Good News for Sales People - Make Orders by Mobile

What's wrong with this picture: A sales person calls a potential customer. He then visits the customer to show or demonstrate his wares. The customer decides to buy and makes an order. With the deal closed, our sales person returns to his office and checks with the back-end system to see if the wares the customer wants are in stock.

Woops! Stop right there. What happens if the product is NOT in stock, or the manufacturer was late in delivering, or there's a glitch in production, or if there's a new price list our sales person wasn't aware of?

What happens when you've told your customer that you can deliver in X days and it will cost Y amount - and now you've got to run the embarrassment and risk of calling the customer again to tell him you were wrong.

There's a good chance the customer will cancel the deal, or just not buy from you again, right?

Now consider this. If our sales person had a mobile device, and he could directly view and enter data into the company's back-end system - then he could enter the order himself, make sure the product is in stock, and quote the correct price - ALL WHILE SITTING IN FRONT OF THE CUSTOMER.

That's the power of Rich Internet Applications. But you don't have to take it from me. Here's how Soviet Jeans managed to turn around their sales process and their customer service using uniPaaS RIA.

Testing Web Apps in Multiple Broswers - (continued)

Continuing yesterday's post on the various merits of IE and browser-based applications vs. uniPaaS browse-free technology.

I've attached here a screen-shot from the uniPaaS demo - that shows both a pull-down menu (Application Flow) and a drop-down screen (Customer List). Now note the fact that this is an INTERNET based application - but without the cumbersome IE, Firefox or Safari sandboxes. Yet it feels, behaves and responds with all the richness of a desktop Client-Server application!

To really appreciate the power and business potential of this I recommend trying the demo for yourself. It's easy to download and it won't take you long to get the idea. Go to the link in the previous paragraph. As always, your views and comments are welcome.

Testing Web Apps in Multiple Browsers

Ned Batchelder writes an interesting post on the problems of having to test websites in multiple version of Internet Explorer:

"One of the banes of a web developer's existence is the need to test their site in Internet Explorer, not just once, but in multiple versions of Internet Explorer. These days, IE's 6, 7, and 8 are pretty much required. Because of their tight integration with Windows, it's difficult to run all three side by side."

To get around the problem he mentions a nice little tool called Xenocode, which is based on application-level virtualization. The tool virtualizes the operating system services seen by your application and this way the code seems to be running on program files directories that doesn't actually exist.

Nice. But the obvious question is why bother with additional tools to 'get around' the problem of multiple broswer types (not just IE 6, 7, & 8, but also Safari and Firefox!) when you can have an internet application that's not dependent on the browser at all!

What happens when tomorrow IE introduces a new feature that doesn't suit your application? For many business applications, IE is simply not suitable at all. After all, the browser was invented for 'browsing' - not for the storage and manipulation of large business data-sets and the demands of power users.

The nice thing about applications developed in uniPaaS is that they don't rely on the browser at all as a sandbox. The uniPaaS RIA Client module IS the sandbox - and it's specially designed and optimized for real business applications - unlike the browser.

So you can effectively operate drill-down screens, context menus, pop-up screens, pull-down menus, and the rest. There's also no need to override IE's own menus just to create your own.

Better to do it once and do it right I say. Rather than constantly patch or supplement a tool that's not right for the job.

The Benefits of Rich Internet Applications - Explained Visually!

Now you can. With Rich Internet Applications you can combine the functionality of fully interactive software with the broad reach and low cost deployment of the Web.

Just ask Magic Software how.

This is the advert I came up with a while back when racking my brains trying to convey the unique advantages of Rich Internet Applications over traditional software.

The key sentence that was playing in my mind at the time was that RIA gives users 'the best of both worlds'.

And what that means is that you get the powerful user experience that only locally installed Client-Server 'desktop' applications can provide (scrolling lists, multiple screen views, rapid data update etc), but you also get the benefit of internet based applications - i.e. anytime, anywhere access to your data, such as from a mobile device.

