BC2XI™ is Sisu Limited's unique migration service platform. BC2XI™ can be used to migrate from legacy middleware products- SAP Business Connector (BC), or certain versions of WebMethods - to SAP's strategic middelware platforms, SAP eXchange Infrastructure (XI) or SAP Process Integration (PI). Services provided by this platform are aimed at SAP customers who are considering upgrading their current BC / Webmethods integration projects to XI / PI, or at System Integrators who work with SAP customers.

BC2XI™ is a browser-based tool that allows the user to upload BC export files, use a wizard-like interface to view project data and select migration options, and finally download converted files for import into XI/PI. BC2XI™ makes conversion from BC to XI/PI fast, reliable, repeatable and cost-effective, saving around 80% of the cost of doing the same work manually.

History

Version 1 of BC2XI™ was released in mid-2005. Version 1 was used successfully both in Europe and North America. Use of BC2XI™ Version 1 was however limited to a small group of highly skilled BC and XI specialists due to the complexity of BC2XI™.

Version 2 has a number of new and enhanced features which aim at making the service more accessible to a wider base of users who may not necessarily be experts in both BC and XI (although some experience with these products is still necessary).

Main Features and enhancements

Some of the main features and enhancements of Version 2 are:

• Support for BC Services and functions

  BC2XI now supports an increased number of built-in BC functions and services. The service will also identify and list any functions and services which are not 'XI compatible' and suggests how to deal with them, if they are relevant for XI.

• BC Java mapping parser

  Custom Java BC mappings can be converted to XI Java mappings without the need for a separate wrapper using the BC2XI™ built-in language parser. In some cases it is even possible to choose between an XI Java, XSL or Graphical mapping.

• Versioning of migrations

  Each project can be migrated multiple times changing the type of maps that get generated as well as the structure of the resulting XI Business Process.

• Full dependency check of project

  Before starting the migration process the service will check that all referenced BC components have been uploaded with the master project.
  It will identify where references are made and if they can be resolved.

• ID enabling the BC project

  BC does not have a convenient way of identifying the maps and flow elements it contains which makes referring to them difficult in larger projects.
  The BC2XI service provides a solution for this by automatically associating an ID to each BC Flow & Map, and allowing the user to download the enhanced BC project to his/her BC development environment, in order to more easily associate the generated XI components to their corresponding BC components.

• Fully browser based

  BC2XI is offered as a Software As A Service solution. There is no requirement to install any software to use the service. The Migration Consultant simply uploads the Business Connector project with dependencies, follows the wizard-like migration process, then downloads the corresponding generated XI components and accompanying documentation from the results page.