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To: Mary Cluney who wrote (143061)	9/7/2001 11:40:07 AM
From: GVTucker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

Mary, RE: Most of the computer program code that run Wall Street is still written in Fortran, Cobol, Adabas, basic, et al. Java Beans have no significant presence in back office systems. They spent a fortune remediating Y2K specific software code - but they only scratched the surface - they fixed mostly date related problems. Otherwise, most of the computer software still running were written in the 60's, 70's, and 80's. But, the MBA's that are in charge now are not interested in rewriting the software, they are out looking for the next killer app. They think that they can buy terrific new hardware and some off the shelf software to fix all their problems. That's not going to happen. I'd disagree strongly with that assessment. In fact, Wall Street has usually been at the forefront of adopting newer technologies over the past decade rather than bringing up the rear. It makes great press to bash the bean counters and MBAs, but I just don't see any correlation between number of bean counters and adoption of new technology. Heck, the corporation with the most bean counters on the planet, GE, is probably one of the most advanced when it comes to technology. And Jack Welch is a bean counter deluxe. Heck, Six Sigma is all about counting beans. But Welch hasn't let GE fall behind, primarily because he is a great visionary, too.

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (143061)	9/7/2001 12:08:29 PM
From: Bob Kim	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

Mary, The trading oriented firms seem to always be on the cutting edge. They were quick to get workstations, super-minis, neural networks, and Sybase in the 80s. On the other hand, I don't know if it is different now, but the front-end of Merrill's research report generation system was heavily dependent on Word macros. And instead of using electronic text searching, they still screen reports manually for references that require disclosures and disclaimers.