by Dave Jacob, Managing Partner, WebSphere Practice

One of the latest IBM announcements allows Web Application development with IBM® WebSphere Portlet Factory. While not much discussion has been generated so far, there are some important reasons why this approach to web application is compelling:

1. Portlet Factory is simpler to use than RAD,
2. Portlet Factory is much cheaper to buy than RAD,
3.  Application development is accelerated by 50 - 70 % over standard Java development using RAD,
4.  Most Portlet Factory developers will not have to become Java experts although you'll need one Java go-to-person on the staff for those unique instances that require some Java coding,
5. Portlet Factory is a great career move for those Domino developers looking to move toward a Java world.

While we do both Java (RAD) developments here at Davalen, we prefer IBM® WebSphere Portlet Factory when clients give us a choice. With the new release of version 7 of Portlet Factory, robust support is available for AJAX and DOJO to further increase the value in the marketplace.

If you haven't investigated Portlet Factory as a primary development tool for your web applications, I think you are missing an important value proposition from IBM.

Contact me if you need more information or want to see a more detailed analysis of RAD and Portlet Factory.

Len Barker

by Len Barker, Managing Partner - Lotus Practice

Can you answer yes to all of these questions about your company?

1. Our finances are exactly where we want them.Profit, growth, balance sheet, and cash flow are just right.
2. Our cost of doing business could not be better. Our payroll, office space, IT costs, supply chain, are the lowest in the business.
3. No time is wasted getting things done.We have no meetings, paperwork is a thing of the past and decisions are made quickly using accurate information that is immediately available.
4.  Our customers love doing business with us. Survey's show there is nothing we could do better.

If I guessed correctly, there is probably at least a part of one of these questions that you think could be improved at your company.  That means you have at least one pain point.  A good portion of my time is spent meeting with managers and executives helping them wrap concrete solutions around their pain points.  Sometimes the solution is as simple as recommending that Fix Pack 3 be installed to stop that sporadic server crash from occurring.  More often then not, clients want to know how others have solved some of the more complex problems facing their business.

A recurring pain point among our clients in the insurance industry is the need to reduce the cost of sales.  Prior to our last engagement an executive told me that while she had a system in place to allow independent agents to create quotes and place orders, the process was too time consuming.  The agents wanted to spend more time selling and less time on the computer.  After meeting with the stakeholders at this company we designed a solution that used WebSphere Portal to aggregate the many systems needed by the agents into a simple, time saving interface.  Now that the agents are spending more time selling and this pain point has gone away the same executive has asked me if there is anything I can do about the number. I am still working on that one.

Peter Wilkerson

by Peter Wilkerson, Search & Discovery Practice Area Manager

Davalen has helped many clients reduce the cost of doing business by creating software solutions that automate workflow.  Now these same clients are seeing further cost savings by reducing the time necessary to complete each step in a business process.   This is accomplished by making sure that each employee has the latest, most accurate information for the task at hand.  The longer it takes to find the information and verify that it is the best source to use; the longer it takes to complete that workflow assignment.  A well-designed workflow application presents each person with information in a way that reduces workflow delays and increases productivity.  But, many times the information needed is outside of the construct of the application or even the company's own data stores making the application itself not sufficient.  For our clients that found themselves in this position we were able to show them that "Search Is the Portal" to the information their decision makers needed.

There are very real costs to not having an effective search portal in place.  Time lost trudging through hundreds of results looking for the right document; Errors made because out-dated information was used; Opportunities missed because the process took too long. 

Architecting a sound search solution targeted to meet your company's goals; client goals and workflow needs reduces the cost of core activities such as sales and customer service and increases efficiency.  Watch a demonstration of how the IBM Classification Module can help to automatically classify new documents as they are created so that they are immediately available at each step in your business processes.