Case Study: Leading Independent Distributor achieves modernized COBOL development and real-time relational data access with OpenText

Visual COBOL and Relativity modernize application development with new tools and real-time, relational access to COBOL data

This independent North American distributor (170 employees, multiple locations) runs nearly all operations on COBOL—handling orders, inventory (200,000+ items), accounting and shipping—supported by more than 1,000 programs and 1.7M LOC. The IT team faced limitations from legacy tools (24x80 screens, vi editor) and ODBC-based snapshot reporting, and needed a modern IDE and real-time, relational access to COBOL data while preserving a 25-year investment and attracting new developers.

They adopted Micro Focus Visual COBOL for Eclipse and Relativity, with consultant-led onboarding and integration to Microsoft source control. Visual COBOL delivered advanced editing, debugging and faster deployments, while Relativity provided real-time SQL access to COBOL files for reporting without replication. The result: improved developer productivity and code visibility, a more user‑friendly GUI, faster response to change requests, and modernized, real-time data access.