From Green-Screen to Modern Web for One of America's Largest Industrial Distributors
Smart Data replaced Winsupply's IBM RPG-based order management with a modern Angular and Java web platform that gives customers self-service control over orders, supply chain visibility, and lost-sales metrics.
Client
Winsupply
Industry
Manufacturing
Timeline
6-8 month build
Project Overview
Winsupply's customers were managing their orders through a set of IBM RPG green-screen applications that had served the business reliably for years but were no longer fit for how customers wanted to work. The existing experience required customers to call in for tasks they should have been able to handle themselves: checking order status, adjusting quantities, reviewing shipment timing, looking at fulfillment metrics like lost sales.
Smart Data built a modern Angular and Java web platform that wraps Winsupply's existing RPG and DB2 systems with a self-service customer interface, with no rewrites or shadow databases.
Project Challenge
The pre-modernization customer workflow had four core problems holding the team back.
Customers had to call Winsupply for routine tasks like checking order status, adjusting quantities, or reviewing shipment timing
The IBM RPG green-screen interface couldn't be extended to mobile, tablets, or modern browsers
Customers had no self-service visibility into supply chain status or fulfillment metrics
The order-processing logic in RPG was working reliably and could not be disrupted by the modernization effort
Context: Winsupply needed a modern customer-facing front end that talked to the same systems of record their internal team relied on, without rebuilding the underlying order processing logic.
Project Approach
Smart Data partnered directly with Winsupply's product owner, UI/UX designer, systems architect, and a wider team of RPG and Java developers. Two Smart Data developers worked alongside Winsupply's internal team in a hybrid structure where RPG knowledge stayed on the Winsupply side and modern web stack delivery sat with Smart Data.
Key Implementation Highlights:
Wrapper architecture, not rewrite. DB2 stayed as the source of truth; Smart Data added a Java and Spring Boot service layer that surfaced order data through clean APIs
Angular front end built for desktop and mobile from a single codebase
Self-service customer interface for reviewing open orders, adjusting quantities, and checking fulfillment timing
Lost-sales metrics view surfacing missed revenue from out-of-stocks and fulfillment gaps, the same operational visibility Winsupply's internal teams already had
Clean DB2 integration via API endpoints reading and writing against the existing database with no shadow data
Jenkins-based CI/CD pipeline so the team could iterate without ceremony
Hybrid team coordination kept architectural decisions close to the people who would maintain the platform
The modernization preserved every system that already worked. The win wasn't replacement; it was wrapping proven RPG infrastructure with a modern customer-facing layer that talked to it through clean APIs.
Christopher Schrameck
VP – Information Technology Winsupply
"Winsupply has partnered with Smart Data to augment our software development teams for many years... Smart Data offers more than the typical staff augmentation or software development company. They go beyond just delivering our projects or expanding our teams. For Winsupply, they have gone above and beyond. Rather than just delivering our projects, their team has taken a step further by providing mentorship and training to our developer and project teams. We have a relatively mature SDLC methodology, but we continually work with Smart Data to tweak and get exposure to new ideas. Smart Data has facilitated workshops to expose our teams to alternative SDLC processes... We share problems and project solutions together to see if they can be applied for both of our customers. Smart Data is flexible and a good partner to work with when you’re trying to solve your company's unique business problems."
Project Results
The modernization delivered four operational improvements:
Replaced manual call volume with self-service customer order management
Gave customers direct visibility into supply chain status and fulfillment timing
Surfaced lost-sales metrics to customers, matching the operational visibility Winsupply's internal teams had
Preserved the existing RPG and DB2 stack, with no shadow data or sync drift
A small senior squad working closely with Winsupply's internal team produced a modernization that extended customer experience without disrupting the systems that already ran the business.
Key Technologies
Java, Spring Boot, Angular, IBM DB2, and Jenkins.