Anyway, this is the end advertisement image that we went with. If you still don't know what it is, it's supposed to be the body of an Arnold Schwarzenegger type (in his youth, of course) with the mind of an Einstein. Get it? The best of both worlds?? Thought so.

Business Innovation & Skill-Set Requirements

It seems that even paradise is suffering these days. Australia is suffering from a skill-set shortage that, according to this interview, is hampering the ability of businesses to deliver and innovate.

70% of the businesses asked (according to the news item) were worried about skill-set shortages hampering a business's ability to deliver. AND of those, 60% say it is negatively impacting their ability to innovate.

Business innovation (we talk more about this here) is what keeps small economies going. I would also argue that innovation is the only way to resuscitate a large economy suffering from recession and the over-leverage of service and financial sectors.

The costs of acquiring the right IT skills to ensure business innovation are constantly going up it seems, particularly when a business is looking to building a complex rich business application (RIA).

The nature of RIA and SaaS applications and their unique performance benefits means that they require multiple teams of developers to build the separate Client, Server and Communication layers of the application. Normally these would be achieved using a combination of development tools. (see Flex and C# vs. uniPaaS)

Is there a solution then? Of course. Work smarter!

uniPaaS is a culmination of 3 unique technological innovations that allow you to achieve your business objectives faster and easier - in this case to build a rich business internet application using only a single skill-set and programming language.

So no more skill shortages, and no more fears for business delivery and innovation..

Hello Australia!

How to Become the Next Salesforce.com

I put together an article a few months back for the DM Review(with a little help from my good friend Avigdor Luttinger, our Business Development VP) that may be useful if you're a small ISV with an 80's or 90's era Magic Software application - here's the article again in full..

Staying Alive! How to Morph your 80's Era Apps into Rich Internet Applications (RIA) and Software as a Service (SaaS)

The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business application market is now in accelerated growth phase and is set to conquer both the SME and Enterprise space. Salesforce.com is one of the largest and most successful of these SaaS vendors to date and represents the driving force behind today's SaaS trend. So what's now preventing other Enterprise vendors from replicating the success of Salesforce.com and becoming leading SaaS providers themselves?

An important reason could be that they have not yet conquered the dual challenges of Rich Internet Applications (RIA) development and SaaS delivery that would enable them to attract small ISV's and their applications in great enough numbers to offer a full application portfolio. And for good reason:

The RIA Development Hurdle

One of the main conditions for successful Web-based SaaS delivery is RIA orientation. This means that the SaaS application must provide a user-experience at least on-par with traditional client/server applications and the delivery must be via a very thin client that doesn't require any explicit installation and management.

A number of solutions such as Adobe Flex and Microsoft Silverlight have the toolboxes and platforms for RIA that provides the degree of user experience demanded today. However, the level of performance comes at the expense of a heavy development effort - meaning that you have to create separate client and server tiers and the in-between communication layer. And to do this you need a workforce with at least 2 different skill-sets. The result is a more complex project than the prevailing approach that uses a single Java-type development paradigm.

The SaaS Delivery Hurdle

To add to the difficulty of RIA development is the problem of SaaS delivery. One of the major advantages of SaaS (unlike ASP's) is their use of a single application image that can be applied to multiple users. However, while great for usability, this creates a huge challenge when using code-based applications - where your multi-user capability must be built-in to the code. For example, how do you keep track of which user is using what, and when? How do you limit their use in a tailored subscription plan? And how do you work out how much to bill them?

Overcoming the Legacy Application Business Barrier

Salesforce.com is the only player who's effectively answered both the RIA and SaaS challenges by developing their offering from scratch. Today, Salesforce.com has a very nice application, and a series of ISV partner-created add-ons. However, what happens when a small ISV partner, wanting to add-on his application to a major vendor, finds he can't do so easily because his application was built using a traditional programming language? Even players such as Salesforce.com have found themselves with less content than they would perhaps like - because their new proprietary platform is simply unable to assimilate the type of applications built using traditional programming language.

