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 Our last newsletter of the "noughties" sees us incredibly busy, with significantly increasing levels of Internet related work, notably in respect of the remote hosting of both physical servers and Internet mediated applications for the NHS.
At the same time, we are seeing application development beginning to come up with viable and user friendly applications that need no more than an Internet browser in which to function.
At our recent Development Seminar we highlighted one of these, HelpDesk Express, from Data Access Europe, designed with the experience of supporting software development, but flexible enough to be used in many other areas.
HelpDesk Express has everything you need to track support calls for products, versions of products, through from self service problem reports to analysing resolution statistics.
Our development seminar report has some screen shots of HDE (still in development), which is a very good example of what can be achieved as a Web Application.
HelpDesk Express was just one of the topics at the Development seminar.
The response of those who attended was encouraging. The main theme was the current rapid evolution of the Internet environment, ranging from "Software as a Service", SaaS, through the now emerging answers as to how to gain an Internet presence (i.e. a server for applications) via something like Amazon’s "Elastic Computing" concept ) through to practical Web capable applications like Help Desk Express and Dynamic AI
With all these "new directions", it does seem that we have given our developers something to think about:-
The AJAX presentation followed by the training was very good - this is Ajax version 2 and this is all you need to do to start using it. As someone who does not need Ajax / Web at the moment it did exactly what I wanted which was to bring me up to speed with the current changes.
The seminar did not really need any understanding of WebApp. If you want to extend the Ajax framework you will need some JS / DOM training. If you just want to make good use of the framework as supplied then a course that focuses on the VDF Ajax library and Web Business Objects would be good.
For anyone with an interest in Web targeted application development, we hope to be doing just that in the New Year!
Dynamic AI and VDF WebApp Server
From Dave McKane, Datos
I have to say both Colin and I were very impressed with what we learnt last week and have now began to move towards implementation of both Dynamic AI and WebApp into our application.
During the next three months we will be converting the ledgers from our character mode software (COMiT) into our windows package, Season and we will be converting from DataFlex into Microsoft SQL before the end of December.
We will be developing our ledgers and incorporating Dynamic AI into the package at the same time, our logic is to develop the ledgers with a file structure that will allow us to easily use Dynamic AI, that means we have an opportunity to get things right at the beginning.
We plan to launch the ledgers and Dynamic AI at the same time to our customer base etc - this is the final push in an almost 3 year development program.
It was fortuitous that you had your seminar at this time. We also plan to write a Sales Rep CRM module using VDF WebApp in the new year. We already have a solution for this written with Momote (an interface for PDAs), but there is much more opportunity for a package on the Web and again using Dynamic AI and Ajax.
This was exactly our intention - helping to create awareness of what the future is going to bring us. Have a look through our Seminar report, and if you have any questions contact us on 0845 2707747
If you are interested in our Web Application Development with AJAX 2 day training course, the details are here.
A Dynamic AI endorsement!
 From the Data Access support forums
I don’t know where else to post this -- since its too cold to get up on my roof top and shout out -- come to think of it -- I’d be at a loss for words -- because this product is simply MIND-BLOWING!
I haven’t been this excited about a development tool since I discovered DataFlex over 25 years ago.
If you want a real shortcut -- over web services, AJAX, Crystal, etc. -- to providing a browser-enabled interface to your VDF apps’ database -- I think you’re going to be pleasantly surprised by what DAI offers. I’m not saying its a replacement for sophisticated data entry applications -- but it is definitely appropriate for very sophisticated reporting of data.
I just had to tell someone....
Bob (Cergol)
So what is Bob out for so enthusiastic about? Go find out for yourself, download the Dynamic AI Personal edition!
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 Asckey Hosting Services expanding rapidly!
From origins in a specialised data collection application for what is now the NHS Information Centre, Asckey Data Services has been a service provider for the private NHS "N3" network. While a very big - the biggest in Europe - private network, the number of non NHS organisations that are registered to provide connectivity services is very small as security is a major concern to the NHS Connecting for Health authority, and you have to have very good reasons (and a sponsor) in order to get qualified.
There is an increase in awareness that the Internet is an ideal vehicle for making available interactive applications that collect data, including clinical trials. At the same time there is an emerging desire to consolidate general administrative functions such as Sharepoint document management across groups of Hospital trusts. Hosting for both of these requirements is now exceeding the proper remit of individual Trust IT, and as a result we have seen a steady stream of enquiries for qualified N3 Hosted services looking for a friendly, specialist, hosting provider.
This has now reached the point where we will be building a completely new server room and increased N3 connection bandwidth (up from 2Meg to potentially 100Meg!) in order to meet the demand. That, that in turn gives us more capacity to respond to more Internet Server and Application Hosting requests.
If you need specialist hosting services, either for N3 or www, we would like to hear from you. From Helpdesk Express and similar "Web Applications", through to distributing windows applications via remote application serving, we now have a lot of experience in setting up these easy to manage remotely hosted applications.
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More than just the Application
From these attendances it is becoming apparent that organisations such as Estates Departments within trusts are today looking beyond the purely "mechanical details" of application capability, becoming very aware of the warnings about public performance sector expenditure reductions and in particular, in this area, how it will affect them as a service generally not viewed as in the "front line".
Our discussions with Trust managers and staff at these shows centred around the fact that for the immediate future as much emphasis will be placed on the overall value of the complete service provision rather than just the technicalities of the application modules supplied.
As important as the functional capabilities of the application, the support, the Helpdesk and the financial stability of the supplier are all seen as essential in evaluating the suitability of a serious business management system long term. These considerations also emerged as becoming more critical at our recent developer seminar as well, where the operation of helpdesk systems such as HelpDesk Express (or our own TMS Helpdesk system) was recognised as a necessary part of the evaluation of an application and its suitability for the business concerned.
This means that for those Trusts who take on Eclipse- fm® it is not only the application as such that is taken into account but also
- the ongoing regular upgrades to system functionality,
- the many years of practical experience of working with NHS Estates and Facilities departments that goes into Eclipse-fm® development,
- the permanently staffed Help Desk, the on line support (via N3),
- the comfort factor of a development company with no borrowings well prepared for the financial hardships that we can all see coming down the line in the next couple of years.
Application Integration
Another theme that has emerged is connectivity and integration. Most Estates and Facilities Departments utilise a wide variety of IT applications for managing different aspects of the operations. However at some point the functionality of these overlaps.
This is well exemplified by our joint effort with Pierce Management to forge a seamless connection with their Credits for Cleaning (C4C) auditing software for NHS Trusts (a very hot topic currently in the NHS), but also with electronic test equipment manufacturer Rigel.
Each system can now exchange data with its opposite number, closing the loop between finding a task at audit, to confirming that the task has been done back to the audit, with no duplication of effort or possibility of missing any step in the two way traffic needed.
Such integrations can result in a combination of which the value of the whole is very much more than the sum of the parts. It is much more sensible, as well as more economically viable to integrate two systems each doing its part well than to expensively pursue a "not invented here" approach.
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 For expert business application development, using virtually any database format, specialist web site and web application development and hosting -
Talk to us! 0845 270 7747
Your individuality drives our excellence
Church End Farm
Warboys Road, Pidley,
Cambs PE28 3DA
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