He yanked 5, 000 Transmedia processing machines out of restaurants and combined Dining's classier front-end product with Transmedia's superior back-office system that credited savings on monthly charge-card accounts.

FORBES: No Free Lunch

Her back-office system, the latest version from Dayton, Ohio-based Reynolds and Reynolds, automatically sends out discount coupons by e-mail or regular mail, alerting customers to 10, 000-mile checkups or extended-warranty offers.

FORBES: Dealers 1 Internet 0

Instead, McKinsey suggested a hub-and-spoke system, with 55 back-office centres serving 10-15 branches each.

ECONOMIST: Indonesian banking

Having good middleware layers so you do not tightly couple your mobile app to a particular OS or to a particular back-office application and financial system, this is very critical.

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