[TriLUG] Unisys issue

[Jon Carnes]

On Fri, 2004-08-20 at 04:58, Bob Evans wrote:
> Well, from '96 to '99 I worked at a large bank in
> charlotte, nc, that ran a "green screen" unix app with
> 750-900 users, hooks into Carmax, 3 credit bureaus,
> data entry in El Paso(actually into Mexico but dont
> say I said that), and they hated it, too. Ran faster
> than a beast, but they wan't a Wintel solution. 
> 
> They used it for dealer loans. Dealer loan is where
> you get your car finaced at the dealership, as opposed
> to a direct loan, where you go to your bank branch 1st
> and cut a check.
> 
> Anyway, this thing ran 24x7, with an average turn
> around time for a loan application of under 5 minutes.
> 
> Today they are in beta 13 of the Wintel solution.
> Average time for a loan app: 45 minutes. That bank is
> fast losing the dealer loan market because they
> thought the green screens were ugly...
> 
> And before you ask, yes, I said I could screen-scrape
> the green screens to either a web app or windows, for
> next to nothing, but they said thanks, no thanks, kept
> me on for 6 months & a $10K stay bonus, and opted for
> the modern solution.
> 

One thing that is apparent from the proliferation of Windows in this
world: the world doesn't beat a path to your door because you *have* a
better mouse trap; it beats a path to your door because they *believe*
you have a better mouse trap.

To paraphrase a good friend of mine, Appearance becomes their Reality. 

There is no reason that the windows app should take longer. Most of the
processing should occur on the back-end systems. A few database lookups,
some comparison's of values, and then the raw data should come spewing
back to the Wintel box.

Anybody can build a crappy database or lousy interconnects (especially
if they put all their money into the front-end of the application).

Jon