Lean and Green
If you’re reading this blog, you probably know about green screens. You probably wish they were more flexible and easy to use, but you still understand their overall value. You know that green screen applications, while written decades ago, still run the world. And behind the scenes, they make our lives easier in more ways than we may actually know.
‘Sorry please hold, I will have to switch to another screen’
Most of us will have interacted with green screen systems[1]—for example, when you’re talking to a call center rep’ who is using one to look up your insurance details, or book your travel, or check your banking details. These are the people who often need to put you on hold because the “system is slow” or they have to “go to another screen.” That’s what these green-screen applications are like to use—complicated, convoluted, confusing. They don’t play well together, and don’t take advantage of the latest graphical interfaces either.
However, despite their limitations, green screens and the applications they “represent” are so entrenched in our world that now even mobile users want to access them from their modern laptops, tablets, and smart phones. So why are we content to continue interacting with these outdated systems? One simple reason: These applications are still business critical. And updating them is difficult, time consuming, risky, and prohibitively expensive.
But wouldn’t it be great if there was some way to bring these outdated applications into the modern world?
At Micro Focus we continue to make investments to help organizations get the most out of their existing IT investments—including core green screen business applications. We provide low-risk, easy-to-use software that modernizes the user interface of core business applications and drives business efficiency.
Enter the new Rumba 9.4
You may have read about the user interface modernization capabilities of Rumba in the past, but with this new release we have added more capabilities to help revive tired applications.
Rumba+ 9.4 offers a new facility called Screen Canvas. With Screen Canvas, you are no longer bound by the old 24 row x 80 column limits of the traditional green screen. You can combine what used to be several different green screens into a single page.
Users with the new version can consolidate several green screens into a single page, re-organizing and merging disparate information to make the user experience more intuitive and easy to use – with no coding or changes to the host application.
To the customer, this is a new way to improve usability of older application. It is a new view of the green screen – it feels updated and contemporary. It improves the user experience. To Micro Focus, it is the result of an ongoing commitment to improve the user experience for the customer.
And that’s not all. Rumba+ is the perfect partner product of Rumba 9.4 and enables customers to extend their reach even further, with access to Windows, iPad and mobile technologies. Ultimately, Rumba+ represents and supports a full evolution and modernization from green screen to GUI.
Learn more about the all of the Rumba product line, or contact your local sales representative.
[1] Green screens: Text displays used by the mainframe applications to present information to users.
Terminals: Traditional hardware/screens used to access core application green-screens. The IBM 3270 is a classic example.
Terminal Emulator: A dedicated computer program that replicates the terminal viewing experience through an alternative display, typically a PC screen. Rumba is a terminal emulator.
User Interface: The visible part of the operating system and an older, character-based user interface is a problem for anyone familiar with the Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) on personal tech, such as laptops and tablets.
