I recently discovered a new technology blog by QA professional Jonathan Ross (no relation to the UK broadcaster with questionable taste in jokes).
Even though the blog has only been on air for a month, it already contains a nice range and depth of articles from the in's and out's of social networking security to application design and functionality to current affairs.
I wonder if I can convince him to download a free trial of the uniPaaS Discovery Edition and then let me know what he thinks?
Microsoft Dyamics is a powerful and multi-lingual software package for both on-premise and on-demand CRM requirements.
The system is also part of a wider Microsoft Dynamics family that includes ERP applications (Microsoft Dynamics AX and NAV) and an accounting application (Microsoft Dynamics GP).
Of course, the company's CRM application is designed to be used in conjunction with these other packages - providing a broad sales, marketing and managment information solution for the enterprise.
But what if you already own an ERP system - say SAP for example, and what about an email system that isn't based on Microsoft, such as Lotus Notes or Google's Gmail?
How do you ensure that your Microsoft CRM system is integrated with these and other non-Microsoft products without undertaking a complex and expensive integration effort?
Well, Magic Software has of course now created another dedicated iBOLT connector - enabling fast and code-free integration of Microsoft Dynamics CRM with other IT applications including ERP, calendars, email and databases.
iBOLT for Microsoft Dynamics is now available and is worth looking into. The product is easy to learn and use and, particularly important - it enables users to quickly and easily add new applications or business processes as the company's demands and organizational set-up inevitably change.
Have a look at the iBOLT demo on YouTube, or read more about the Microsoft Dynamics CRM integration challenge in the white paper just out.
The Field Service Management (FSM) market is in rapid growth phase and is set to reach over $500 million in the next two years.
That means that software suppliers of FSM solutions have their work cut out for them as requirements for customization, integration and mobile applications make older systems rapidly obsolete.
Add to this the fact that specific industries and individual companies are requiring more custom capabilities to increase efficiency in the current downturn and fill any remaining gaps in their customer service provision.
For the full business argument and how metadata application platforms and business integration solutions can lower costs and improve service innovation - hear our latest webinar or have a look at the following webpage and white paper.
Manufacturingtalk has now published our article which examines how to upgrade IT application functionality for the manufacturing industry.
In particular, the article examines subsribing to a SaaS vs. custom-building the software application in-house using rich internet application platforms such as uniPaaS.
For a more in-depth look at the application technology needs of the manufacturing sector and how they can be solved have a look at the following web page and white paper.
As healthcare organizations such as hospitals and clinics are under more pressure to effectively manage and use their IT applications, much of this pressure is offset to those IT vendors tasked with supplying healthcare organizations with their IT applications.
With the introduction of National Electronic Patient Records (such as the AORTA system in the Netherlands) it turns out that IT suppliers often have little more than a few months to get their IT applications fully converted to the HL7 standard. So what are the options for IT vendors looking to adapt their applications quickly and cost-efficiently to the HL7 protocol? First let's look at the conventional hard-coding approach to integration:
Challenge 1: Become an HL7 Expert
First off, to manually adapt your healthcare application to the HL7 protocol you need to swat up and become fully versatile in all the bits and bytes of the HL7 protocol. This includes becoming familiar with all the various formats; from where you insert your healthcare patient's ID, to every field you need to pass or retrieve.
Challenge 2: Build a New Application Layer
Once these formats are fully understood, IT vendors then have to create a whole new layer to their existing healthcare applications. This layer must read and then extract the application data in the HL7 format, or vice versa. It would then have to embed that information into the existing application. Just incorporating the HL7 lingo into an existing application is by itself an IT project of significant magnitude.
Challenge 3: Future Maintenance
Every time the IT vendor updates, changes or modernizes their healthcare application, they also have to update and maintain the new HL7 layer. In an average appliation's life cycle, maintenance can use around 70% of the IT team's total work hours - this becomes a significant undertaking which of course entails greater costs to the vendor.
Challenge 4: Multiple HL7 Versions!
Also to consider are the various versions of the HL7 protocol - so ideally you would want to be as loosely coupled with the HL7 specifications - to allow for simple integration and organizational changes (whether its from the HL7 side or from the application end).
Integration Platforms such as the iBOLT integration suite can offer a number of advantages compared to hard coding:
Metadata engine - The iBOLT suite contains pre-compiled business logic that enables IT vendors and developers to bypass challenges 1 and 2. There's no need to learn the full HL7 format before you start, and no need to manually build and then maintain a seperate HL7 layer on top of the original application.
