HRM underlying implementation: Java or Cobol? Irrelevant?

Dear all,

Please pardon the question out-of-the-blue... but if anyone does reply, you'd be doing me and the hospital I'm working for a big favor.

We are currently evaluating Lawson's Human Resource Management System, and have actually done a lot of work in the last few months to do a thorough analysis.

One question that we simply have not been able to resolve is the following though: Is the latest version of Lawson HRM (version 9 as we understand it) Java-based or Cobol-based? Or perhaps it is a mix (a Java web services layer talking to a Cobol backend)? And even if it is Java-based, in order to customize it or extend it with scripting for example, is knowledge of Cobol (or Java for that matter) required?

I would not be surprised if the answer is "It doesn't matter: customization doesn't require coding"... but I wouldn't be surprised either with the opposite answer. We've learned to be totally open for the potential answer.

Any light you can shed on this would be greatly, greatly appreciated!

A. Fudlallah