1969 – 1979In the beginning was the revolution

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1969Foundation

28 October 1969: revolutionary foundation of Raiffeisen Rechenzentrum (Data Center) – the RRZ. Founding members: Raiffeisen Zentralkasse NÖ Wien (90 %) and Raiffeisen Bau & Maschinen Kredit Genossenschaft (MKG).

1969

The data center has been authorized to advance the automation of bank accounting for a large group of Raiffeisen banks. At this time well-known and reliable magnetic ledger-card computers (MKC) were soon to be replaced by central computer systems.

1969

The foundation of centralized electronic data processing (EDP) has been laid on 28 December by computerising the accounting of Raiffeisenbank Vienna.

1969

At a time, electronic calculators had a hint of mysticism the first Raiffeisen banks proved to be innovative pioneers in data processing. By the end of 1970 already 9 Raiffeisen banks have switched to EDP.

1970

A time when data had a representational effect and people built a personal relationship to valuable data.

1970

Even data transports – literally a man going by train – have been also put to the acid test. Test transports have been carried out with old newspapers in a briefcase.

The rise of EDP / The Age of EDP

The 70ies have been described by Hans Windbichler as the “heroic age of EDP”. Pioneering years when data transport had to be carried out in speed vehicles due to exceptional situations. Years that required heroic operations around the clock on critical deadlines like closing statements or bank clearings.

1970

The IBM 370/145 was the first commercial computer system which memory consisted of semiconductors. Its size characterized the need for space of many technology companies.

1970

Only two years after the foundation of Raiffeisen Informatik (former Raiffeisen Rechenzentrum) the solid development allowed for a major investment: namely the high-performing computer system IBM 360/20 with 16 KB RAM.
The new technical centrepiece of the company enables quite comfortable programming in machine-oriented languages.

1971

Without any knowledge of the breath-taking development in the mid-90s, the first programmes for online-accounting have been developed.

1971

The online age is already anticipated in this early stage. Raiffeisen banks and 10 Lagerhaus cooperatives have switched to EDP.

1972

A unique account number (including check digits) has been introduced against all odds of federal customary– from Feldkirch to Eisenstadt.

1972

This hard-fought-for unity lasts till today and stands for a non-recurring expense generating a substantial simplification.

Microfiche for Data Security

While a simple accounting program consisted of a huge batch of punch cards during the founding years, physical stacks of paper for the pure data transformation reached an impressive height. Some compared it with the height of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. The Microfiche reached its zenith with 95 million pages on 800,000 Microfiche. Today the COM technology is still used in special cases for physical data backup.

1973

Pioneering days are unconventional times. It was also true in the times of RRZ when faithful operators were staying in system rooms for 72 hours without any break.

1973

Times when camp beds where set up in the warm exhaust air of computers. Times when complicated part of maintaining social contacts – according to own statements of company management – had to be practiced now and then in sips.

1974

COM was installed as a new output medium in RRZ, so Microfiche had its appearance. Its comfortable consequence was a massive reduction of paper output. Despite gaining space the increasing demand for space justified the relocation to Raiffeisenhaus Vienna.

1974

While during the founding years a simple accounting program consisted of a huge batch of punch cards, physical stack of paper for the pure data transformation reached an impressive height. Some compared it with the height of St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna. The Microfiche reached its zenith with 95 million pages on 800,000 Microfiche. Still today the COM technology is used in special cases for physical data backup.

1975

In the era of remote data transmission via telephone dial-up lines Raiffeisenbank Vienna received a comprehensive online service bundle.

1975

At the beginning the Securities department was selected with four enquiry services for the time being. The required time for performance monitoring improved from almost one day to seconds.

First Outsourcing1976

Along with the acquisition of EDP employees of GZB at Passauerplatz the number of employees in the RRZ exceeds a hundred sustainably. This figure is a threshold to a large company in the EDP business. Stability of personnel growth continued and even increased to a four-digit headcount in the meantime

1977

The SWIFT (Achtung: richtige Schreibweise im deutschen Text beachten) terminal of the Austrian Raiffeisen sector has been installed in the RRZ.

1977

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) provides a network that enables financial institutions worldwide to send and receive information about financial transactions in a secure, standardized and reliable environment.

1978

The account statements of Raiffeisenbank have been revised to place more information on the statements. To find a common solution was not an easy task.

1978

Despite all obstacles a nation-wide design has been implemented. Until this point customers had to face different shapes and sizes of their bank statement with each change in the booking system.

1979

After a large fire in the OeNB (Austrian Central Bank) the RRZ accommodated the electronic data collection of OeNB which restored their EDP operations within a few days.

1979

RRZ has taken internal actions to increase data security in line with the new data protection law of 1980. The security committee of RRZ has been established to activate control mechanisms through organizational and EDP-technical measures. To guarantee the quickest recovery of the data center in case of any incidents.