hm, a nice new buzzword...
But not so new after all. SAP was talking about "componentizing" R/3 many years ago.
First it was "modularization", then "componentization" and now SOA or "applistructure".
It has not happend yet.
I think web-based enterprise portals is indeed a step forward, because now we can "bind together" several applications that publish their UIs as "Webparts" / "Portlets" into the portal and let the portal manage the workflows across these applications.
While this may provide UI- and workflow integration across the different parts of the "applistructure", it does not provide data integration and you will end up with several non-integrated and non-consistent data silos.
Doing the data integration is complex and costly, and doesn't really fit with "on-demand".
So it depends finally on your business and the nature of your business processes. Can you live with data islands? Is flexibility more important than data integration and full automation? Then go for on-demand and "applistructure". If not, better stick with the big integrated system.
Saturday, December 18, 2004
Friday, December 17, 2004
Microsoft Sharepoint Offline Access
http://www.digi-link.com/revelation.html
Just 25 € per User, supports offline modification and re-sync. Unfortunately currently only available for US and UK operating system versions!
http://www.iora.com/products/sharepoint.asp
€12000 € for 50 User (240 € / User), does not just sync: the user has the same Sharepoint Browser-based user interface when he's offline like when he's online. e.g. full-text search.
http://www.groove.net/
Groove Virtual Office does support Sharepoint Synchronization and starts at 179$ per Client.
Just 25 € per User, supports offline modification and re-sync. Unfortunately currently only available for US and UK operating system versions!
http://www.iora.com/products/sharepoint.asp
€12000 € for 50 User (240 € / User), does not just sync: the user has the same Sharepoint Browser-based user interface when he's offline like when he's online. e.g. full-text search.
http://www.groove.net/
Groove Virtual Office does support Sharepoint Synchronization and starts at 179$ per Client.
Sunday, December 12, 2004
Pubcookie Home Page
Pubcookie: open-source software for intra-institutional web authentication
"Pubcookie consists of a standalone login server and modules for common web server platforms like Apache and Microsoft IIS. Together, these components can turn existing authentication services (like Kerberos, LDAP, or NIS) into a solution for single sign-on authentication to websites throughout an institution."
"Pubcookie consists of a standalone login server and modules for common web server platforms like Apache and Microsoft IIS. Together, these components can turn existing authentication services (like Kerberos, LDAP, or NIS) into a solution for single sign-on authentication to websites throughout an institution."
Google Suggest Beta
Very cool new feature from Google: a dropdown box with search term suggestions is populated while you type your search terms!
Friday, December 10, 2004
Enterprise Instant Messaging and Presence Information as "Trojan Horse" for Microsoft to enter (replace) the office PBX market ?
Microsoft Office Live Communication Server (LCS) provides enterprise instant messaging and presence information.
Once such a solution is deployed, it's not a too far step from there to integrate it with the existing PBX system via CTI. The typical scenario would be: I'm working on a problem and need advice from a collegue. I check out the presence information to see who's available. How I could either start a chat via the instant messaging (IM) functionality, or phone him. My IM client can find out the phone number of this collegue by retrieving it from Active Directory. Presence information for external contacts can be integrated with the corporate LCS via connectors. In that case the IM client receives the phone number information from the public IM system. Given that the IM client knows the phone number(s), by sending a simple CTI-Command to the exisiting PBX system the phone call could be established.
Once that is in place, turn the employee's PC into a VoIP endpoint by connecting a telephone receiver or headset to the soundcard, and add some software. Alternatively give him a dedicated VoIP phone connected to the LAN. Finally, add a VoIP gateway that routes VoIP calls between the corporate IM system on the LAN and a public VoIP gateway. This pretty much eliminates the need to have a conventional PBX, doesn't it? And Microsoft LCS, being this VoIP/SIP gateway, could play this replacement role.
Another interesting article: http://www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/0,17863,783501,00.html
Once such a solution is deployed, it's not a too far step from there to integrate it with the existing PBX system via CTI. The typical scenario would be: I'm working on a problem and need advice from a collegue. I check out the presence information to see who's available. How I could either start a chat via the instant messaging (IM) functionality, or phone him. My IM client can find out the phone number of this collegue by retrieving it from Active Directory. Presence information for external contacts can be integrated with the corporate LCS via connectors. In that case the IM client receives the phone number information from the public IM system. Given that the IM client knows the phone number(s), by sending a simple CTI-Command to the exisiting PBX system the phone call could be established.
Once that is in place, turn the employee's PC into a VoIP endpoint by connecting a telephone receiver or headset to the soundcard, and add some software. Alternatively give him a dedicated VoIP phone connected to the LAN. Finally, add a VoIP gateway that routes VoIP calls between the corporate IM system on the LAN and a public VoIP gateway. This pretty much eliminates the need to have a conventional PBX, doesn't it? And Microsoft LCS, being this VoIP/SIP gateway, could play this replacement role.
Another interesting article: http://www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/0,17863,783501,00.html
Sunday, November 28, 2004
The Edukators
Very good movie!
German Title: Die Fetten Jahre sind vorbei
English Title: The Edukators (or "you are too rich")
"The movie is essentially about three friends with seemingly no particular direction in life other than petty political activism now and then. But Peter and Jan have found a very clever way of subverting the socio-economic system they so despise. Calling themselves "the Edukators", they break into the homes of the fabulously wealthy only to make some absurd adjustments to the arrangement of their furniture and leave a simple note behind: "You have too much money."