Graphical Studio and Wizards that enable IT teams to intuitively view and design their integration linkages. This makes the entire project easier to build and therefore easier to adapt to future demands (answering challenge 3). It also helps ensure that the entire project is loosely coupled - so the IT vendor can easily and cost-efficiently adapt to new HL7 standards (answering challenge 4) as and when they roll out.
As promised some time ago, I have now written a new HL7 White Paper on how to improve the HL7 integration process for healthcare providers.
The paper outlines the purpose of the HL7 protocol, details the various healthcare settings in which HL7 is required, and describes how metadata integration platforms such as iBOLT can provide a faster and smoother process than manual coding.
As always, feedback and questions are welcome!
Building the Client front-end of a mobile application is relatively simple when compared to the complexity needed to tie front-end transactions with an enterprise's many back-end systems.
Sometimes it's simply not enough for a business, in say, the manufacturing or distribution sector to deploy a mobile applications for their staff with access to a single back-end system - let's say the SAP ERP system.
Of course, any customer part or product request must begin with the ERP system - in this case checking to see if the part is in stock. However, the work doesn't end there.
The customer's request and transaction must also be synchronized with the company's on-premise CRM system or on-demand account (such as Salesforce.com). Then an order and an invoice must be raised, and then only finally a shipping report sent to the customer.
So it's all very well having a smart mobile application featuring the latest in Rich Internet Application (RIA) technology that will provide customized SAP functionality.
What's even more important is that your mobile application integrates SAP with your other back-end systems whether they are on-site such as SAP R/3 or SAP Business One, Oracle, IBM, or Lotus, or on-demand such as Google or Salesforce.com.
Metadata-based integration tools such as Magic Software's iBOLT will synchronize your mobile application (that you built using the uniPaaS application platform!) with the other diverse applications within the enterprise using a single skill-set that pre-programs many of the common and repetitive developing tasks that otherwise would require greater time and cost to manually code.
So if you were using SAP previously, not only do you now get a mobile application that gives you anytime/anywhere access plus customizable features (such as different languages) designed specifically to make your life easier, but you also get broader business control and a full view of your business activity - all via that one tiny screen..and with a little help from iBOLT..
Mobile devices and smart phones from the likes of BlackBerry, Nokia and Apple, and their accompanying applications, have become ubiquitous in the consumer space, where the advantages are clear and considerable.
Dave Akka, our UK Managing Director now examines the potential of mobile applications in the enterprise workplace. Read the full article here.
Other news this week, Glenn Johnson, our Senior VP Marketing for the Americas, provides us with an A-Z of Fleet Management System Requirements:
"Fleet management systems are needed by field service companies, transportation companies, transit agencies, rental companies and others with large fleets of vehicles. Are you a software company or IT department looking to create the perfect fleet management system or an end-user wanting to make sure that the systems you are considering purchasing off-the-shelf have the features you need? Here's an A to Z review of fleet management system requirements to help you make certain you've got all your bases covered."
Carry on reading the full blog article here.
Smelling a journalistic opportunity, I managed to grab ten minutes with Regev Yativ, our President and CEO for the Americas, who happened to be visiting Magic Software's HQ during this holiday week.
Regev has been making waves in 2009, particularly with Magic Software's mobile solution offering. Below is the full transcript of our interview:
The Mobile Enterprise Market - An Interview with Regev Yativ. By Sam Green.
SG: What's your take on the shape of the mobile market as we head into 2010?
RY: We are seeing some misconceptions in the mobile market where people tend to confuse the "mass mobile market" and the enterprise mobile market. The mass market requires a very high level of browser based interactivity, AV streaming and a number of other basic functions that are not always relevant for enterprise users. However, since mobile devices are today as basic as bread and butter, it means that enterprise users are being influenced more than ever before by the use and functionality of their devices and are looking to develop new expectations in their work environment as well. They are all focused on what they can do more with their mobile device or PDA.
So the mass market today is more of an influencer than ever before. We must nevertheless remember that it's not the end-game. So when we talk about Magic Software's mobile offering, we are referring specifically to solutions especially designed for enterprises.
SG: What does Magic Software have to offer that's unique?
