With the latest trends in the Web 2.0 and Intranet hosted applications, many companies are rushing to embrace these technologies without fully weighing the benefits and detriments. While today's rich web solutions can handle many business operations, they can't do everything.
When working with clients to rewrite some of their old client-server based software into a more streamlined web based solution, it's not uncommon for them to strive to replace all their software with web applications. While it may make sense to rewrite all of the applications, especially if there is significant redesign involved in the process and/or data, it doesn't all work in a browser.
Imagine a client whose application is customer service software used primarily by their call centers. While a web design is desired for its flexibility and ease of support, it also needs to be highly responsive to handle the demands of the call center. A majority of the application is used by the operators answering the phones handling their day-to-day customer service tasks. A smaller portion of it is designed for a set of managers to handle escalated items that the operators couldn't handle themselves.
The application that the managers need is highly complex and needs to be feature rich to satisfy their needs. Instead of simply viewing and editing customer information, it needs to be able to historically display what changes had occurred by whom, and when. As certain changes have to be approved, the application also needs to be able to present those options to the managers.
In this instance, moving this application to a browser-based application could not be realized without a considerable performance hit. While the application won't benefit from the flexibility and centralized deployment that the web applications will, its use is limited to a handful of users so the deployment is much more manageable. It also performs considerably better as a client server application than it would as a web application, while delivering all the desired features.
For a more in-depth perspective of theories and practices behind client-server and web applications, Click here to request a copy of the latest Risetime Whitepaper: Migrating from a Desktop to an Intranet Environment.
- Author Risetime Consultant, Rob Grillos