- 45 -
Initially, NTS developed the system using DB2 technology, as
indicated supra, a relatively new relational database24 offered and
heavily promoted by IBM. Even though NTS had little experience
with the technology, NTS used DB2 because it possessed many of the
characteristics Norwest needed for its pension system.
NTS experienced various problems in building the Trust Payment
system. First, the system ran slowly, taking several days rather
than only a couple of hours to process data and produce a batch of
checks. Second, occasionally, pension checks were issued in
negative dollars; that is, pensioners received checks in negative
amounts. Third, the system crashed when too many users were
seeking to access the same data. Ultimately, these problems were
solved by the NTS personnel assigned to this area.
After the Trust Payment system was implemented, NTS conducted
(over a 2-year period) a thorough review of the system to determine
its ability to handle timely the anticipated increase in the number
of trust account checks that would need to be issued in the future.
This review focused on the use of the DB2 technology and whether
there was a means of making the system run faster. (The DB2 system
had a reputation for being sluggish.) NTS considered several
possible reasons for the slowness of the Trust Payment system but
24 In general, a relational database allows the user to
store data in one table which relates to (and can be used with)
other tables for reporting and updating purposes.
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