"Effectiveness and efficiency are the key goals for our network," explains Joseph Sciortino, Astoria Federal Savings' first assistant vice president and manager of LAN services. "We don't make many unnecessary changes, so we can keep a consistent network platform. We provide our business departments with the tools that enable them to be more efficient and deal with much less paperwork."

Employees can input information into several custom databases, including Gallagher Financial Systems' Mortgage Origination System. According to Sciortino, this software package stores vital loan information for every applicant and also handles mortgage underwriting. The mortgage division enters the rates into a Microsoft Corp. Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, which is then imported into the Gallagher system. Computer Associates International's Cheyenne FAXserve version 3.01 faxes these updated rates to lenders nationwide.

Mortgage center staffers also use Borland International's Paradox version 5.0 for reporting on mortgage origination loans and keeping track of which stage the process has reached at any given time. Microsoft Visual FoxPro version 4.0 contains numerous database abstracts and reporting, which makes it much easier for the finance department to pull down important figures.

Sciortino and his staff depend on Citrix Systems' WinFrame for remote dial-up access to any of its 61 offices throughout New York. Astoria Federal replaces standard modems at the desktops with Shiva Corp.'s dial-out access. The Shiva LANRover modem dials out, connecting most remote managers to the corporate network, Sciortino explains.

Within the next few months, Astoria Federal Savings will extend its network from the desktop to a public Web site (www.astoria

federal.com) and larger corporate intranet. Sciortino plans to provide financial information for stockholders and investors and enable customers to file loan applications online by year's end.

The IS staff will install Novonyx, a joint product from Novell and Netscape Communications Corp., to act as an intranet server within the next three to six months, according to Sciortino. This new application will work alongside the Novell IntranetWare 4.11 platform and Novell's Z.E.N.works.

Astoria Federal will post human resources guidelines, expense reports and overtime sheets, among other documents previously only available on paper. Sciortino explains that the intranet will give branch managers the ability to create purchase orders and distribute them to the proper department in a matter of minutes.