Developing
Applications? "Just Outsource!"
Outsourcing
activities have become a common practice in business. We
wouldn't want to own hundreds of transport vehicles and
courier workers as well as dozens of offices in designated
cities only to meet our needs of transporting goods to specific
places around this country or even abroad. Organizations
such as Federal Express were established to provide us with
such a service.
Many
other routine business activities are trusted over to other
parties in the same manner. Mention any products that we
manufacture, employee training activities, and such. Any
form of business activity that we outsource is almost always
done for reasons of achieving the efficiency and effectiveness
that would not be possible if done internally within a company.
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The
same is happening now with the development of computer applications
and software. Until recently, a software developer needed to
develop the entire module or parts of an application in its
entirety, or purchase these modules from a third-party vendor
with the criteria that the technology was compatible with the
one his company was using to develop its applications.
Today, the process of developing applications has become easier,
faster and more economical, because a developer is no longer
forced to create an entire module or parts of an application
in its entirety. Separate parts, such as those that handle user
authentication processes, and are almost always required before
an application can be used, can be handed over to a third party,
which specializes in developing user-authentication processes.
It can later be integrated into the application that is currently
being developed by a company.
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Another
example, applications that handle income tax calculation processes,
which use a standard formula anywhere as long as the same
tax laws apply can benefit from the use of income tax calculating
modules already developed by third parties to be integrated
into an application being developed. Such programming activities
are classified as a service and are offered by service providers
since others can make use of them.
Specifically,
the process of integrating with a work in progress requires
a network that connects our application with the service to
be used. In the event that the service provider is in a location
nearby, for example in the MIS department, a Local Area Network
(LAN) can be used.
But,
in the even that the aforementioned service provider is in
a separate location, we can use the Internet.
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Other options such as a private or internal network do exist,
although these networks have a much higher cost than public
networks such as the Internet. What about the costs of consuming
such a service? The situation opens up a new business module,
in which consumers are charged on a basis of on frequency
of use, a membership fee, or a license fee where the need
of the service is in large amounts and high frequency.
We
can imagine the amount of efficiency and effectiveness that
will be achieved in developing future computer applications.
Many companies have had unpleasant experiences in trying to
satisfy their own computer application needs by getting involved
in the developing process themselves. Often this leads to
working into the late hours and putting a burden on expenses,
time and labour.
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Now,
try positioning yourself not only as a consumer of such services.
You could also play the role of the service provider, or take
the perspective of someone in not in the software development
business, or not part of an IT organization. How does it apply
to you?
Take for instance the fact that in Indonesia, we are already
capable of developing compensation calculation systems that
are part of a complete Human Resource Management system. Assuming
that the system is an advanced and comprehensive one, why
not try to expose it as a service to the public, while at
the same time using it within the company.
Possibly
there might be an SDM application developer who would like
to integrate that specific application with one they are developing.
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There
might also be another company interested in using that particular
compensation system for their internal purposes. Could this
not be an alternative income source for a company?
Such outlets for services are currently being discovered in
the IT world. Common theory has it that an application no longer
consist of a client and server as we have come to know it, but
now comes in the form of: "application=client+server+service".
This all has been made possible by the increasing uniformity
and standardization of formats known in the IT world that are
moving toward a more universal standard. |
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The
need for collaboration and integration between companies is
becoming an essential criterion for global business communication.
And so has it, that the big players of IT vendor circles are
developing technologies that support this concept with every
passing day.
If you have been hearing much of the new concept that lately
has become the topic of discussion among media experts it
is that of XML Web service. This is the technology that supports
the concept we've just discussed. It uses XML as the basis
of data formats and is shaped in the form of a service running
on a network that we know as the Internet. Welcome to the
new generation of the Internet. ***
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