************************************* * * * DB/C Newsletter * * May 2004 * * * ************************************* News and Comments Most of the time we're involved with the here and now of our DB/C-based applications - fixing bugs, adding features, providing support, etc. This month's article isn't about now - it's about the future of the applications that you may be responsible for. I hope you find it thought provoking. don.wills@dbcsoftware.com ****************************************************************************** Software as a Service Software has traditionally been sold as a license to use on your own computer. A new model that is becoming more widespread is that software is sold as a service instead of as a product. Here is an example of "software-as-a-service". DB/C Software Company purchases accounting and payroll services. We have used Oracle Small Business Suite for our internal accounting for more than 3 years. This is a web based service where our data resides on servers somewhere on the Internet. We access our data, print reports, print checks, and do all other functions using a standard web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox and others). We do our payroll using the Intuit Payroll Service which is also a standard web browser-based service. There are several advantages of software-as-a-service offerings like these when compared with traditional application systems. New features just show up - software updates and conversions are done for us without any involvement by us. The service provider backs up our data, handles security, and does all maintenance. In addition, the Intuit Payroll Service handles checking account and tax deposit functions by deducting money out of our corporate checking account. Our experience with these two services has been excellent. They are great money and time savers. Eldorado Computing, Inc. (ECI), a long-time user of DB/C software, provides software as a service. ECI sells software and services to third party administrators, insurance companies, self-funded employers and others to manage health benefit plans. ECI's web site is www.eldocomp.com. ECI has been in business since 1984. Their primary software product is HEALTHpac. HEALTHpac is mostly written in DB/C, and is sold and installed on each customer's computer system in the traditional manner. About 4 years ago, ECI started selling the same software as a service - HEALTHware ASP. It has been very successful. Almost half of the people whose medical claims are processed by ECI's software are processed using HEALTHware ASP. ECI has gained new customers because of this software-as-a-service offering. Interestingly, many of ECI's customers who had formerly installed and used HEALTHpac have switched over to using HEALTHware ASP. Software-as-a-service provides many advantages and is here to stay. However, interoperability with other services is an area where many of today's software-as-a-service offerings fall short. For example, the two services that DB/C Software Company uses don't communicate with each other or provide compatible interfaces. Accounting transactions created by the payroll system need to be manually entered into the accounting system. Interoperability of services is a hard problem. The term "service oriented architecture" (or SOA) refers to software that is designed for interoperability with other software. Software services provided by unrelated vendors that embody an SOA design would, in theory, work with each other. A service that embraces a SOA would offer the ability for many linkages to simultaneously exist to other services. These linkages would provide for all movement of data to and from each service. The linkages could be modified at any time; they could be real-time or batch-mode; they could be XML-based, X12-based, or based on other specifications. The collection of services used by any one company would be linked to services used by other companies. A world where software services work seamlessly with other software services may seem like a pipe dream, but small islands of interoperable services already exist. These islands of interoperable services will only grow in size and scope. Software needs to evolve as the world in which it lives changes. And this probably includes the DB/C-based applications that you are responsible for. Here is a list of web sites and companies that provide web-based services for accounting, payroll and customer relationship management: payroll.com Intuit Payroll Services netsuite.com NetSuite, Inc. also known as Oracle Small Business Systems intacct.com Intacct Corporation epeachtree.com Best Software SB, also known as Peachtree adp.com Automated Data Processing salesforce.com Salesforce.com (phone number: 1-800 NO-SOFTWARE) freecrm.com CRM ASP, Inc. ****************************************************************************** DB/C DX Class Schedule Class: DB/C DX Fundamentals Date: June 28-30, 2004 Location: Oak Brook, Illinois For information, send email to admin@dbcsoftware.com. ****************************************************************************** Subscribing to the DB/C Newsletter If you don't already have the DB/C Newsletter delivered to your email address and would like to have it emailed to you monthly, just send an email message to 'dbcnews-subscribe@dbcsoftware.com'. 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