Need help from someone who knows about databases & banks

[murshid]

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I really need help in answering the two questions stated at the end of the quote below:

 

 

Barclays Bank Group PLC

 

Barclays Bank Group PLC with headquarters in London has 105,000 employees worldwide and assets that exceed £127 billion ($197 billion). For Barclays, political boundaries are blurring as the British bank expands its business throughout Europe and around the globe. Chief information officer Trevor Nicholas says the bank envisions becoming an "integrated worldwide entity that provides top-quality services to multinational customers."

 

The European Union, also known as the European Community or Common Market, is an economic community that consists of Portugal, France, Ireland, United Kingdom, Spain, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, and Greece. Although the 12 EC member nations have been working on a borderless economy for more than 30 years, the end of 1992 marked elimination of national trade barriers, different tax and banking laws, conflicting product standards, and other restrictions that kept the member nations from being a single market. Today, the European Union is the largest single market in the world with aggregate spending of more than $44 trillion.

 

A single market with more than 325 million consumers means enormous opportunity for a European bank like Barclays. With the 1993 unification, the bank's plans for Europe are a subset of its overall strategy to position itself as one of the leading players in the world financial market.

 

Extending its global reach has required Barclays to restructure its basic operations in Britain. Information systems are intrinsic to that revamp. "We are in the process of building a $245 million global banking system and electronic mail network for 3,800 users," says Nicholas. This system will provide certain standard applications and electronic mail facilities to country branch offices. In order to do that, Nicholas is concerned about establishing standard data elements that will enable information flows from all locations to be coherently managed and exploited. Such coherent management, he says, does not imply integration. "To give the semblance of integration, you must modularize systems, not integrate them."

 

The backbone of Barclays' global banking system will be its telecommunications network, which is being designed to span some 30 countries.

 

 

Questions:

 

1. What database would you expect to find in Barclays' global information system?

2. How important is Barclays' global information system to its goal of achieving a competitive market position as one of the leading financial firms in the world market?

 

I'll be really grateful to anyone who can help. Thanks in advance.

 

 

Edit: I'm not sure whether I put this in the right sub-forum. If I didn't, I hope the mods will move it to the appropriate section.

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Edited June 18, 2011 by murshid

[markearthling]

There are too many database products out there to mention

here also many many programming languages used to

process data on the various computer systems.

 

It is likely that Barclays will make use of the Internet and

many other internetworking technologies and related

control/management software as well as the best

multi level security and IT people that money can buy.

They will use more than one database product (very likely).

 

On your 2nd question Of course their new system

will be crucially important to how well they can

perform in future financial markets.

 

That said, what is your application

or why does this interest you specifically ?

[murshid]

That said, what is your application or why does this interest you specifically ?

I work in the Human Resources division of a bank and my boss gave me these questions. I have no idea why he needs to know that or why he asked me.

 

Anyway, thanks a lot for your help, markearthling! It would have been better if you could have been slightly more specific with your answers, but I really appreciate your help. If you have any more ideas, please do share it here.

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[Hal.]

Murshid ,

 

If you would like to know modern information about the European Union from the Wiki just click here and for the page of Barclays PLC click here .

Edited June 18, 2011 by Hal.