SRA, Jacada form legacy alliance

Federal agencies looking to extend the life of their legacy systems can now call on the combined expertise of Jacada Ltd. and SRA International Inc. for help.

SRA announced Monday that it would use Jacada's legacy extension tools in its newly created Systems Transformation Center of Excellence. Jacada specializes in modernizing mainframe computer systems with electronic business and wireless applications.

Under the agreement, the two companies will jointly deliver e-business solutions, consulting and training to SRA's federal clients that have large investments in mainframe systems and applications, said Pat Burke, SRA's deputy director of command, control, communications and intelligence.

No financial terms or time limits are associated with the alliance, which was about nine months in the making, said Burke, who also is vice president in charge of the Systems Transformation Center of Excellence.

The partnership will focus on integrating and modernizing disparate systems that must maintain flexibility to adapt to an agency's changing business and mission requirements, Burke said. SRA's federal customers include the Defense Department, the General Services Administration and the Small Business Administration.

"We've talked to agencies before, and any federal government agency with a large mainframe environment are targets of opportunity," he said. Burke would not name any specific agencies, but he said the alliance is for those "that are happy with the functionality with their mainframes and looking to Web-enable them, and Jacada's tools are good at doing that."

Atlanta-based Jacada provides software that Web-enables legacy applications and business systems. The company's federal customers include the departments of Labor and Interior.

Using a thin-client architecture, Jacada technology extends mission-critical applications to users via secure intranets and a graphical interface that is designed to improve application workflow and end-user productivity.