E-Business Requirements for Rapid Application Development

By providing a new perspective on the data in an enterprise, e-BI applications have become unique and powerful tools that enhance the value of knowledge workers. Despite their value, Giga Information Group estimates, for example, that most organizations have provided e-BI applications to only six to eight percent of the people who could use them. To provide more information to more people, organizations must address the following six challenges:

• Manage training costs.

• Handle single source issues.

• Meet IT requirements.

• Deploy across the enterprise.

• Deploy to multiple platforms.

• Provide administration and security^[1].

Managing Training Costs

In the past, many e-BI applications have presented steep learning curves. It is not the primary job of domain experts to develop and deploy applications, even when those applications are specifically for them. Consequently, tools must be easy to use, but at the same time provide significant power and flexibility. This has been a classic problem since the inception of the computer. There has always been a tension between ease and sophistication. Finding such tools is not easy.

Demonstrations, by virtue of their limited time, naturally gloss over many fine points. If the demonstration makes development look easy, it does not necessarily follow that the requisite power for sophisticated application development is available. Similarly, a less appealing demonstration may seem to indicate greater power or flexibility, but it may follow that the tool is easy to use.

Handling Single Source Issues

Finding an integrated development solution from one vendor that includes the proper robust developer tools, application server, report writer, middleware, and e-commerce interface is difficult. It is important to minimize the number of vendors, but best-of-breed solutions cannot be sacrificed. Support for heterogeneous solutions is costly. Determining which vendor is actually responsible for what problem is a daunting task at best, and it is common for each vendor to lay the blame on another. On the other hand, settling for second-rate components saps the value of the entire solution.

Meeting IT Requirements

To realize the significant benefits of e-BI applications, the rigor and structure of IT policies and procedures will have to be met. However, it is difficult to find e-BI development tools that meet this challenge because e-BI applications have generally been managed outside the IT organization.

A vendor that appears to be an innovator and on the leading edge of technology may not have the maturity to fit well into the existing IT structure. Yet, there may be concerns that more mature vendors have not kept up with the pace of technological change. Moreover, products that seem to fit the requirements in other areas may have been acquired and reacquired through mergers over time. Mergers and acquisitions raise significant concerns about the level of integration with the product mix of the latest owner, and about the continuity of technical and support staff.

Deploying Across the Enterprise

Even the best designed and most elegantly written application is of no value until it is deployed to users. Getting applications up and running across the enterprise is imperative. Unfortunately, the condition of most IT environments today makes this a complex problem. True thin-client, no plug-in technologies, such as JavaBeans, servlets, HTML, XML, and DHTML, are necessary to allow cost-effective, scalable, and usable deployments. In many cases, a centrally managed environment for administering users and supporting mobile^[3] and wireless devices^[4] is also important. Security must be maintained^[2] and technologies must be leveraged, but all this must be done in a highly distributed, heterogeneous environment. The e-BI development tool an enterprise selects must address such needs without requiring enigmatic, complicated architectural tweaks and configuration tuning.

Deploying to Multiple Platforms

Enterprise e-BI development tools cannot be limited to one or two platforms. Instead, they need to provide scalability from local PCs to mainframes. Furthermore, these tools must be flexible enough to access any data source with a high degree of efficiency. The use of proprietary cubes or indirect access mechanisms should raise red flags because they inherently limit the scalability and flexibility of the solution.

Providing Administration and Security

Reporting is a major component of e-BI applications. Although reports are central to turning data into information and information into knowledge, unlimited access is clearly unacceptable in most situations. If controlled access is to be effectively maintained, however, the development solution must provide simple and effective administrative tools that do not require a dedicated staff for even large user constituencies.

Furthermore, existing security mechanisms, protocols, and tools, such as RACF, Top Secret, and others, along with directory-based components such as Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), must not be left out or superceded. Selecting a tool with a deep enough history to coexist with and leverage the existing security structure is imperative if redundant systems and inflated implementation costs are to be avoided and, more importantly, if real security is to be maintained.

Now, let’s look at how Web developers respond to your clients’ needs in an e-business driven marketplace. With the Web becoming an integral part of daily corporate communication, this part of the chapter very briefly outlines the requirements necessary for the professional Web designer to compete in the future of enterprise Web application development. In other words, this part of the chapter gives insight into the future of applying and managing Web commerce tools for application development and also very briefly demonstrates ways to leverage technology in order to meet clients’ needs while increasing business revenue.

^[3]Vacca, John R., i-mode Crash Course, McGraw-Hill Professional, 2001.

^[4]Vacca, John R., Wireless Data Demystified, McGraw-Hill Professional, 2003.

^[2]Vacca, John R., The Essential Guide to Storage Area Networks, Prentice Hall, 2001.