The result of a decade's worth of development work, if you count the Seer years, is RescueWare. The software takes a three-pronged approach to excavating the core business logic in legacy applications and using that for other purposes. The first step is what Relativity's director of product marketing, Mike Ferris, calls understanding. These maps, visual representations of each element of the application, can be navigated in the same way individuals use Microsoft Windows Explorer or a Visio diagram. The next phase is isolation.
Many legacy applications require users to step through several screens to complete one function.
Think of a data-entry clerk at an insurance company, for example, who must go through several layers of verification in order to enter standard information, such as a customer's name and address, on an electronic claims form. Typically, those layers of verification can be eliminated so all that's left is the screen where the relevant data is entered. This is important if companies are interested in letting users enter the information themselves via a Web site. If a company chooses to use the components on a Web site, some type of middleware connects the component to the mainframe for processing. Relativity's software works with enterprise application integration packages from vendors such as Active Software, which was recently acquired by webMethods, and CrossWorlds Software, as well as IBM's MQSeries and middleware packages from BEA Systems and Tibco Software.