Evolution Support

One of the main benefits of using open-source software is the ability to improve and extend the environment, to adapt it so it best fits the needs of its users.

Perimeter of Evolution Support

We provide Evolution Support on every open-source component of the GnuCOBOL ecosystem, in particular:

• The GnuCOBOL compiler;
• The Contributions to the GnuCOBOL compiler distribution, such as GCSort ;
• The tools in the SuperBOL toolbox;
• Every project often used with GnuCOBOL, such as the database environment GixSQL, or debugging tools.

Description of Evolution Support

An Evolution Support contract typically follows the following steps:

• Discussion to specify the needs and the corresponding improvements to be performed;
• Estimation of the time needed for the development. If the time cannot be easily estimated, the work is divided into several short sprints, whose goals can be modified during the developments depending on progress;
• Contractualization ;
• Development of improvements, most of the time on a Github fork of the project so that it can be easily monitored;
• Delivery of the improved software and/or upstreaming of modifications to the original project. Upstreaming takes more time in general, but has the benefit of not having to maintain a fork of the project.

Examples of Contributions

We provide here some examples of typical contributions that we could do:

• Addition or extension of a specific dialect to the GnuCOBOL compiler, so that no code modification is required during a migration. For example, we added the GCOS dialect to GnuCOBOL in the past for one of our customers.
• Improvements of tools in the ecosystem. As an example, we improved the handling the collating sequences in GCSort so it better handles files with EBCDIC characters.
• Development of a COBOL code analyzer, for example to easily check that CALLs always use the correct number of arguments and memory size when calling C functions.

Commercial Support

Perimeter of Commercial Support

We provide Commercial Support on every open-source component of the GnuCOBOL ecosystem, in particular:

• The GnuCOBOL compiler;
• The contributions to the compiler distribution, such as GCSort;
• The tools in the SuperBOL toolbox;
• Every project that is often used in combination with GnuCOBOL, such as the database environment GixSQL, or debugging tools;

Description of Commercial Support (LTS)

This support is a yearly contract, where we provide our expertise on the open-source tools around GnuCOBOL to our customers. We reply to:

• Questions about the use or behavior of the tools;
• Bugs found in the tools, for which we provide fixes or workarounds;

Questions and issues can be submitted by email or on a web bug tracker. We follow a best-effort policy to reply in a maximum delay of one business day.

Cost of Commercial Support

The Cost of this support depends on the size of the team, on the size of the application, and on the current state of the application (application undergoing modernization, or in production). Contact us for more details.

Final User Support

Final User Support can be used by users of COBOL software provided by software companies that already provide a good quality support on their software, to get an additionnal support, often for regulation reasons, on the GnuCOBOL compiler.

Perimeter of the Final User Support

By default, this support is limited to bugs found in the GnuCOBOL compiler only, for which a fix or a workaround are provided in a maximum delay during business hours. An extension to additional tools or for shorter delays can be negociated.

Cost Units of the Final User Support

The cost of this support depends on the current phase of the application:

• During the Migration or Installation phase, the Cost Unit is the number of Targets (distinct hardware platforms and Operating Systems) aimed at by the migration;

• During the Production phase, when the application is actually used, the Cost Unit is the number of Machines executing the application, which can be Production machines or Recovery machines (for hot replacement in case of crash);

Cost of the Final User Support

The cost of this support (excl. taxes) for business hours is:

• 5000 EUR/year per Machine in Production;
• 3000 EUR/year per Machine for Recovery;
• 3000 EUR HT/year per Migration Target.

A full 24/24 7/7 support can be provided on a per-customer basis.