Case Study Summary
When Db2 Web Query support was pulled, Frost King was forced to rebuild hundreds of reports built up over years of running the business on IBM i. After demos from five or six vendors, they chose m-Power as their Web Query replacement. m-Power provided the capabilities found in Web Query, the ability to build reports quickly, and a full development platform that went beyond reporting.
Results
Built well over a hundred reports in-house after a services jump-start, becoming self-sufficient on the platform.
Cut over gradually with a report-by-report toggle, never disrupting production or scheduled jobs.
Went beyond reporting into data management, letting business users update their own data and offloading work from IT.
That's one of the things that convinced me that mrc can get this done. I sent a simple report as part of the demo, and you guys got it done in an hour. That was pretty impressive.
Full Case Study
Who is Frost King
Frost King is a New Jersey-based manufacturer of home weatherization and insulation products. The brand is widely known for DIY energy-saving essentials like window insulation kits, door sweeps, pipe insulation, and draft stoppers designed to keep homes warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
What happened when Web Query went away
Frost King runs the business on IBM i, and up until recently, used Db2 Web Query for the reporting side.
When support for Db2 Web Query was pulled, Frost King ran into the same problem hitting Web Query shops across the IBM i world.
The team had built up hundreds of Web Query reports over years of running the business. The reports tracked orders, shipments, and internal errors that needed IT's attention. Many combined ERP data with warehouse management data. Now, all of it would need to be rebuilt on something else.
"All of a sudden, they pulled the rug out from underneath it, saying it's no longer getting supported," says Jeff Adler, CIO of Frost King.
The evaluation
That's one of the things that convinced me that mrc can get this done. I sent a simple report as part of the demo, and you guys got it done in an hour. That was pretty impressive.
Jeff and his team looked at five or six vendors and got demos from all of them. After seeing mrc's demo, Jeff felt it was the best fit for the replacement.
Two things drove that decision. First, m-Power could do what they needed. It generated the reports they needed, in HTML and Excel, the same formats Web Query had been giving them. But what really pushed it over the hump was speed.
As part of the demo, Jeff sent the mrc services team a sample report from his environment and asked them to convert it. They sent it back in about an hour.
"That's one of the things that convinced me that mrc can get this done," Jeff says. "I sent a simple report as part of the demo, and you guys got it done in an hour. That was pretty impressive."
Converting hundreds of reports, with a jump-start from services
With hundreds of reports to migrate, Frost King didn't want a cold start. Jeff and one of his analysts went through m-Power training, while mrc's services team kicked off the conversion work in parallel.
From there, the work moved in a tight loop. Frost King handed over the Db2 Web Query source code, mrc's services team delivered m-Power versions back, and the two sides traded samples until each report was ready.
This also included a large set of reports generated through their batch processes. Frost King was able to produce these reports in HTML, Excel, and PDF formats and automatically email them to internal and external recipients.
The further they got into the project, the more of the work Frost King's team took on themselves. "Eventually, we developed enough knowledge that we were able to do a lot of these reports ourselves," says Jeff.
By the time of this interview, Jeff and his team had built well over a hundred reports on their own, on top of what the services team delivered. Services gave them the running start, and Frost King's team took it from there.
Migrating gradually, without breaking production
That's how m-Power is built to work. It plugs into the systems and processes our customers already have and works the way they're already working.
Frost King had built years of automation around their Web Query reports. Hundreds of scheduled jobs ran through their job scheduler, feeding users across the business. m-Power had to fit into that existing flow, not replace it.
During the conversion, that meant m-Power reports must run alongside the existing Web Query reports. A big-bang cutover would have been risky.
So, Jeff built a smart staging pattern that let him convert reports gradually. Frost King uses ILE RPG programs to run their reports, so he added a check in each one to see whether that report had been rebuilt in m-Power yet. If it had, the program runs the m-Power version. If not, it runs the Db2 Web Query version like before.
That meant Jeff could rebuild reports in m-Power at his own pace. As each one was converted, the RPG check picked it up and started routing to the new version automatically.
"I was able to go back and forth pretty easily," Jeff says. "If I ever have to go back, I can go back, assuming Db2 is still running."
The existing scheduled jobs didn't need to change, and users kept getting their reports, either from m-Power or Web Query. Frost King could migrate one report at a time, on their own timeline, with rollback always available.
"That's how m-Power is built to work," says Rick Hurckes, Director of Services at mrc. "It plugs into the systems and processes our customers already have and works the way they're already working."
More than a Web Query replacement
Web Query was a reporting tool. m-Power is a full development platform. It can handle everything Web Query offered, and a lot more.
Frost King has started taking it beyond the realm of reporting and into data management. They're creating m-Power maintainers (database CRUD applications) to let business users update their own tables. If a department needs to manage data, Frost King's IT team can quickly create an application with m-Power and deliver it to the department.
In addition, Frost King developed several maintainers with additional validation and referential integrity defined within it.
For example, the purchasing department now updates the company's tariff table on its own. When a rate changes, they can use the application to update it themselves without help from IT.
"We try to offload what IT does as much as possible," Jeff says. "For the most part, if it's a simple table file, we'll create a maintainer for it. It's quick. It's easy."
m-Power reports also plug into Frost King's own applications. A user reviewing today's orders in an m-Power report can click an order number and open the existing order inquiry screen the team built years ago. Item lookups work the same way.
AI is next on Jeff's list. His team is already exploring it for some additional internal IT work and AI integration, and he's watching for what m-Power brings. "I would like to see what capabilities you have regarding AI coming up," he says.
Where they are now
I would recommend you guys. I mean that not just to make you feel good. I say that sincerely. We're happy.
Frost King has converted the bulk of their hundreds of Web Query reports, with the last batch of month-end work in flight. The daily reporting is fully on m-Power. The toggle pattern is still in place for safety.
For anyone sitting where Frost King was two years ago, Jeff's recommendation is unambiguous. "I would recommend you guys. I mean that not just to make you feel good. I say that sincerely. We're happy."