In our Rumba blog series so far we have explored the history of terminal emulation, in our blog Terminal Emulation: A brand new view?, then looked at key trends shaping the workplace today (The future of the workplace: BYOD). This, our third and final blog of the series, takes some of those theories and concepts and looks at a few Rumba customer stories.
Now entering its 50th year, the IBM mainframe is here to stay. No matter who you are, we are all a mainframe user in some shape or form. Nearly everyone uses a service, daily, that eventually comes into contact with a mainframe. An ATM machine, getting an insurance quote, booking travel, renewing your healthcare, even your online shopping. Mainframe computers play a central role in the daily operations of most of the world’s largest corporations, and have involvement in all major industries: banking, finance, health care, insurance, utilities, government and more.
With such a continued reliance on the mainframe as the engine of business, with so many core business applications usually held on the mainframe, this does present some challenges. Many of these core systems are accessed via 3270 terminal interfaces, often referred to as a ‘green screen’. Green screens are notorious for being cumbersome and inefficient, in comparison to modern-day technology. Worse still, these older technologies do not readily integrate with the latest generation of devices and interfaces demanded by today’s business users and customers.
And that’s where Rumba comes in. Micro Focus Rumba is the intersection point, where green screen apps meet modern interfaces. Rumba aims to accelerate efficiency and enhancing the user experience, without the risks of reprogramming the underlying application. Used by more than three million users, customers have adopted Rumba to solve a variety of challenges.
Sometimes, the underlying requirement can be as simple as a reliable, scalable connection to core systems. Retailer REI, used Micro Focus Rumba technology to resolve connectivity concerns between their Microsoft Windows platform and an IBM® mainframe. REI’s users are on several hundred PCs throughout a chain of stores – with Rumba they were able to easily and quickly integrate between platforms. Furthermore, user productivity improved due to the simplicity Rumba brings. See the full REI customer success story here.
Occasionally, the speed of solution is the driving force – a fast answer to a critical problem. One client, Steyer Textilservice GmbH, commented on the speed of the initial demonstration of value – “Within two days of working with Micro Focus, we were able to create a working prototype”, while the Micro Focus Rumba technology was described by The Brick as having “allowed us to exceed all our revenue expectations in a timeframe we would never have thought to be realistic.”
For some clients, the challenges are beyond technology, and represent genuine business concerns. Communications giant Comcast was failing to meet its new subscriber targets due to inefficiencies in its back office processes. Implementing Rumba technology enabled them to integrate key mainframe and .NET IT processes to improve the internal workflow, and allow them to meet subscriber signup targets. Similarly, insurance group AVIVA, faced with unacceptably low claims processing figures, used Rumba to achieve a substantial transformation of the user interface for both employees and customers, while maintaining a vital complete SSO (single sign-on) integration, with tremendous improvements in operational efficiency.
Across a variety of industries and supporting a variety of requirements, Rumba has improved user efficiency by over 100% and in many cases the implementation time is just a matter of days. As another client testified “Our bottom line is proof that we made absolutely the right choice in Micro Focus.”
See what our current customers have to say about the Micro Focus Rumba technology here.
Many global organizations have used Micro Focus Rumba technology to modernize their core business processes and related user interfaces. The latest incarnation from Micro Focus, Rumba+, builds on all the benefits of Rumba, plus meets modern day business requirements by enabling user access to core systems whenever, wherever, with access via desktop, web and mobile. Learn more about Rumba+ here.
