steps to prevent terrorism. , simplify the decision making process and enable remote access via a browser browser Software that allows a computer user to find and view information on the Internet. The first text-based browser for the World Wide Web became available in 1991; Web use expanded rapidly after the release in 1993 of a browser called Mosaic, which used . Along with the benefits of having a development tool that's flexible for multiple platforms Refers to two or more operating environments, which typically include the CPU family and operating system. For example, if versions of a program run on Windows and the Macintosh, the software is said to support multiple platforms. , one of Ace Hardware's biggest productivity results of Netron Fusion comes from the reduced maintenance of the existing applications, allowing more staff to be deployed on e-business applications. "We have found one of the biggest benefits of Fusion to be the ability to make changes to frames, test the changes in a single program, and deploy the changes to several programs throughout a system," said Tony Antczak, project manager of Ace Hardware's development center. "This ability allows us to react quickly to necessary enhancements with minimal impact to our project plan." About Ace Hardware A Fortune 500 company, Ace Hardware Corporation, which celebrated its 75th anniversary last year, is a cooperative wholly-owned by its 5,100 independent hardware, home center, lumber lumber, term for timber that has been cut into boards for use as a building material. The major steps in producing lumber involve logging (the felling and preparation of timber for shipment to sawmills), sawing the logs into boards, grading the boards according to and building materials Building materials used in the construction industry to create . These categories of materials and products are used by and construction project managers to specify the materials and methods used for . retailers worldwide. Ace has locations in 50 states and 65 countries and 18 distribution centers located throughout the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. and Canada. Founded in the early 1920s, Ace Hardware Corporation is headquartered in Oak Brook, Ill. Wholesale sales in 1999 reached $3.18 billion and retail sales topped $14 billion. About Netron Netron is a leading provider of IT transformation solutions, focused on accelerating e-business through legacy systems renewal. An acknowledged leader in software reuse The ability to use software routines over again in new applications. This is one of the benefits of object technology. See object-oriented programming. technology, Netron's products and services help organizations adapt quickly to the cost-saving and customer relationship enhancing opportunities of e-business by leveraging legacy assets. Netron HotRod(TM) is recognized as the leading technology in the application mining market, having first introduced such innovations as pattern-based analysis, active business rule identification and automatic clone clone, group of organisms, all of which are descended from a single individual through asexual reproduction, as in a pure cell culture of bacteria. Except for changes in the hereditary material that come about by mutation, all members of a clone are genetically detection, which result in faster, more complete, and more economical component recovery from legacy code for integrating into new e-business architectures. Netron has offices in Atlanta, Toronto, Ottawa, and London and distributors worldwide. For more information, visit www.netron.com. Netron is a registered trademark and Netron Fusion and Netron HotRod (world patents pending) are trademarks of Netron Inc. All other names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. |
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