Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp. (AECC) run their business software on the IBM i platform, developed in RPG, CL, SQL, and PHP.  As part of a modernization initiative, AECC took the decision to move to Free Format RPG code, to reduce the learning curve for new developers, improve developer productivity and encourage code modularity.

Kody Robinson, a 2014 graduate and developer in the business financial systems (BFS) department, led the effort, and later that year AECC adopted ARCAD Transformer RPG (aka ARCAD RPG Converter for IBM i) to automate the conversion to Free Form.  With a 20-year age difference between Kody and other developers, the team found the knowledge exchange highly beneficial, combining strong business experience and the latest technology standards.

ARCAD Transformer RPG (aka ARCAD RPG Converter for IBM i) is used not only for conversion but as a learning tool.  Compared with the old fixed format coding, AECC found ARCAD Transformer RPG has increased productivity by over 50%.