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0 pointsmormegil3y ago0 comments

The Czech taxation authority has the "Automated Tax Information System" as the primary IS. It has been running since 1993, it has a classic DOS text-mode interface and its maintenance cost is huge, which is completely fine with its supplier, IBM, which is the only subject allowed to make any modifications to it (per the contract). Textbook case of vendor lock-in. An official study of what to do with the system from 2016 (including a screenshot): https://www.financnisprava.cz/assets/cs/prilohy/f-novinky/20...

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aforwardslash3y ago

Text interfaces are still quite common in mainframes. If the vendor is IBM, the screenshot is probably a 5270 terminal running a RPG (or COBOL) application. In fact, these kind of systems are still so popular in the financial industry that there are libraries to wrap a modern GUI on top of existing terminal-based applications.

skissane3y ago

> If the vendor is IBM, the screenshot is probably a 5270 terminal running a RPG (or COBOL) application

From the linked PDF I gather the app is written in Informix 4GL (I can’t read Czech, just guessing based on the smattering of English words-I also think in mentions some modules are written in C?). If that’s right, it is probably a character mode VT100 app running on some Unix box, not 3270 or 5250, not COBOL or RPG

marttt3y ago

> ... and its maintenance cost is huge ...

Would you mind expanding on this a little?

mormegilOP3y ago

There is more detail in the (Czech-language) presentation; the ongoing cost is in hundreds of millions CZK (~millions to tens of millions EUR) every year, the TCO for the whole time was in 2019 estimated over 9 billion CZK (~400M EUR).

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