Public Sector Agency Modernises PowerBuilder to Oracle — Cost-Effective Semi-Automated Migration
At a glance —
the essentials.
Public Sector Environmental Agency
- A public sector environmental agency relied on an application built in PowerBuilder 6.5 on a client-server architecture to manage environmental data across air quality, water quality, solid waste, and hazardous waste programmes. With PowerBuilder's earlier versions reaching end-of-support and the agency's other applications already running on Oracle Forms and Reports, migration became a necessity. The application handled permit management, inspection checklists, violation tracking, complaint management, and electronic document filing — making a complex, functionality-rich migration with zero business disruption the primary challenge.
- Migrated the client's PowerBuilder 6.5 application to Oracle Forms 6i and Reports 6i using the semi-automated PB*Converter tool, significantly reducing time and cost versus manual development
- Migration covered PowerBuilder Windows to Oracle Forms, Datawindows to Oracle Forms Blocks, read-only Datawindows to Oracle Reports, Menus, and non-visual object functions to PL/SQL Libraries
- Third-party integrations with MS-Word and MS-Excel preserved; migrated application generated in Oracle Designer 6i for centralised code maintenance
- Validated through a rigorous Analysis, Design, Production Migration, and Implementation & Testing methodology with onsite Continuity Team Members
- Full migration of PowerBuilder 6.5 to Oracle Forms 6i — all existing functionality preserved
- Semi-automated tool approach delivered significant cost savings vs. manual development
- Application generated in Oracle Designer 6i for centralised, future-proof code maintenance
- Platform-independent deployment — runs on UNIX, Windows NT, or Web
- Performance tuning and code optimisation delivered as part of the migration
From legacy PowerBuilder to Oracle Forms — cost-effective, zero functionality loss.
A US public sector environmental agency partnered with Kumaran to migrate its complex environmental management platform from PowerBuilder 6.5 to Oracle Forms 6i and Reports 6i. Using Kumaran's semi-automated PB*Converter tool, the engagement preserved all existing business rules, functionality, and third-party integrations while generating the full application in Oracle Designer for long-term maintainability. The migration covered permit management, inspection, violation tracking, complaint handling, and electronic document management — a broad, mission-critical scope delivered with performance tuning and code optimisation built into the delivery process.
The Background
The agency's environmental management system had been developed in PowerBuilder 6.5 with Oracle 8i as the back-end, serving as the operational backbone for programmes spanning air quality, water quality, solid waste, and hazardous waste management. With PowerBuilder support ending and the agency's other systems already on Oracle Forms, a migration was both operationally necessary and strategically aligned. The complexity of the application — heavily customised with rich business logic, reports, menus, and third-party integrations — made a semi-automated tool approach essential to deliver the migration cost-effectively and on schedule.
Want to know how we achieved these results?
Contact us today to learn more about our PowerBuilder migration approach and the success story behind this engagement with a public sector environmental agency.
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