As a result there is a business barrier to ISV's joining SaaS providers in greater numbers -And this barrier is now preventing more Enterprise vendors from replicating the success of Salesforce.com. The challenge of creating a well-rounded SaaS offering based in part upon successfully assimilating ISV's legacy applications remains the primary stumbling block for SaaS providers today.

The Solution - Metadata Driven Application Platforms

Magic Software has perfected the art of the metadata driven application platform. This enables you to migrate and carry over business logic across successive generations of operating system and hardware. So you can easily take a DOS or Novell based Magic Software application and render it into an OS400, Windows, or Web environment - without having to modify the application, and while fully conserving the business logic of the application.

As a result, Magic Software's ecosystem, consisting of perhaps tens of thousands of applications, many of which are packaged and sold by small ISV's, can now be rendered into RIA and SaaS mode without great expense, and without acquiring a workforce with multiple skill-sets.

All of this means that if the big Enterprise players want to successfully build a SaaS portfolio and attract ISV partners and their applications, then they should look no further. Metadata driven application platforms represent a phenomenal opportunity, allowing vendors to harness the potential business logic within an ISV's legacy application. Enterprise vendors can now transform 80's era applications quickly, easily and cost-effectively into the types of products demanded by today's customers and expose new markets to the benefits of the SaaS and RIA revolution.

Rich Internet Applications - User Experience vs User Interface

The 'Rich' in Rich Internet Applications means UX, short for user experience. If the user is not enjoying a more compelling and hassle-free experience then the developer is simply not doing something right.

Here are 50 of some of the very best rich internet applications, as judged by Theresa Neil.

Some of these are really good.

Remember though, let's not loose sight of the trees while we're still in the woods. Yes, some of these RIA's do have great User Interfaces. But this concept should not be confused with User Experience..

Rich user experience requires not only that the user interface be intuitive, fluent and productive, but also that it be functionally rich.

A true rich internet application is therefore one that is able to complete most common business rules without having to constantly resort to remote services to complete the execution. And for that you need functionally rich RIA clients that increase the overall responsiveness of the business application which in turn contributes to higher end-user productivity.

Top-notch graphical design may contribute to overall user experience, but in today's economic environment of leaner IT budgets, too much focus on design can end up impeding productivity.

Enterprises and software vendors looking to make the greatest return on their business application investment should consider platforms that cater first and foremost to User Experience - while keeping the door open to extra graphical and functional enhancements that can be added when the time is right.

We talk more about the trade-off's between User Experience and User Interface in this white paper.

'5 Tips to SaaS Success' - Lets Add One More

A good article here by Cam Wayland on CRN. She asks why resellers are finding it hard to move to SaaS - and suggests that it's because of the lower revenue stream that SaaS generates when compared to Client-Server, Open Client model applications.

After doing the maths, she concludes that; "It would take six months for the reseller to make the same profit from selling a SaaS solution compared to a "traditional" software or hardware or solution."

But according to Cam, it's not all bad news. Resellers have to consider the fact that SaaS commissions are generally earned in one go, whereas traditional software commissions, while bigger, are often spread over monthly payments.

However, in her opinion "it will take 12-18 months of steady building of the annuity base before the full financial benefits are realised."

In other words, while the SaaS model is better for your long term business, it takes time before you start seeing comparable levels of revenue that you may have been used to with your traditional software sales.

The answer is simple then - Don't give up you're traditional software licence sales! Keep them going AT THE SAME TIME as offering a SaaS model. This way you keep your high revenue streams while developing your SaaS customer base.

While Cam offers 5 tips to SaaS success at the end of her article, I would therefore respectfully add a sixth: get an application platform that allows you to deploy both traditional Client/Server apps AND SaaS from the same code-base - and for the same single development effort.

We've spoken about this extensively here.

Scope Creep - Lessons for IT from the Advertising World

I love this video. Amongst other things, it shows how easily scope creep - endless project revisions - can destroy the original objectives of a project.