German Title: Die Fetten Jahre sind vorbei
English Title: The Edukators (or "you are too rich")
"The movie is essentially about three friends with seemingly no particular direction in life other than petty political activism now and then. But Peter and Jan have found a very clever way of subverting the socio-economic system they so despise. Calling themselves "the Edukators", they break into the homes of the fabulously wealthy only to make some absurd adjustments to the arrangement of their furniture and leave a simple note behind: "You have too much money."
Monday, November 22, 2004
Undoing the Industrial Revolution (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)
"The last 200 years have driven centralization and changed the human experience in ways that conflict with evolution. The Internet will reestablish a more balanced, decentralized lifestyle."
Friday, November 19, 2004
ILOG Rules for .NET: Geschäftsregeln mit Office bearbeiten
könnte interessant sein:
(COMPUTERWOCHE) - Ilog bringt Anfang Dezember sein "Ilog Rules for .NET" auf den Markt. Dieses neue Paket zur Verwaltung von Business Rules setzt nach Angaben des Herstellers vollständig auf Microsofts .NET-Plattform und bietet darüber hinaus Integration mit Office, Visual Studio und SharePoint.
Es besteht aus den vier Komponenten "Rule Solutions for Office" (integriert einen "Point-and-Click"-Editor mit natürlichsprachlicher Syntax für Geschäfsregeln in Microsofts Bürosuite), "Rule Studio for .NET" (Plug-in-Set, mit dem Visual-Studio-Entwickler Geschäftsregeln im IDE entwerfen, testen und in ihre Anwendungen integrieren können), "Rule Team Server for Sharepoint" (Repository für Geschäftsregeln, auf das Policy-Manager und Geschäftsanwender über Windows Sharepoint Services gemeinsam zugreifen können) sowie der "Rule Engine for .NET" (nativ für .NET entwickelte Regel-Engine zur nahtlosen Einbindung in Applikationen unabhängig von Architektur und Programmiersprache). (tc)
(COMPUTERWOCHE) - Ilog bringt Anfang Dezember sein "Ilog Rules for .NET" auf den Markt. Dieses neue Paket zur Verwaltung von Business Rules setzt nach Angaben des Herstellers vollständig auf Microsofts .NET-Plattform und bietet darüber hinaus Integration mit Office, Visual Studio und SharePoint.
Es besteht aus den vier Komponenten "Rule Solutions for Office" (integriert einen "Point-and-Click"-Editor mit natürlichsprachlicher Syntax für Geschäfsregeln in Microsofts Bürosuite), "Rule Studio for .NET" (Plug-in-Set, mit dem Visual-Studio-Entwickler Geschäftsregeln im IDE entwerfen, testen und in ihre Anwendungen integrieren können), "Rule Team Server for Sharepoint" (Repository für Geschäftsregeln, auf das Policy-Manager und Geschäftsanwender über Windows Sharepoint Services gemeinsam zugreifen können) sowie der "Rule Engine for .NET" (nativ für .NET entwickelte Regel-Engine zur nahtlosen Einbindung in Applikationen unabhängig von Architektur und Programmiersprache). (tc)
Monday, November 15, 2004
Warning Regarding Leased Lines from Deutsche Telekom Competitors in Germany
There are several competitors of Deutsche Telekom who offer leased lines throughout Germany.
The company I am working for is using leased lines from one of these providers to build a WAN between our sites in Germany. The provider is offering his service significantly cheaper than Deutsche Telekom does. However there's a downside we did not expect.
Our central site has a direct fiber connection to the provider network. At two other sites however this is not available, because the provider does not have his own network / fibre infrastructure in this city. Nevertheless he offered to connect this site to our central site.
How does he do it? He teams up with a local provider. However this local provider doesn't have a direct connection to our office in this city either - he needs to rent the "last mile" from Deutsche Telekom. This means that our WAN connection to this city is bought from one provider, but underneath its dependent on three providers.
First of all, going through three providers is of course adding several possible points of failures.
Those providers to not always talk to each other when it comes to maintenance. We've had outages that turned out to be "planned maintenance", however we were not informed and it happend in the midst of the day during our business hours.
Even worse, once we had an outage starting friday evening. Our provider did not even notice the outage. He monitors the connection to the local provider, but did not notice at all that the connection from the local provider to our office had failed. This is in spite he has an SLA that covers the end-to-end connection.
Not going with the Ex-monopolist Deutsche Telekom saves money, but it comes at additional risks.
The company I am working for is using leased lines from one of these providers to build a WAN between our sites in Germany. The provider is offering his service significantly cheaper than Deutsche Telekom does. However there's a downside we did not expect.
Our central site has a direct fiber connection to the provider network. At two other sites however this is not available, because the provider does not have his own network / fibre infrastructure in this city. Nevertheless he offered to connect this site to our central site.
How does he do it? He teams up with a local provider. However this local provider doesn't have a direct connection to our office in this city either - he needs to rent the "last mile" from Deutsche Telekom. This means that our WAN connection to this city is bought from one provider, but underneath its dependent on three providers.
First of all, going through three providers is of course adding several possible points of failures.
Those providers to not always talk to each other when it comes to maintenance. We've had outages that turned out to be "planned maintenance", however we were not informed and it happend in the midst of the day during our business hours.
Even worse, once we had an outage starting friday evening. Our provider did not even notice the outage. He monitors the connection to the local provider, but did not notice at all that the connection from the local provider to our office had failed. This is in spite he has an SLA that covers the end-to-end connection.
Not going with the Ex-monopolist Deutsche Telekom saves money, but it comes at additional risks.
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