It’s been an interesting evolution, engineering to order client requirements has lead to a very comprehensive suite of products and tools.
Q: Tell us about Marco Grossi and HTWC
A: Well it’s a long story, which originated in 1979 with Siemens, modernizing applications written in Assembler hosted on BS2000 systems. Recognizing the value of such services, some colleagues and I acquired the know-how in applying such principles to other types of mainframes, application languages and indeed data structures.
At some stage, it became very clear that there was (is) a major market for the modernization of Mainframe applications. So much so, we broke away and formed HTWC in 1987. Thinking back it was an emotional decision, driven by guys who saw a mountain of technology that needed to be shifted. Was obviously a great idea, as we are still here
Q: Same people?
A: We have been very stable in terms of personnel. We have retained the core team, and have managed to incorporate over time new ideas and skill sets. The market has evolved so too has our product portfolio and migration toolkit.
Q: And HTWC today?
A: Well such a question could prompt me to say we are better than our competitors. The truth is, we concentrate more on ourselves. Our product range has a very interesting evolution behind it. For many years, our solutions were driven by our clients. We engineered the solutions based upon the legacy environment and target source. It is 100% proprietary and has always been ours. We have a very very comprehensive product suite and toolkit, as well has endless experience in dealing with “special” cases. All cases are special.
With regards to competitors, we have respect for those who we consider genuine competitors. Collectively, we need to be looking at ways of raising the profile of this entire industry. The biggest competitor is to do nothing at all.
Q: What are main motivators for organizations to employ the HTWC products and services?
A: Three main areas.
1. There is a terrific ROI, with payback periods easily within one year, half year for midsize projects. We see 80% savings in related costs – it is one of the few areas where organizations can save, whilst improving the business performance.
2. Its clear that HW, databases and operating systems improve daily. We don’t just move the applications to the new environment, we harmonize these in there, enabling them to tap into the latest features available in the technology.
3. Look at the list of application languages that we convert. Developers in these languages are becoming more and more scarce, and in some cases no longer available. This has major cost implications, but more importantly who wants to run a business on obsolete technologies?
There is whole myriad of strategic drivers, but they come down to the same three benefits; costs, personnel and performance
Our partners, the ones who really understand this product and business know they are entering a market with huge potential, and the residual revenue from projects, has an immediate impact upon the shareholder value of each organization.
Q: What type of industry do usually address?
A: First and foremost, we are sector agnostic. Mainframe is Mainframe, whether public service, industry or Financial services.
Traditionally our clientele came from the pharmaceutical, retail and manufacturing sectors. Over past 8 years, we see a lot of consolidation in the Financial Services, which has led to a huge amount of IT consolidation and in many cases, migration.
We see that telecoms will be the next one who will start making decisions in this direction. Key is we are sector agnostic
Q: What has changed in mainframe market in past 10 years and how has this influenced on the request received from the market?
A: The profile of this market is raising. Hence there are also newcomers. Some we know, some we don’t. From my experience, the traditional guys, the guys with a historical evolution, these are the guys with the good solutions.
Cost constraints and cost transparency is a key driver and as we all know, organizations examine each Euro expenditure these days. This is one of our business, and we see a greater amount of activity on the market. Organizations should only talk to the vendors with a proven track record.
We see growth and as such we have focused on automating and simplifying product deployment, and have signed up more partners over recent years.
