Candle's Consulting and Services Group Accelerates Car Finance Application Processing at Irish Permanent
4 November 1997
Candle's Consulting and Services Group Accelerates Car Finance Application Processing at Irish Permanent
SANTA MONICA, Calif., Nov. 4 -- Candle Corporation, a leading
independent developer and supplier of Solutions for Networked Businesses(TM),
today announced that Irish Permanent Bank has relied on its Candle Consulting
and Services to help the company's finance division implement middleware
solutions in an effort to improve the time it takes to process finance
applications of car buyers.
The obstacle that Irish Permanent Bank needed to overcome in order to
increase the efficiency of processing credit applications was tying together
two disparate bank applications running on different platforms. This would
eliminate the need of faxing information and re-inputting it into one system
or the other. The branch systems were CICS-based applications running on an
MVS mainframe, while the car finance systems are progress-based and running on
a UNIX server. To link the two application systems together, Irish Permanent
implemented MQSeries for MVS/ESA on the mainframe, and to link to the UNIX
server, MQSeries for OS/2 was installed. (MQSeries was not required for the
UNIX platform as the OS/2 server acts as the gateway.)
To help implement this solution, Irish Permanent called on the consulting
expertise of Candle's Consulting and Services group. Irish Permanent was
already familiar with the high quality and reliability of Candle's solutions,
having long been a user of the company's OMEGAMON(R) performance monitors as
part of it systems management infrastructure. On the basis of that well-
established and successful relationship, Irish Permanent turned to Candle to
assist in its MQSeries implementation.
"Candle was clear and precise in relation to the services it could
provide," said Tim Phelan, technical services manager, Irish Permanent. "We
were able to reach agreement quickly on what work would be completed and what
skills would be provided. The Candle Consulting and Services team were very
efficient in providing a timely response to our requirements."
As with most information systems solutions being implemented, Irish
Permanent had to address concerns and solve some problems. Both the concept
of middleware and IBM's MQSeries product were new to the bank. Hence, they
needed the expertise that Candle was able to provide in order to build a
system that was transparent to the users at either end of the processing
cycle.
"When the work commenced, a lot of emphasis was placed on skills transfer
for application developers and technical support staff," said Phelan. "We
didn't have a great deal of time to send people for official training courses.
Candle provided the hands-on training and advice that helped keep the project
on schedule."
The Candle Consulting and Services team embarked on a project that
provided Irish Permanent with a range of services, including:
-- Reviewing the entire MQSeries network;
-- MQSeries Architecture Design -- Candle helped Irish Permanent's staff
clearly understand the principles and methodologies employed to position the
architecture in the business strategy;
-- MQSeries Application Design -- Candle assisted Irish Permanent in the
design of robust and flexible MQSeries applications that fit the organization;
-- Platform-specific configuration -- Candle's experts are experienced in
all the major MQSeries platforms, and provided Irish Permanent with expertise
in MVS, CICS, OS/2, UNIX and Windows 95; and
-- Skills transfer -- With the fast and dramatic rise of MQSeries, many IT
professionals are not yet up to speed with the technology. Candle smoothed the
skills transfer process, enabling Irish Permanent to be up and running quickly
with MQSeries.
"Through acquisitions of service providers like AMSYS North America and by
attracting top talent around the world, Candle has amassed broad and deep
professional consulting expertise, particularly in middleware," said Tony
D'Errico, vice president of Candle's Consulting and Services unit. "Hence,
we're able to offer customers like Irish Permanent Bank with the expertise
they need to quickly implement middleware solutions within their
organizations."
About Irish Permanent
Irish Permanent is a major player in the personal financial services
market, with assets of almost $5 billion and a branch network of almost 100
offices in Ireland and the UK. As Ireland's largest home loan provider, Irish
Permanent offers a comprehensive range of mortgage products, as well as
savings and investment schemes, current account facilities, credit cards, life
assurance and car finance.
About Candle Corporation
Candle Corporation of Santa Monica, California, is a leading independent
developer and supplier of Solutions for Networked Businesses. As part of
that, Candle offers Solutions for Networked Applications(TM), which include
software and services to help customers design, develop, test and deploy
applications that run their businesses. Candle also offers Availability
Management Solutions, which include advanced systems management tools, such as
the Candle Command Center(R), to help customers manage the performance and
availability of their systems and applications.
For more information on Candle Corporation, visit the company's home page
on the World Wide Web at http://www.candle.com, or call them at 800-843-3970.
Products and terms named herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks
of their respective holders.
SOURCE Candle Corporation