One firm’s story: The mainframe goes, but Cobol stays behind

Posted by Mike on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 - 344 views

Owens & Minor moves Cobol-based ERP system to x86 server, Windows machines

A lot of Cobol-based applications have a plot line similar to the first Star Trek movie.

In it, the crew of the Enterprise discovers a huge, intelligent cloud they called “V’ger.” It turns out (plot spoiler alert), though, that V’ger was an unmanned spacecraft called Voyager that had been launched from Earth some 300 years earlier and then readapted by alien forces.

That Star Trek movie was released in 1979. The Cobol-based ERP application suite used by Owens & Minor Inc., a medical supply company, began its life in the 1980s as a packaged application. Over time, the company adapted the ERP software to meet its specific needs, creating a highly customized system with 10 million lines of code. (READ MORE)

Spike in jobless claims highlights system flaws

Posted by Mike on Wednesday, March 3, 2010 - 173 views

California got $66 million in federal funds in 2003, earmarked the money to upgrade its call center software and part of its antique, Cobol-based computerized payments system, yet failed to launch these upgrades until recently.

“Projects originally scheduled for completion in 2008 will not be completed until 2014,” said the Assembly report, blaming the delay on “errors in judgment … bad planning, multiple changes in procurement processes and contradictory decisions.” READ MORE