RY: I believe that the beauty of our offering is its simplicity. The uniPaaS mobile client that we are talking about today is simply an additional deployment mode of an otherwise uniPaaS-developed Rich Internet Application (RIA). This is one of the biggest advantages that Magic Software has to offer today. As a Magic customer, this means you can take a single set of code that you initially intended to deploy as a standard RIA application, and deploy that same code, with some modifications, as a mobile application. This does require some programming changes (such as scaling down the screen, adjusting the presentation etc) however; the level of modification needed is minor when you work in the uniPaaS environment. This is great news for all operators looking to transfer their applications onto mobile devices quickly and smoothly.
SG: What does this mean practically for enterprises out there?
RY: Practically, this means that if I have a mobile workforce in an enterprise environment, or workers based in remote locations, or away-from-office teams, with different smart phones and PDAs that are being operated from anywhere in the world, I can now integrate these workers into my enterprise resource pool and exploit such resources seamlessly, as if they were sitting next door.
As an example, if you're a field engineer, and you're sent to Texas to fix an oil pump in the middle of nowhere, it can be very difficult to get connectivity into your enterprise resources in a conventional way. It may also be impractical to use standard computers and laptops. In such a situation you could now turn to your mobile phone or smart phone and use a uniPaaS mobile client to connect and fully use the functionality of your enterprise application as if you never left the office.
And of course, we must remember that this level of immediate service is worth diamonds to the customer. As one can imagine, each hour that the oil pump is out of operation it costs millions in damages and lost revenues.
SG: What's your main focus for 2010 and beyond regarding mobile solutions?
RY: Currently, Magic Software is already deployed on the Windows CE/mobile environment for several customers. We also have a number of customers now examining this option for deployment in 2010. Along with this, we are planning to come to market in the first quarters of 2010 with specialized web templates and functionality for the most common mobile platforms such as Blackberry and iPhone. Considering that the majority of enterprises in the US run Blackberry and for the most part run Blackberry enterprise servers as well, our main strategy for the coming year will be to invest in perfecting our Blackberry enterprise offering.
The agility of our uniPaaS unitary platform combined with the integration layer that iBOLT brings will be playing a key role in achieving the sort of specialized solutions that Blackberry and other mobile platforms users are looking for in fields ranging from heavy industry to government, local municipalities and corporate sectors.
SG: Tell me more about how Magic Software's iBOLT business integration suite is being used to improve the mobile enterprise experience for customers?
RY: One of the unique advantages of Magic Software is the fact that we have an unrivalled and multi-layered technology stack. At the front-end this takes the shape of the uniPaaS application platform that allows you to rapidly and cost-effectively build and deploy your mobile application as we discussed earlier. At the back-end this takes the form of the iBOLT business integration suite that lets you integrate your mobile application with a host of other business applications in the enterprise.
By linking mobile application development and deployment with enterprise application integration, many of our customers are now able to optimize and streamline their operations. As a result they can better exploit out-of-office resources, and all this works towards saving an enormous amount of money as well as creating new business opportunities.
One of the key messages we are trying to deliver regarding mobility is that it's not enough to convert ‘data' into ‘information'. It's also vital that you have maximum accessibility to this information - allowing decision makers to make accurate business decisions in real time.
To summarize, our strategy is to help our customers reach their full ‘information mobility' potential - from both ends of the enterprise, from corporate management for overall decision making to the workforce for enabling better operations and customer service.
On a personal note, from the constant interaction we have with customers, partners and analysts, we have no doubt that the mobile enterprise market is going to explode in the coming years and we are very excited to be in a position where we can offer and deliver in stages, all the needed solutions to support that.
SG: Thank you for your time and we look forward to hearing from you again later in the year.
RY: Thank you.
One of my favourite all-time clips - Good Will Hunting - with the NSA chasing Will to work as a code expert. (Warning - strong language included).
It may be a fair stretch of the imagination from this, but to build a practical and effective business application the usual way requires plenty of coding, including web services, ABAC and databases - Oracle or MSQL and others. This means hiring code and programming experts that add to your overheads and makes your organization more "skilled-person dependent".
When you use a metadata platform in place of multiple programming/code languages you no longer have to worry about hiring teams of coding experts (so you avoid awkward scenes like the above..)
Both the iBOLT business integration suite and the uniPaaS application platform use a single skill-set for building and integrating multiple technologies, protocols and environments.
And because both platforms already encorporate the business information that would otherwise have to be written from scratch, you can implement your IT projects quicker - and field a higher-quality solution with fewer bugs in the process!