Choosing a programming language is a key decision in today's business world. The corporate world is fast-paced, ever-changing, and cost-conscious. Data security and integrity have become paramount with the advent of the Internet, with the constant threat of, hackers viruses, and unwitting user mistakes. The choice of a programming language should be "based on the overall goals" of the business (http://www.endpointcomputing .com/articles/languages.html). .
Opulent World Enterprises (OWE) (Name has been changed) is a private label credit card company, providing services to a variety of merchants, both large and small. OWE has 12 customer service sites across the country, with a satellite office overseas. OWE's largest site is located in Dayton, Ohio, with 1500 people employed. All aspects of the private label credit card business are housed there - Sales/Marketing, Risk/Fraud, Accounting, Customer Service, and Collections.
A variety of software applications are in use at OWE. Many are commercially packaged and supported by outside vendors, with some customization by OWE staff. Some are written in-house by a developer's group. These applications run on Unix and Microsoft (MS) Windows systems, with connectivity to a mainframe database offsite. A number of programming languages are necessary in OWE's environment. This paper discusses some of the languages in use, the reasons they were chosen, and the functionality they bring to the business.
One application heavily used at OWE is Attachmate Extra!, a commercially available package. This program allows connectivity for MS Windows systems to the offsite mainframe. Some of the developers at OWE are responsible for programming the screens that display the mainframe data to the end-user in Extra!. COBOL is the language of choice, as it is the language that is compatible with the mainframe system. .
Visual Basic (VB) is used a great deal for small applications.