Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Computers COBOL COBOL In the summer of 1998, St Louis Public Schools ( SLPS ) chose to convert form it's IBM System/390 mainframe to a client server environment. Not only was the SLPS affected but the Public School Retirement System ( PSRS ) was also affected since they use their mainframe system. PSRS started looking for a solution for their processing requirements. They were debating on weather to obtain an existing package to replace their system If they did would the be able to convert it to support how they run their business, or would they have to change how they conduct business to match the new software. They were also confused as to what new equipment might have to be purchased since they currently were running on older standalone workstations without a server. The organization decided to purchase new workstations, a server, a high-speed networked laser printer and Windows/2000 workstation and server components. Due to the organizations small size they elected to hire two contract software engineers to assist in the conversion, as well as process year end systems. The company also had to select a programming language, they decided on COBOL, the SLPS had a free copy of Micro Focus Net Express COBOL called the University Edition. It is available for schools to utilize in a classroom situation. The software was reviewed, it was decided that it would be adequate for their needs. It had features necessary to satisfy the requirements. Net Express is a Windows based product that is extremely powerful. That mainframe COBOL code formed the basis of the conversion, The conversion consisted mostly of modifying select statements, CICS code, some program calls to mainframe support routines, 'compare' statements also had to be checked for sequence problems ensuring that a mainframe 'if' statements of 'equal to' or 'greater than' were still valid for an ASCII based environment. The company found Downloading software and data files from the mainframe relatively easy, they used a mainframe access program called “Extra!” Packed fields were unpacked on the mainframe, downloaded to the server, and repacked if necessary. After the conversion took place the next task was to conduct year-end processing. This involved many tasks for the organizations, including; closing out of last year's business, income tax, providing information to our retirees, allowing for Open Enrollment for various insurance plans, and providing data to our actuarial firm to assist in funding and benefit decisions. The initial end-of-year closeout was completed by the end of March, with normal anticipated close in future years by the end of January. The company feels that there are many advantages to the current system. Some are that it is easier to maintain with one language and one compiler. When completed, the system will be user friendly with context sensitive help screens. As well as the fact that users have instant access to data and most updates are instantaneous allowing the user to see the changes that have been made. The article is an illustrates just how important it is have knowledge of and understand old technology to be able to upgrade to new technology efficiently. One of the contract programmers the company had hired had been providing the company all IT services fro the past twenty years. “This programmer assisted with the conversion and his knowledge was extremely helpful.” This exemplifies how vital backward compatibility is. Technology is a science like economics in the sense that history allows you to help forecast future predictions. I feel that the upgrade that the company chose to make was a very wise choice, it came with many advantages. All of these advantages were time saving, and in the business world efficiency is crucial for success. During the conversion the company also elected to change the way they print labels and letter. As opposed to printing themon the LAN printer like that had done before on the Mainframe printer, the company now e-mails these files to a local service house for printing, stuffing and mailing. This was a time saving decision it “relieved a lot of work on the already small staff”. For the future the company intends to create a web site with a link to their COBOL code, this will allow employees to log on and determine benefit scenarios for the time of retirement. They are hoping that this would considerably decrease the number of phone calls that are recieves from retirees and other employees, thus allowing the staff to perform normal duties. This is again a time saving strategy, again making business run more efficiently. This seems to be the obvious reason for the company’s upgrade. Bibliography: Word Count: 795
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