"Already we are seeing significant advantages from the software conversion, for example, programs that previously would take seven hours to complete a process, now only take 70 minutes," Powell said.

"On average there has been a 76 percent reduction in the time it takes to run the converted programs and in the future this will save on technology investments, batch processing windows and backups."

Mergilent's founder and managing director, Armen Grigorian said the new Easytrieve and Micro Focus COBOL conversion toolset will put Melbourne on the global stage.

"Our automated toolset is a huge step forward in bringing multiple software sources into one. It is a highly desirable and exportable service for today's computer dependant businesses," Grigorian said.

"HBA have already started to show a return on their investment, one that will filter through to the valuable services they provide for their customers."