VW Finance looks to analytics

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Volkswagen Financial Services, the largest automobile financial services provider in Europe, is using a new legacy analysis tool to track the performance of its COBOL-based application infrastructures.

This new analytic capability will be key to increasing operational productivity for key systems through the implementation of cost-efficient, strategic maintenance and modernisation of the organisation’s legacy environment.

The legacy applications are key to the maintenance of the retail insurance policies Volkswagen Financial Services offers millions of customers across Europe and Asia Pacific.

Key operations, including application and contract processing, are executed on 1,600 COBOL and 1,900 assembler programs, all of which require 4,500 daily, individual batch jobs and cover a total of around six million lines of code.

The company is using Micro Focus Revolve Enterprise Edition to provide a visual inventory of these legacy software systems to help its developers improve application speed in line with requirements for enhanced customer service and business responsiveness.

“Since using Revolve, we have had a comprehensive view of our COBOL application, allowing us to make cost estimates more precisely and also protect ourselves from any unpleasant surprises,” said Marko Genzel from the Volkswagen Financial Services technology team.

The IT department is now able to adapt its legacy applications to the constant changes and extensions made at Volkswagen Financial Services in a less risky and more cost-effective manner.

The Revolve tool also automates application development, testing and maintenance processes, reducing the possibility of human error from manual methods as well as the need for extensive training for new or external developers, given its visual execution and simulation capabilities for navigating application logic flows.

“In addition, it has been possible to substantially reduce the number of errors brought about by the cross-company effects of code changes resulting from the increased transparency,” added Genzel.

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