Although taken from the marketing/advertising world, the lesson remains highly valid to the IT industry.

Scope creep in enterprise IT projects is typically caused by poor definition of objectives, weak project management and a lack of communication between IT teams and business executives who set the goals.

And the answer?

1. Use a platform that pre-programs common or repetitive development tasks. This increases productivity and reduces the impact of scope creep.

2. Use a tool that focuses on configuration rather than coding.For this you need a metadata-based application platform that has already pre-compiled the hard code into ready-to-use business logic.

3. Get a platform that enables faster prototyping and shorter development cycles. Very fast prototyping (facilitated again by metadata) enables better understanding and proofing of requests and concepts. It's also easier for developers and users to share and exchange information using functional prototypes rather than looking at program code.

4. Use a software development tool that cuts down on skill-set requirements. Having to manage multiple development teams (a typical occurrence if you're building a RIA or SaaS application) is risky to project success and drives up costs. In many cases this alone can force cuts and changes to a project's original scope. Ideally, use a platform with a single, end-to-end programming language.

Magic Software in Top 10 SaaS Vendors

For the second consecutive month running, Magic Software is listed among the Top 25 Most Popular companies in the SaaS Directory (click this link to view full top 25 listing).

Magic Software's current position is #10.

The listing is based on the number of votes the company receives and the number of times it's profile is viewed during the month.

To read Magic Software's full profile on the directory, go here.

How toTurn a Business Liability into an Asset

I thought this clip was an excellent example of true business innovation - a struggling fast-food franchise on one of the busiest commuter routes in the US turns a liability (bus loads of customers who arrive all at once) into an asset. How? By ensuring fast delivery of goods and by correctly identifying the business audience and ensuring they get the best services.

Fast food doesn't exactly have a good name these days. But this is an example of how brand perceptions can be turned around by superior productivity and by clearing a path towards identifying and fulfilling real business opportunities.

In the IT world it's no different. Speed, productivity, identifying and achieving business goals are key. Better get the tools to make it happen.

Faster Application Development: uniPaaS v.s. Flex & C#

We've spoken here a number of times about the benefits of using a metadata approach when building and deploying business apps. To recap, a metadata approach is based upon a pre-compiled business logic engine that enables you to cut out much of the hard-coding from the development process and build your application with a single tool, from end to end i.e. From Client to Server using a single programming language.

Here's an illustration that nicely shows the difference in develo

pment flows between uniPaaS (an end-to-end development and deployment tool) v.s. doing it the usual way (a combination of Adobe Flex for the Client end, and C# for the Server end).

Unitary Development: uniPaaS (Client & Server)

And here's how it's normally done - the hard way!

Multi-tier Development: Adobe Flex (Client) & C# (Server)

When development involves buying 2 seperate programming languages, going through lots of low-level programming, and the challenge of gathering and co-ordinating 2 seperate programming teams, there is simply less chance of the end result being deployed cheaper or faster - not to mention the fact that there's less chance the application will fully meet corporate standards and expectations.

How can ISVs grow business when competing with SaaS giants?

The market for packaged applications is undergoing a fundamental transformation with customers looking for only what they need style solutions that demand minimal or no infrastructure hassle. Demand for Internet delivery (SaaS or ASP models) is growing and big players are continuously creating and dominating new market niches.

While it is possible to deliver existing solutions over the Internet using virtualization technology, these don't provide viable economies of scale. Revenue trickles from SaaS applications also create cash-flow shortages during the first years of a SaaS operation.

To maintain competitive advantage, ISVs need to keep up their existing on-premise sales model in parallel to building a strong SaaS offering.

uniPaaS application platform technology provides ISVs with this and more competitive advantages including:

• Re-use of business logic from existing components - eliminating the need to rewrite everything
• Minimizes development by providing pre-programmed commonly used functions
• Enables multi-tenant SaaS deployment without the need for multiple programming skills