Software and Management Associates (SMA) Joins the Mainframe Migration Alliance; SMA's OpCon/xps Opens the Door for Migration of Complex Job Sch

Houston, TX (PRWEB) November 7, 2006 -- Software and Management Associates (SMA) announced today that it has become a partner in the Mainframe Migration Alliance (MMA), joining Microsoft Corp. and other key industry partners to help companies migrate mission-critical enterprise applications from their proprietary mainframe computers onto smaller, flexible and cost-effective systems running Microsoft Windows Server 2003.

Using Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft .NET technology, the MMA helps businesses migrate their applications to the Windows platform, permitting them to benefit from flexible and open systems.

In announcing SMA's participation in the alliance Michael Taylor, SMA's President, said:

"Today's successful businesses are looking at the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) in their IT department. Moving their Mainframe Legacy systems to a flexible and efficient system is crucial to their success. Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) understood this. They have been able to leverage their mainframe software, personnel assets, and OpCon/xps throughout their migration to the Windows platform, UNIX and SAP. OpCon/xps provided the ability to efficiently automate business and IT processes from an easy to use Windows graphical user interface. This advanced technology has enabled BCM to improve their business process and keep their costs low without losing valuable personnel. OpCon/xps is a key tool that gives BCM the ability to effectively manage their TCO as technology changes in support of their IT goals."

OpCon/xps easily works in concert with products from many other MMA partners to facilitate partial or complete migration from mainframe systems without the need to rearchitect the batch processing, exception handling and availability management in the original environment. OpCon/xps also provides tools that are useful in automating and coordinating tasks residing on Windows-based servers or on many other operating platforms that may play a role in application requirements.

OpCon/xps, SMA's flagship product, manages the activities of more than 20 different operating environments from several supported Windows Server environments. This effectively allows a company's staff to manage old or new applications without retraining or significantly changing applications cut over from one system to another. "Our customers have relied on SMA's products to keep their systems running smoothly for over 26 years regardless of platform, complexity or volume. We expect this alliance will help open doors for many new customers to join our loyal Fan Club," said Michael Taylor.

"We welcome Software and Management Associates (SMA) to the Mainframe Migration Alliance," said Spyros Sakellariadis, director, Mainframe Alliance Program at Microsoft Corp. "With SMA's deep industry knowledge and support for solutions from other MMA members, we are confident they will provide value to the MMA as well as our mutual customers looking to migrate to the more flexible Windows platform."

About Software and Management Associates
SMA provides enterprise automation solutions to business and governmental clients worldwide. SMA was the first company to provide advanced scheduling solutions for both the Unisys and Microsoft markets. Today, the company leads the world in cross-platform automation; no one supports more platforms, operating systems and applications than SMA. SMA OpCon/xps (cross-platform solution) is a fast, flexible way to automate and control a wide range of IT and business processes that reside on one or many diverse platforms.

The company, headquartered in Houston, Texas USA, is 26 years old and privately held. It supports a global, blue chip client list from offices in the U.S., Europe and Asia. SMA has been a Microsoft Business Partner since introducing OpCon/xps on a Windows platform over 10 years ago. Additional information about SMA can be found at www.smausa.com.

About the Mainframe Migration Alliance
Formed in spring 2003, the Mainframe Migration Alliance is comprised of software vendors and service providers focused on enabling mainframe customers to meet the challenges posed by legacy application environments, including the pressures to reduce IT costs and increase the flexibility in IT systems. Additional information about the alliance can be found at: www.mainframemigration.org.

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