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“The overall upgrade project was completed successfully on time and on budget. Unify | CipherSoft was definitely a positive component to the success of our project. Unify | CipherSoft conducted their work in a very professional manner, and provided excellent support to making our upgrade project a success. I would recommend Unify | CipherSoft for any future Oracle Forms upgrade work.”

Warren Shockey
Project Management Specialist

Customer Overview

Enbridge Pipelines Inc. owns and operates oil and natural gas distribution pipelines in Canada and the United States. The pipeline systems have operated for over 55 years and now comprise approximately 8,500 miles of pipeline, delivering more than 2 million barrels per day of crude oil and liquids. Enbridge is also involved in liquids marketing and international energy projects and has a growing involvement in the natural gas transmission and midstream businesses.

The company employs approximately 6,000 people in Canada and the United States. Enbridge Inc. common shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange in Canada and on the New York Stock Exchange in the U.S. under the symbol “ENB”.

Challenge

Enbridge’s Shipper Services application, built on Oracle Forms and Reports 6i, was no longer supported by Oracle. The Enbridge team researched vendors with expertise in upgrading Oracle Forms, requested each vendor to upgrade to specific sample Oracle Forms, interviewed each vendor with a specific set of evaluation questions, and evaluated and rated both the sample upgraded Forms and responses in the interviews. Vendor ability to conduct work off-site yet be effective to the project and flexible to the Enbridge timelines and schedule also had to be taken into consideration to close the deal.

Upgrading the Shipper Services application would prolong the life of the application until such time that it could be re-developed in subsequent stages to fit the business evolution path.

Enbridge’s primary objectives for upgrading to 10g include:

• Upgrading existing Oracle Forms and libraries from 6i to 10g
• Upgrading as seamlessly as possible so the look and feel would be retained and there would be no changes to the application functionality
• Upgrading the system would yield the same or better application performance

Enbridge looked at the option to upgrade Oracle Forms internally, as well as using third party vendors. An alternative was also considered to convert the Forms and Reports directly to a Java platform.

Solution

After careful analysis, Enbridge contracted Unify | CipherSoft to upgrade 157 Forms and 97 PLLs from 6i to 10g for the Shipper Services application. The new application maintained the previous look and feel without changes to application functionality but with an overall improved performance of data retrieval for both the Forms and reports.

To overcome any obstacles during the upgrade process, Unify | CipherSoft implemented issue management using shared JIRA access. Complex issues where screen sequence activities were required to view were dealt with well through the use of Webinar sessions.

The project took approximately six months to upgrade and implement, excluding the pilot and evaluation process conducted by Enbridge.

Why Unify | CipherSoft Won?

Upgrading Forms versus converting to Java was chosen mainly because of the allowable timeframe and available budget to get the project completed by Unify | CipherSoft.

Unify | CipherSoft was selected to perform the Upgrade for several reasons:

• Unify | CipherSoft also yielded the best rating in comparison to other vendors, offering a competitive rate, and a convenient location with accessible resources.
• Unify | CipherSoft’s knowledge and expertise in upgrading Forms efficiently and effectively.
• Unify | CipherSoft did not require Enbridge to purchase any additional licensing or tools for a one time upgrade conversion task - a key differentiator in the selection process.

Additionally, Unify | CipherSoft is the only company with a tool to convert upwards of 95% of the original Forms application, including all of the business logic, as well as the user presentation layer and the data access. The tool provides the choice to have the same look and feel of the original application, or to define a new GUI for the application.

Results

Enbridge and Unify | CipherSoft worked as a team to produce an effective result. All objectives were met and the project was completed in a timely manner. Since the project scope was a technology upgrade only, there was no change in application functionality.

The project’s metrics achieved include:

• Minimal impact to the business
• 10g application look and feel stayed comparable to 6i
• An overall improved system performance

Unify | CipherSoft accomplished the upgrade to web based Forms and reports, met the project schedule and targeted budget, and accomplished system stability and increased system performance. Enbridge now has a stable, supportable Shipper Services application which they rely on for daily business operations.