This system used IBM's DAE (Distributed Automation Edition) which was sort of like CORBA before CORBA. Imagine CORBA except no OO features, tightly integrated

This system used IBM's DAE (Distributed Automation Edition) which was sort of like CORBA before CORBA. Imagine CORBA except no OO features, tightly integrated with SNA, no interceptors or IDL compilers and only worked with C, REXX and COBOL. And it was all implemented by interns and contractors. IIRC, they eventually dumped DAE, but had to deliver something before CORBA (or DSOM) was a thing.