Case study

Modernizing Core Systems With Rocket® Enterprise Server™ 

Visma Enterprise Hero

Visma Enterprise, a leading HR and payroll solutions provider, needed to evolve its infrastructure to deliver exceptional service for its 250,000 users. To achieve greater flexibility and scalability, the company modernized its environment. Here’s how Rocket® Enterprise Server provided the foundation.

Challenge

The company’s COBOL-based application caused operational bottlenecks. Manual CI/CD pipelines and monthly deployments limited engineering performance, delayed new features, and hindered developer recruitment.

Solution

Visma Enterprise used Rocket Enterprise Server for a phased replatforming of its mainframe applications to the public cloud. This enabled them to update dependencies, automate CI/CD, and migrate COBOL to AWS in nine months.

Results

Migration cut infrastructure costs by 50% and accelerated software releases from monthly to multiple times weekly. Developer engagement also rose by 64%, empowering teams with full code and infrastructure ownership.

Jesper Plantener

Rocket® Enterprise Server enabled us to modernize our entire development environment. Replatforming our payroll application in AWS without changing our COBOL code was the fastest way to do the migration while minimizing the risk of logical application issues.” 

Jesper Plantener Chief Architect Visma Enterprise

Company

Industry: Information Technology and Services

A subsidiary of Visma Group, Visma Enterprise Denmark provides HR and payroll solutions for the enterprise market. The company digitizes and streamlines people administration for over 1,500 employers and 250,000 citizens.

Challenge

Visma Enterprise faced bottlenecks that delayed software deployments, slowed developers, and hindered its ability to attract top talent.

Visma Enterprise faced challenges with a 50-year-old COBOL-based system, limiting operations and slowing progress. Software deployments occurred monthly, requiring downtime and significant manual effort, which increased workflow delays and error risks. This approach made it harder to meet market demands and attract modern tech talent, falling short of client expectations.

 

Solution

Visma Enterprise migrated its COBOL environment using Rocket Enterprise Server, enabling its long-term modernization journey toward a cloud-hosted operating model.

To modernize and mitigate risk, Visma Enterprise partnered with Rocket Software and AWS to replatform its applications to the public cloud. By initially preserving the COBOL code, the team could immediately update dependencies and adopt cloud CI/CD pipeline automation. The phased migration — which moved the database to Microsoft SQL Server, automated CI/CD pipelines, and shifted COBOL code to AWS — was completed in just nine months.

Results

Migrating to Rocket Enterprise Server cut infrastructure costs, sped up deployments, and boosted developer engagement and ownership.

Visma Enterprise halved infrastructure costs by migrating from mainframe to Rocket Enterprise Server, allowing reinvestment in further modernization. Automated CI/CD pipelines significantly reduced human error and improved monitoring, accelerating issue resolution. Software releases are now weekly, not monthly. This transformation empowered developers with full code and infrastructure ownership, improving work quality and boosting employee engagement from 45 to 74, a 64% increase.

Get Started with Rocket Enterprise Suite

Ready to transform your infrastructure and boost employee engagement like Visma Enterprise? Take your first step toward modernization today. Explore our resources, connect with our team, and let us help you achieve your goals with innovative solutions and expert guidance.

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