Is Your AB Suite Application Ready for Generations
Y and Z?

In just a few short years, application modernization has changed from a capability that was simply nice to have into a truly business-critical imperative.

To understand why, you need only appreciate the culture that’s helping to shape – and in many ways, determine – how today’s organizations operate.

As the workforce becomes increasingly populated by a new generation that’s grown up with technology and is accustomed to an always-on lifestyle, businesses must search for ways to make themselves resonate with these younger consumers.

That means understanding that this change influences more than the role of the manager, the working conditions, the workday’s hours, or the ability to work from home. It also impacts the technology that’s used by employees and business partners the world over every day. We saw evidence of this with the “bring your own device” phenomenon that arose several years ago.

But devices are just the half of the picture. The other half is defined by the applications today’s employees choose to do their jobs.

To win the “war for young talent,” and continue leveraging your core applications at the same time, it’s critical that your application modernization strategy address the following elements:

• Accessibility from tablets and mobile devices
• Ease of use with no special training required
• Self-service concepts
• Social media integration
• Integration with Microsoft® Office and other apps

Sounds daunting, but don’t worry: Agile Business Suite (AB Suite™) offers a heathy set of tools that facilitates the application modernization journey – while helping you protect your Enterprise Application Environment (EAE) and AB Suite investments.

When it comes to delivering a modern user experience or integrating your AB Suite application into a SOA landscape, some of the most important tools include:

• Client Tools
• Customized Client Tools Generator
• ClearPath ePortal
• Client Framework

Here’s how they work…

Client Tools

Client Tools offers generators for different user interfaces, like ASP.NET and VB.NET, as well as Web Services, which make use of the screen definitions within the model.

Customized Client Tools Generator

The Customized Client Tools Generator is the set of source code for the Client Tools generators. It’s been updated to allow you to customize one of the generators to suit your own requirements. Changing the generator – instead of its result – in this manner leads to a much more stable end result, as well as an application that’s simpler to maintain over the long run. After all, it’s easier to re-run the generator than adjust your application each time you change something.

ClearPath ePortal

Client Tools includes a generator you can use to export UI definitions. This file can then be loaded into the ePortal Developer environment. With ePortal Developer, you can modernize the UI as much as you like before generating one of the available options. At the same time, you can upload the specification to our CloudBuild portal, where you get native apps for the most common mobile operating systems, including Apple® iOS and Android™. Note that ePortal is available for MCP and Microsoft Windows® based versions of AB Suite. To learn more about these and other capabilities, please check out the ePortal playlist on the ClearPath® YouTube channel.

Client Framework

When you want the freedom to design and create UIs on your terms, look no further than the Agile Business Suite Client Framework. It supports Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Microsoft Model-View-Controller (MVC), and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) out of the box, giving your AB Suite application the look, feel, and interactivity today’s consumers expect. For a deep dive into everything the Client Framework can do, please read the detailed article we ran in the December 2015 issue of Developing Agility.

Modernize Today, Modernize Tomorrow

We view application modernization as a business-critical facet of our clients’ operations – one that’s crucial to constantly enhancing the user-friendly characteristics of their applications, creating and nurturing new sales channels, and remaining relevant to young talent.

Please do not hesitate to contact us at ABSuite@unisys.com if you’d like more information about any of the technologies discussed above or wish to use one in a pilot project.