The Challenge
A major financial software provider was operating a legacy green screen application
with a Visual Basic 6.0 middleware frontend. While the application was wildly
successful it created a significant issue for several of the organization’s banking
clients due to the fact that it could only be run on Windows 3.5 or earlier. Modern
banking establishments were unable to run the software on Windows 7, or even
Windows XP or 2000.
Updates in technology were about to make the system – which was the system of
record for most home loans and mortgages – inaccessible. This presented the client
with a critical problem, as major financial institutions were paying hundreds of
thousands of dollars per month to leverage the software.
The software required logic updates and was not designed for modern consumer
and commercial products. Additionally, its original creator was no longer available,
and no one else on the client’s development team had a grasp on all of the business
logic. The client engaged Magenic to create a middle tier while maintaining some of
the business logic behind the core application.
Enterprise financial app becoming inaccessible
The Solution
Magenic leveraged CSLA .Net to create a middle tier which performed some of the
original business logic. Magenic advised the client’s development team to update the
host applications on the new CSLA .NET middle tier.
Magenic created updated, more usable screens to accommodate new business
products; this was required to validate fields within the middle tier. Our new solution
validated data before sending it back to the mainframe, and combined pre-existing
fields from separate screens on the same screen. This allowed the new application
to function utilizing the new screens and user interface. Instead of sending each
individual field back to the mainframe, Magenic’s application stores the information
in bulk and forwards it back in bulk.
Because the client development team was unfamiliar with the business logic,
Magenic reverse-engineered the logic to provide the client better understanding.
The total development effort spanned the course of three years
Custom CSLA tier, reverse-engineer logic
The Result
Magenic’s solution allowed the software to work with Windows XP and beyond and
is still the system of record for many home loans and mortgages to this day. The new
application was so successful that the client’s parent company bought them out. It
continues to generate millions of dollars in revenue on a monthly basis.
Other software developers have attempted to build similar programs to serve
as competitors, but Magenic’s solution has helped to ensure that our client’s
application remains the go-to system of record for home loans and mortgages.
Compatible with XP and beyond