Best Package(s) for Large in-house Payroll Application Development

I need some opinions on what the best client server package to use with oracle to  develop a very large payroll system. The system we currently have is on ADABAS/NATURAL. We pay approx. 4000 employees with this system. It has a sophisticated front end and behind the scenes logic. What ever package(s) are  picked must be fast, efficient and also have good windows front ends. Chances are  we will be using a Windows NT server. We will be distributing the payroll system to about 5 or 6 locations, where they will have their own server and oracle database, then at the appropriate time the information will be uploaded to us, where we will process it. Our company has decided on Oracle for sure, but the language to use with it hasn't been decided on. Some talk has been of Visual Basic(which I think would be too slow), Powerbuilder(haven't heard many good things, but I'm not sure if that is just rumors), Developer 2000 from Oracle, and Visual C++. It should have an easy way to develop screens and front ends, and also be fast to handle lots of processing back and forth to the database so the users don't have to wait a while everytime they hit Enter. Any information on these packages or others that I have not mentioned would be helpful. Just general opinions would be helpful also. Please keep in mind that lots of information is being passed back and forth from the user to the database/server. It should be a very interactive system, so users can get the information on the screen quickly.

Thank you very much in advance,

        Gary Received on Tue May 28 1996 - 00:00:00 CEST