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ProGen WebSmart Ports MAPICS ERP Functions to Web for Custom Systems Corporation ClientsBy Robert Gast The recent e-commerce shake-out has painfully revealed many of the fallacies regarding the webs proper place in business. Billions of dollars later, we now know the half-life of dot coms that sell dog food over the Internet. Moreover, the year that has passed was a bad one for prognosticators and analysts alike. Most of them have gone back to their regular jobs. Nevertheless, there's time for one more epiphany: It's becoming increasingly clear that the shortest distance between two points is the web (if the points are your core business applications and customers, vendors and field salesmen.) Browser-based, Intranet and Extranet-accessible legacy applications are needed to facilitate automated business models that increase competitiveness through customer service and efficiency. There's a bona fide surge of Intranet and Extranet web application development that is driven by pragmatic business cost justification. Controlled dynamic web access to legacy applications enables customers, manufacturing, distribution partners and employees to access information in a secured environment. Companies that operate on a very large scale are busily implementing expensive and complex CRM and automated procurement systems that catalog pertinent information on suppliers products and available inventory to improve efficiency and profit margins. What does a mid-sized company do though, when there's a strong business case on the table for similar functionality but the expense of a procurement system or an outsourced agency is off the radar screen? Custom Systems Corporation (www.cussys.com) recently addressed this challenge with the help of the web/wireless application development tool-ProGen WebSmart offered by Business Computer Design International, Inc. (www.bcdsoftware.com). New Jersey based CSC, opened its doors for business in 1969 as a service bureau. Over the course of 32 years CSC has accrued an impressive list of credentials in iSeries/400 related technologies including manufacturing and e-commerce. They've evolved into an APICS certified ERP Applications Solution Provider and Implementation Specialist for MAPIC that manages a customer base of over 400 mid-sized companies throughout the mid-Atlantic region. In meetings with clients over the course of several months CSC's MAPICS customers formulated a wish list that detailed a solution which would allow customers and sales people to look at inventory, order status, pricing, and open accounts receivable via the web rather than calling customer service or procurement. One that would eliminate the existing drudgery of trading faxes and email to and fro. Also, vendors of raw material wanted to track inventory in the manufacturer's warehouse to help them determine what their production requirements should be to avoid shortfalls. In addition to the suite of e-commerce based technologies dubbed "Enterprise Access for iSeries/400" which they brought to the table for their customers, CSC wanted to develop ERP related, plug-in web based solutions that were straight forward, easy to implement and easy to use. They formulated and revised their plans but like most AS/400 software development shops, with existing software development projects that were underway and contract work with clients they were running at capacity. Globally, there's far more work for IS technicians, (RPG included), than there are people to do the work. It's growing ever more difficult to find programmers with web development skills that aren't still in junior high. The Information Technology Association of America (www.itaa.org) estimates that employers will create a demand for roughly 1.6 million IT workers this year and 843,328 will go unfilled. Also, they note the demand for people with e-business and interactive media skills represents 13 percent of the market, i.e. 109,640 of those jobs will go unfilled. To further complicate matters, Intranet and Extranet development requires a multitude of disciplines. From a programmatic standpoint, iSeries machines do not resemble UNIX servers very (physical appearance not withstanding) much and iSeries/400 skills are very important when developing a system that needs to quickly access an iSeries database across a huge number of transactions. Nathan Quinones, a CSC partner, quickly realized that if they were going to expand their offerings in the way of web based technology, they were going to need a solid application development tool to help. Other members of the management team had reservations though, recalling all the companies that bought "CASE" tools in the late 80's that never used them because of their cumbersome nature and subsequent overhead. Commenting on his search for a product that employed the latest methodologies, Quinones says, "We came across WebSmart at COMMON last year. We made a list and went to look at nearly all the different vendor's products. When we left COMMON we took an evaluation copy of WebSmart with us. Most vendors were eager to demonstrate their product but wouldn't let us test it ourselves. BCD let us take a copy with for evaluation" (demo copies of ProGen WebSmart can also be downloaded from their website, www.bcdsoftware.com.) Moreover