Commerzbank Chooses Reflection X to Meet Its Growing Needs

Commerzbank AG, the fourth largest commercial bank in Germany, offers a complete range of consumer and business banking. Among its many offerings are accounting and tax services, investment and asset management, and insurance, which it markets in Germany and internationally through its subsidiaries. The bank has over 50 offices worldwide.

In 1998, after a 20 percent expansion, Commerzbank Group’s total assets reached nearly DM$647 billion (more than US$337 billion) and pre-tax profits rose 8.8 percent. Then, in the first quarter of 1999, the bank enjoyed one of its best quarters ever, reaching a 14 percent return on equity.

Given the competitive nature of banking today, Commerzbank is always looking for efficiencies. As part of a move to standardize on a few software vendors, the bank began a search for a new connectivity vendor that could provide one solution for the investment banking, retail banking, and development divisions.

The Solution: Reflection Suite for X

Wolfgang Ehnert, system planning and administration manager, directed the process that resulted in the purchase of 4,000 seats of Attachmate Reflection Suite for X, plus Attachmate Maintenance, which gives the company product updates at no additional charge. The evaluation process alone took four months and involved several products.

“We choose Reflection Suite for X for many reasons,” said Ehnert. “We were especially impressed with the superb X and VT emulation. The software gives us one reliable tool for a variety of host connections.” Commerzbank also makes some use of the TN3270 emulation. Commerzbank has IBM mainframes and Digital Alpha machines, along with their Windows NT servers and workstations.

User Friendly and Powerful

“Reflection was more user-friendly than the other products we evaluated,” Ehnert said. With a mix of users, some more technical than others, Attachmate’s solution provides the features desired by power users and can present a UNIX desktop, but it also offers the familiar operations of the Windows NT platform for those with little UNIX experience.

In fact, Reflection X makes it possible to perform tasks from a Windows NT desktop that once required a UNIX workstation.

Ehnert expects the X server capabilities to result in productivity increases as well. The Reflection PC X server also delivers a stability that rivals X terminals, which can mean less downtime—something a large international bank can scarcely afford.

Simplified Installation and Management

The installation and management features of Reflection Suite for X also help the Commerzbank IT department. The IT staff can deploy the software from a central location without touching any desktops. They can also use the product’s management tools to quickly configure the software for specific groups of users. Other valued features include the diagnostic tools, which make troubleshooting faster and easier.

Reflection Suite for X helps Commerzbank increase productivity in several ways. For example, an investment banker who needs real-time access to information on a UNIX host can easily access the hostdata and import it into an Excel spreadsheet when putting together a report. Reflection makes legacy data much easier to work with, and that saves user time.

Attachmate, the Partner for Now and Tomorrow

Finally, another factor contributing to the choice of the Reflection suite was Attachmate itself. “Attachmate was very easy to work with,” Ehnert said. “I think it is a company we can rely on.” While today Attachmate meets Commerzbank’s need for PC-to-UNIX and VT connectivity, both companies are poised to meet the challenges ahead. As Commerzbank’s systems grow and evolve, Attachmate will also offer new solutions for the future.