[TriLUG] Unisys issue

[Bob Evans]

The flaw in their design was going from a big honking
UNIX box, with 900 dumb terminals(read SUPER thin
client) to their PowerBuilder Windows distributed
solution. 

In this app, fastest wins. The car dealer sends the
app to bank a, bank b, and GMAC. The first one back
with an approval wins. Speed is everything. 

Windows/PowerBuilder lost.

AIX/Progress DBMS won. 

 


--- Jon Carnes <jonc at nc.rr.com> wrote:

> 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
> 
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=====
Bob Evans        bobevans19 at yahoo.com   (read weekly...)              
alternate        reevans at bbandt.com     (read daily M-F) 
704 562-7166 (m)         
704 954-3415 (o)            
704-882-6214 (h)

There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.


		
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