The CIO's Fast Path to Building Business Applications
CIO's today find themselves wasting plenty of time fighting with technology issues instead of focusing on the business goals of their IT projects. Issues such as:
- repetitive tasks that could have been automated,
- staff complaints about non-intuitive coding and development tools.
In order to maintain the focus on business functionality then, something more is needed. Is coding really the best way of developing applications at all, we may ask?
A metadata driven engine works by isolating the underlying technology from the application's business logic. This allows CIO's and IT managers to focus on their strategic goals rather than getting bogged down in technological ways and means.
Metadata platforms enable:
- Intuitive development - with a focus on configuration rather than coding
- Development that's independent of the underlying deployment platform
- Faster application prototyping and QA
- Developers to work natively on multiple platforms & databases
And the advantages for business are:
- Lower entry-cost threshold to business applications; Full Client, RIA and SaaS
- Fewer application coding mistakes
- Higher project success rate
- More ability to meet budget and timeline requirements
There is one potential catch however: Because metadata consists of pre-written business code, it's important that it's been well tested, including all the pre-programmed application features it provides.
This means the platform is only as good as the vendor's experience in creating business applciations. When an enterprise or ISV development team uses a proven application platform, their new application will inherit all the quality and functionality gained in the vendor's years of successful business appliction delivery.
But the flip side is also true - if the vendor's business application experience is poor - you're new application will be too.
So watch out! Make sure your vendor has lots of happy customers, and plenty of experience in delivering business applications in multiple industry verticals.
That's why at Magic Software we don't mind making a big deal about our global business: