From 20-Year Legacy Code to
Cloud-Native:
How One FMCG Giant
Transformed 16 COBOL Applications
in 12 Months
Executive Summary
A leading FMCG company successfully migrated 16 legacy COBOL mainframe applications to modern cloud-native architecture, eliminating costly mainframe dependencies while enabling real-time processing for retail sales, inventory management, and supply chain operations.
The transformation leveraged Generative AI tools to accelerate development and reduce manual analysis effort.
Client Overview
The client is a prominent FMCG organization managing complex retail operations, including sales processing, inventory reconciliation, stock
replenishment, and financial posting across multiple distribution channels and retail partners.
Their earlier tech stack included:
16
5TB
Volume
20+
System
Executive Summary
A leading manufacturer of agricultural chemicals, vitamins, and biochemical derivatives faced major inefficiencies in its import operations, lacking product tracking, struggling with inventory expiry, and incurring $150,000–$200,000/month in container rental fees.
Previously dependent on basic tools like Primavera, the company partnered with A5E Consulting to implement SAP S/4HANA. The solution streamlined the entire import lifecycle, from purchase orders to warehouse delivery, enabling complete traceability, a 50% reduction in manpower, and elimination of demurrage through automated alerts and FIFO inventory management.
Client Overview
The Business Challenge
The client’s 20+ year-old mainframe
infrastructure was becoming increasingly costly
and inflexible, hampering the company’s ability to
compete in the FMCG market.
Legacy Infrastructure Constraints
Expensive COBOL-based mainframe systems with increasing Broadcom licensing costs were draining IT budgets while limiting development agility and making it difficult to attract modern development talent.
Integration Complexity
Daily financial operations, including bank reconciliation, invoice processing, and payment tracking, required 8 hours of manual work from finance staff, with a high risk of human error.
Operational Inefficiencies
Temperature-sensitive injections and medicines required refrigerated transport, but the company lacked systematic planning to ensure products were assigned to appropriate vehicles, leading to product spoilage and quality issues.
A5E’s Approach & Solution
- A comprehensive asset inventory was conducted using Amazon Q and Claude to analyze 5,000+ COBOL, PL/I, and JCL files per application.
- The team conducted extensive SME interviews to capture undocumented business logic and created detailed migration roadmaps with risk assessments and rollback strategies.
- Microservices were developed parallely using GitHub Copilot for code generation, implementing Java Spring Boot, Node.js, and Python services.
- The data migration was executed using enterprise tools including AWS DMS and Qlik Replicate to move 5TB of data from DB2 to PostgreSQL.
- The team completed a comprehensive CI/CD pipeline implementation with automated testing, quality gates, and deployment orchestration.
Key Solution Features
A5E’s Approach & Solution
Key Outcomes & Business Impact
A5E’s Approach & Solution
Key Outcomes & Business Impact
Technology Stack Transformation
| Legacy Stack | COBOL batch jobs, DB2 database, Sterling File Gateway, manual processes |
| Modern Backend | Java Spring Boot, Node.js, Python microservices with AWS Lambda & ECS |
| Database Layer | Amazon RDS (PostgresSQL/MySQL) replacing mainframe DB2 |
| User Interface | React dashboards replacing terminal-based CICS interfaces |
| API & Integration | AWS API Gateway, EventBridge, Kafka for real-time processing |
| GenAI Tools | Amazon Q, GitHub Copilot, Claude for development acceleration |
Key Outcomes & Business Impact
About A5E Consulting
A5E is a global consulting company partnering with clients to chart, build and deliver their Digital Transformation journey. We execute a blend of expert process consulting services and top-tier technology platforms at organizations making them more agile.
Discover how A5E’s expertise in generative AI consulting can enhance your services. Contact us today!
Feel Free To Contact Us
Related Case Studies
Explore the seamless integration and unparalleled capabilities of SAP S/4HANA, empowering us to navigate complexities, enhance agility, and achieve unparalleled operational efficiency in landscape of beverage manufacturing in the MENA region.
A fast-growing translation technology company was hitting scalability limits. Its “Uber for Translators” model still relied heavily on human interpreters—driving up costs and slowing real-time communication. With over 200 languages supported, the company needed a breakthrough to stay competitive.
A5E Consulting partnered with the client to reimagine its translation platform using generative AI. By combining LLM-based translation with optional human oversight, the team built a hybrid system capable of delivering 95%+ accuracy at a fraction of the cost. Legacy issues—like handling gender nuance, cultural context, and fragmented inputs—were addressed through custom model tuning and a centralized “Model Context Protocol.”
The result was nothing short of amazing. What previously cost $1.50/min now became a flat monthly fee under $100. Customers could engage in multilingual conversations, access AI-based proofreading, and rely on seamless real-time interpretation across devices—all through a simple QR-based interface.
Key Outcomes:
- 95%+ translation accuracy
- 400ms average response time (60%+ faster)
- 60%+ reduction in customer costs
- Real-time access to 200+ languages
Discover how A5E helped this global language tech company with GenAI.
Download the case study to learn more.