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The Internet has fundamentally changed the way enterprise applications are built and deployed. It has also created an enormous amount of confusion around how enterprise applications should be built to deliver the full benefits of Web-architected deployment.
The fact is, most enterprise applications today must move to a Web architecture of one form or another. The challenge for end-users is to determine which architecture provides the best functionality for today and a foundation and strategic direction to ensure ongoing success in the future.
According to Bob Mick, vice president of the ARC Advisory Group, "Today's business strategies are inextricably linked and enabled by enterprise software Much of the software, and architecture, was designed for use entirely inside the enterprise. The rapid evolution to highly dispersed value-chain networks of strategic partners requires reliable, secure interaction capabilities, which these original architectures do not support. Of course, most software suppliers are trying to deal with these new customer requirements using Web technologies, with varying degrees of success, and it is up to the end user to assess how suitable the supplier's architecture is for the end user's strategic purposes." (Source: ARC Insights, "Architecture Defines Ultimate Capability," by Bob Mick.) Determining the proper architecture for Web deployment can be a daunting task. To all but the savviest technologists, today's typical Web-architected enterprise product diagram is a confusing jumble of acronyms and buzzwords and pledges of "true enterprise wide" deployments. Separating the hype from reality is critical for end-users to select enterprise products that deliver the full benefits of true enterprise Web deployment.
THE BENEFITS OF WEB-ARCHITECTED DEPLOYMENT
Why go through the considerable effort to migrate client/server-based enterprise applications to Web-architected ones? Because the overwhelming benefits of Web-architected deployment simply cannot be ignored. These include the following:
Lower Total Cost of Ownership
Web-architected enterprise applications deliver significant cost savings over traditional client-server ones. For example, a multi-site client/server deployment requires client and server software in each location. A Web-architected deployment only requires one instance of server software for deployment across multiple locations.
Faster Deployment
Because only a single instance of server software is required, and there is no cumbersome client software, the technical aspects of Web-architected enterprise deployments take a fraction of the time of client/server deployments.
Reduced Maintenance and Support
With just one instance of server software, Web-architected deployment also drastically reduces the complexity of ongoing administration and maintenance of the application. This simplifies software upgrades. Once the server software is upgraded, the benefits are immediately available to all end-users, thus delivering a higher-quality user experience.
Cross-Enterprise Visibility
Web-architected deployment facilitates the sharing of information between locations and between systems. For example, because all product inventory can be viewed as a single, logical "enterprise inventory," new efficiencies can be realized by managing inventory on an enterprise scale, rather than on a "siloed" site-by-site basis. Furthermore, through the use of Web technologies like XML and Web services, applications can readily share information, meaning that ERP and CRM systems, for example, can benefit from information generated from an EAM system, and vice versa, to generate new efficiencies.
The Infor Approach
Infor's approach has always been to integrate "technology that matters" into its products. This means technology that delivers true business value to customers today, while providing a clearly defined technology roadmap to ensure future success. This approach was validated by the successful introduction of Datastream 7i in 2001.
Datastream 7i Architecture
While other vendors "announced" Web-architected EAM products around that time, Datastream 7i quickly proved itself as the only EAM solution capable of handling the rigor of Enterprise deployments.
With the introduction of the latest version of Datastream 7i, Infor has extended its technical leadership in the Web-architected EAM space by leveraging today's most important Web enterprise application technologies. Infor is the first company to offer Web Services in the EAM market. This paper explains these new technologies, how they enhance Datastream 7i, why they are important to customers, and why they position Datastream 7i far ahead of any other Web-architected EAM system.
Datastream offers a strategically designed application architecture with advanced Web technologies for maximum functionality and flexibility.
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