The customer is one of the most important and efficient upholstered furniture manufacturers in Europe, and feels particularly committed to sustainability. The focus is on the close interlinking of ecological, economic, and social action with regard to the use of all resources.

• IBM Mainframe with the operating systems z/VM and z/VSE
• UNIX/Linux and Windows workstations
• Database system DL/I, Db2, mySQL

The hierarchically-oriented database system DL/I is to be replaced in the medium term by the relational system Db2. As an urgently needed first measure, a new graphically-oriented and WEB-based application should be developed. The central Bill Of Material (BOM) database under DL/I is to be connected to components of a relational database. tcACCESS works as a link between both worlds.

The special requirement was to access the information in the hierarchical database DL/I via native SQL statements from web applications. The particular challenge was the internal linking of the segments within the BOM database and the linking to the order database. The tcACCESS solution enables transparent SQL access from web applications to these databases, including joining the data. A specially developed modular system could be used to integrate new application components into the web application and thus react quickly to the requirements of the specialist departments.

The customer is now using over 50 components of the web application. Almost all of the customer's branches can be accessed via the intranet. A number of advantages have come to light through the use of tcACCESS. The know-how for modern programming languages and SQL already available in programming was able to solve the obvious generation problem of the DL/I database. Another important advantage is the fact that the developed applications can also be used on the basis of the planned Db2 database.