Download Internet as an evolutionary tool of the information system

Intranet
As An Evolutionary Tool
Of The Information System
Intranet
As An Evolutionary Tool
Of The Information System
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Customers,
Salesforce,
Securities,
Investment Funds,
Portfolio Management,
Life Insurance,
MIS Reports,
Marketing,
General Accounting
WAN (Salesforce, Customers, Visitors)
WWW
TCP/IP
“Direct Access”
Firewall
Internet Servers
digital
AppleTalk
LAN
SNA
Gateway
MVS
Mainframe
digital
MVS
Mainframe
Access
Username
Check
(User NT)
Dynamic
PSW
Check
(Activcard)
Standard
Browsing
through URLs
CGI queue
handling,
up to DB server
answers
SAS Demon:
Validity check,
Data processing,
HTML answers
CGI queue handling
up to
DB server Answers,
PDF building
SAS Demon
Data search
(and link to the mainframe),
“rough” answer build-up
PDF pages
derived from
“rough” answer
digital
TSO Connection
through
“SAS Connect”
MVS
Mainframe
ISAPI connection
to 3270 sessions
and HTML answer
HTML conversion
of the display layout
by the
3270 Sessions Handler
Synchronization
between 3270 sessions
and Web requests
digital
LU 6.2 connections
through TN3270
(up to 256 sessions)
MVS
Mainframe
INTRANET AS AN EVOLUTIONARY TOOL OF THE INFORMATION
SYSTEM
by Giovanni Maio and Nucci Verderio
Finanza & Futuro – Gruppo Deutsche Bank
ABSTRACT
A financial company owning a full coverage legacy information system needs
defining an evolutionary path which can
• protect existing IT investments,
• spread the range of functions, and add new ones,
• simplify both access and use rules,
• increase the user base.
When used together, SAS and Internet technologies give a positive answer to all
of these requirements because they
• provide a multiplatform standard, backward compatible with all existing systems,
• ease the integration among mixed data or applications,
• simplify transfer and logistic problems,
• help building a user friendly interface.
In Finanza & Futuro, these guidelines have led to a new generation information
system, which includes all the functions needed by headquarters to perform all
standard operations and controls, and provides all sorts of data mining and detailed
analysis, as needed by sales forces throughout the country.
Such a system can also deliver custom-made informations and self-service
facilities to customers.
THE COMPANY
Finanza & Futuro was founded at the end of 1986 in Italy, and has grown up
since then developing and offering financial products and services aimed to the
retail market: these products and services include mutual funds, portfolio
management and life insurances, and are sold through a door to door salesforce.
In 1995 the company entered the Deutsche Bank group, and is now part of the
Asset Management Unit of the Bank. At the moment, the assets under management
exceed 14,000 billion Lire (7.23 billion WKH FRPSDQ\ KDV DERXW customers, and the salesforce counts more than 1,150 salespersons, with about
250 employees at the headquarter offices.
I.T. STATE OF THE ART AT PROJECT START-UP
The company processes all of its operations through a proprietary information
system, which handles customers, sales, tradings, mutual funds, portfolio
management, life insurances, reports, marketing, and accounting. This fully
integrated “legacy” system was developed in-house – using Cobol, DB2 and SAS –,
and was intended to support all operations and requirements as needed by the
headquarters offices. Service to the salesforce was also provided, mainly in the
form of reports which were distributed on a regular basis.
Following market requirements, an evolution of the system was therefore
needed, in order to allow each sales person to exactly reach the information they
might need, updating it as necessary and giving it the form which might best fit their
realtime requirements.
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A further evolution was also needed to provide the headquarters’ with a true
decision support system.
EVOLUTIONARY PLAN
Some rules have to be followed when planning the evolution of such a complex
information system:
• the previous IT investment is to be saved,
• new functionalities are to be implemented as improvements of the existing
system,
• a more friendy interface has to be made available,
• services must be provided to a wider audience.
At the same time, a strict control should be kept upon the information flow and
organization, in order to keep a tight IT structure and affordable costs. In that
perspective, the optimum solution is providing the user with top flexibility, while still
keeping a centralized approach to data processing, in order to minimize the
problems in logistics, synchronization and security areas, which are typical of any
classic client/server solution.
INTERNET AS THE BEST SOLUTION
Some of the above requirements might look conflicting, unless we adopt Internet
technologies.
Internet saves all the existing EDP services, while allowing new services to be
added, with a friendly interface and a multi-platform standard.
At the same time, thanks to TCP/IP standards on both Company’s LAN and
WAN, a wide variety of information can be shared, with seemigly no special
communication skill needed.
FINANZA & FUTURO’s INTRANET
SERVICES
The overall Finanza & Futuro information system appears to be one single
‘ipertext’ with a standard interface, and each user can only access those ‘areas’ and
‘pages’ which he is allowed to use under a strictly ‘need to know’ basis.
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The main services include:
‘static’ reports and communications, in the form of standard HTLM pages,
‘automatic’ reports, in the form of HTLM pages built by the computer as a
translation of standard batch printouts,
‘dynamic’ reports, in the form of HTLM pages built in realtime while answering to
Infocenter queries,
customers’ statements, built on demand as PDF reports with the last information
available,
terminal emulation, through a HTML Gateway to the mainframe,
electronic mail,
links to other sites.
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OUTPUT CHARACTERISTICS
Output (i.e., documents) can be divided in four main classes.
‘Static’ documents are built and updated by the people who are precisely
responsible for the information provided through that output: examples include
Company profile, Company products and services, Market reports and analysis,
Company orders or directions to personnel and saleforce, etc.
‘Automatic’ documents are built as automatic translations of datacenter outputs
whenever batch programs are executed: examples include daily and historical funds
evaluations, sales contests results, etc.
‘Dynamic’ documents are built on demand, as realtime answers to queries issued
by the users though selection masks: examples include customers’ selections and
status, sales results, etc.
‘Translated’ documents can have two forms:
1. HTML pages coming from system functions (an example is a CICS screen during
terminal emulation),
2. PDF printouts coming from HTML pages (an example is a customer statement)
PROBLEMS
Three areas need special attention and are strictly monitored:
• security,
• system architecture,
• “technological loneliness”.
NEXT STEPS
Three steps are currently given the top priority:
• the overall technological platform is being strengthen,
• the main Data Base server is being moved back to the mainframe, thanks to SAS
platform independence,
• more direct services are implemented and offered to the customer base.
USE OF SAS SYSTEM
SAS has been widely used when developing the company’s information system,
and has been a key factor to the success of the project.
The main areas where SAS has played its role are:
• data mining and data normalization in the mainframe, to feed the Infocenter
database,
• local update of the Infocenter database,
• development of the subsystem needed to build ‘automatic’ web pages,
• development of the multiuser subsystem needed to allow access to the
Infocenter, providing security controls, filters personalizations, drill down facilities,
and ipertextual links to relevant information both in the Infocenter and outside:
this subsystem can be splitted among different physical servers;
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• realtime link between the Infocenter and the mainframe DB2 DBMS, whenever
elementary data are to be examined.
Milano, May 5th, 1999.