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San Antonio-based SWBC chose ASNA to solve its RPG programmer challenge
San Antonio, July 9th, 2026: ASNA today announced the successful completion of migrating SWBC’s business-critical IBM i RPG application to Microsoft .NET using ASNA Monarch.
Based in San Antonio, SWBC is a 50-year-old company with 2,300 employees. It provides a comprehensive suite of financial and insurance services in all 50 states in the US. Over the last 20 years, in-house RPG programmers customized an IBM i RPG application that does very critical, bespoke operations for an important SWBC business unit. This application serves as a cornerstone for the business unit that relies heavily on its unique functionality.
While RPG has been the primary language for the IBM i platform since its inception, the pool of qualified RPG programmers is shrinking as many reach retirement age. Facing this talent shortage, SWBC sought a strategic solution to ensure the long-term viability and evolution of its software assets.
SWBC chose ASNA Monarch to migrate its customized application to the .NET framework. The phased strategy involved first migrating the one-million-line application to ASNA Encore RPG (an RPG-like language for .NET), with a roadmap to eventually convert the code to C#. As part of the transition, the database was migrated to Microsoft SQL Server. This move effectively solved the talent availability issue while providing a modern, extensible platform.
Says Keith Weekley, SWBC’s Director of Applications Development, “I knew that a migration would be challenging, but I also knew that it would serve the business best for the future. Migrating the applications to the Microsoft .NET platform will extend the life of the application, make it easier to find programming talent in the future, and reduce the operating cost of the applications.”
Beyond its extensive migration capabilities, Monarch also offers superb analytical tools to evaluate the existing application so that a good migration plan can be established. Monarch is designed to identify “hidden” migration challenges—such as missing source code, obsolete objects, and third-party dependencies—allowing for a resolution plan before the migration begins.
About the finished project, Weekley concludes, “We are very pleased with our newly migrated Monarch application. This represents an important first step in preparing to avoid an RPG programming resource gap. By retaining the code in RPG, our current programming staff can continue to develop and maintain the application while we prepare for a quick transition to C#. This approach helps ensure the long-term viability of the application.”
Read a detailed case study about this SWBC migration project.
About ASNA
ASNA has provided innovative enterprise computing solutions for the IBM midrange community since 1982. Headquartered in San Antonio since the mid-90s, with additional offices in Spain, ASNA specializes in the modernization and migration of IBM midrange RPG applications. ASNA offers a full suite of integrated software and services designed to maximize the value of IBM i RPG assets.