OCS Sports tees off on modernisation programme

Golf scoring firm saves £100,000 by keeping legacy systems

OCS Sports, which provides web-based scoring to golf tours across the world, is saving £100,000 by modernising rather than replacing its legacy IT systems.

OCS took over provision of web-based scoring from another company and faced the post-acquisition problem of managing huge amounts of data stored over many years in legacy systems.

It was faced with the option of rewriting all its legacy code or modernising its existing technology to exploit the value of the data and provide more efficient scoring.

OCS opted to utilise Micro Focus’ legacy extension technology to extend core legacy cobol systems to a Windows-based platform.

Micro Focus Net Express enabled OCS to develop a Windows interface and move from a character-based application to one that was web-based, meaning that now the applications have a modern look and feel.

The upgraded application is powered through deployment to hardware running Red Hat Linux using Micro Focus Application Server for Server Express.

‘With a 20 year development path, we inherited some extensive and complex software which we really did not want to have to rewrite,’ said managing director Peter Barber.

‘The web-based approach allowed us to retain or reuse 95 per cent of this code, which equates to a massive saving in time and effort, not just with the potential recoding issue but also the knowledge that the code was already tested and bug-free.

‘Since we installed it we have had absolutely no problems coping with demand on our public web server, which during live scoring at major events can reach 200 hits per second.’

What do you think? Email us at [email protected]

Further reading

Golf course prepares communications for The Open

Golf club maker gets suppliers swinging

Broadband Britain success story: Golf retailer targets £30,000 annual savings