Today, many companies are facing the
competitive pressures of providing and gathering information via the Internet.
The number of marketing oriented WEB sites has been increasing at a rapid pace.
Having a company "home page" or "marketing-oriented" web site is accepted
as a normal process.
Now the business of doing business
via the Internet has moved to the forefront. Quite often this will
require access to data and the coordination with processes of existing systems
and business applications. This will require a cooperative effort of
Internet and Mainframe resources
Companies want to include the
mainframe as a major player functioning in its traditional role and taking on
the new role of a very powerful server and large data base manager in an
Internet environment. In today's world it is not a lack of technology and
support but a question of what process, technology and support is required to
meet a company's unique business requirements. |
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Companies are now
seeking answers to the following questions.
| 1. |
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How is the gap between the Internet world
and the mainframe world minimized or eliminated? |
| 2. |
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Is it necessary to start from scratch or is it possible
to modify and build on existing mainframe processes and technologies? |
| 3. |
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Are tools available to accelerate the process of
building new information presentation components such as converting mainframe
screens (BMS or MFS) to HTML forms? |
| 4. |
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May the clients attach directly to the mainframe or
will an intermediate application server be required? |
| 5. |
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Will the mainframe application require modification or
is it practical to have the application server do the conversions required to
connect a client directly to a mainframe terminal based program? |
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