Tesco plc has announced it has selected Micro Focus, a leader in enterprise application modernization solutions to support the growth of its international operations.
Micro Focus will modernise and extend the retailer's supply chain management, as part of Tesco's plans to expand into the US. The system will be rolled out in Tesco's California data center, when it launches its first US store later in the year.
The application will be future-proofed against any changes that Tesco may face as its operations continue to expand globally. Not only will the modernized application be ready for the imminent US launch, but it will also be seamlessly deployed in each of Tesco's current data centers across the globe. The move will also yield considerable savings for Tesco, as it will be able to use its existing servers and will be able to avoid investing in additional support for their international operations.
Micro Focus will enable Tesco to modernize and extend its unique Continuous Replenishment (CR) application to run on the latest IBM┬« System pÔäó servers running AIX┬« UNIX┬« in addition to its IBM System zÔäó mainframe running z/OS┬«. Micro Focus software will be used to create a port for the COBOL-based CR application to AIX. This will allow Tesco to maintain a single source stream for both the mainframe and UNIX versions of the application, ensuring future enhancements to the UK-based high powered mainframe application are rolled out seamlessly to all international countries on the existing IBM System p servers in a cost-effective manner. The extension to System p servers and Open CR solves the problem of providing right-sized processing power to countries like Turkey, where Tesco's data center in Izmir currently supports eight Turkish hypermarkets.