Quinines states, "When we got back to our office we loaded it onto one of our smaller development machines and in one evening we had developed a nice inquiry application--all with temporary codes." Quinones and his team looked over the extensive documentation provided with the tool, contacted technical support and felt satisfied with their level of expediency and knowledge, and felt that because templates made it so easy, they could proceed without participating in expensive and time consuming training classes. They decided to buy ProGen WebSmart citing that "the functionality we were looking for was definitely there and it was a lot less expensive than the other tools". For an investment of less than $15,000 they were able to get started, developing an order status inquiry system in only a short time. Customers could log on through a special secure sequence. After keying in a PO number they could review an up-to-the minute order status report. Next they developed a similar system for salesmen, therein eliminating the need to email or fax them reports several times a day. ProGen WebSmart consists of two main components, the Interactive Development Environment (IDE) and the Web Application Server (WAS). The IDE is a Windows application with an iSeries/400 code generator component. It is used to design web pages and integrate AS/400 data elements. The IDE includes wizards and templates for building off-the shelf applications with little or no coding. It also includes a code editor that allows developers to extend the logic of programs to build powerful applications, and an interactive HTML editor to customize the look of the output pages. The iSeries/400 side WAS runs the generated programs. The programs are generated in ILE RPG, and take full advantage of RPG IV features, such as bound modules, service programs and sub procedures. In the IDE, WebSmart includes a ProGen Macro Language Editor (PML). PML allows developers to write free-hand code that controls the entire flow of the program. This gives them unlimited flexibility relative to the way they want the program to appear and function. Of all the PC programming languages (Java, VB, Delphi, C++, Etc.) PML most closely resembles Java. If you don't know Java though, PML is still quite easy to use because it includes several programming aids such as a window list with all available functions, prompts for values as you type function names, pop-up info boxes with names of valid objects that can be specified for various parameters, online help and a syntax checker among others. BCD licenses the PC based development component for unlimited seats. Copies of the IDE can reside on developer laptops and home PC's enabling them to work anywhere, anytime. Templates Made it EasyCSC feels that they were able to come up to speed so quickly due to the 70+ templates that are included in ProGen WebSmart. Templates are ASCII text files containing a generic program descriptions. Whenever you build a new program, ProGen WebSmart prompts you to choose which template you would like to use as the basis for that program. These program definitions have plug-in values that determine, among other things, which database files and fields are to be processed by the program. Templates automatically define the output of the HTML segments that are presented by the resulting program, and profile the PML logic that is used to control the presentation. "PML (ProGen Macro Language) is very easy to learn," says Quinones. "The templates also made it easy. Pick a file, pick a field, compile and it generates a bunch of PML. As a programmer, you can look at the output and figure it out from there." Duncan Kenzie, WebSmart Lead Developer comments, "The programming language PML has some similarities with RPG in that it has functions for direct record level access that make it easy and intuitive to access the AS/400 database in a way that RPG programmers are used to." Commenting on the issue of application development tools being notorious for generating programs that are inefficient and which require lots of AS/400 horsepower, Quinones states "we're super happy with WebSmart's performance. WebSmart does not require a large AS/400 like other products. The processing is all happening on the AS/400 and it's serving up dynamic HTML, no Java applettes that take a long time." ProGen WebSmart runs directly compiled programs with no intermediate middlware layers in between. Also, it runs native ILE programs. So it's almost like running a traditional program on the AS/400 except it's delivering output to a web page. What NextQuinones says he'd like to get into shopping cart applications that are tied to MAPICS. "In every customer meeting the subject of Intranet and Extranet access comes up" he says. A great deal of their new business has already been driven by the web element and Quinones projects that the tools they've developed using ProGen WebSmart will represent 30 percent of their business this year and will escalate from there. CSC is now in the process of an internal implementation of WebSmart. "We're setting up a site that will allow their consultants to review billing and we're planning to provide similar information to customers" states Quinones. Business Computer Design Int'l. Inc. |
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