In the late 1990’s many ERP companies caught the web browser wave, undertaking projects to leverage the Internet and browser technology and even to convert their software to “lite-client” or web “portal” architectures. Unfortunately for some, .NET came on the scene too soon after this major overhaul. When .NET appeared, some were too technically exhausted, or inflexible, or still basking in the glow of their new “Internet-based architectures” to recognize and embrace .NET. Other ERP software companies were and continue to be simply too busy struggling to stay solvent during the devastating one-two-three punch of Y2K, the recession of 2000, and 9/11. They lack the resources to consider the complete restructuring of their products that .NET warrants.

While Microsoft struggles to explain and market .NET, the changes at its core represent the biggest shift in software technology since the dawn of Microsoft Windows. .NET is the second shoe to fall in the Internet revolution, portending a whole new computing model emphasizing not just superficial trading of web pages, but cooperating and collaborating systems. For ERP vendors and their customers, .NET spells the future of enterprise software applications. And, as we will explore in this whitepaper, .NET technology points to a future that demands ERP software companies rethink and rewrite their base architectures.

The Right Place, the Right Time: Accepting the Challenge
In 1998, Intuitive Manufacturing Systems was a 4-year-old ERP company, following the industry leaders, investigating “lite-client” architectures and tools to move their ERP package into the Internet age. Intuitive’s investigation turned up several concerns.

First, web browser-based user interfaces would not provide the rich features and raw speed of native code. Native code (code running locally on the PC) leverages the local CPU to perform much of the computing work, giving the user interface a snappy performance, and a rich set of reactions to a user’s mouse clicks and keystrokes. In the lite-client model, most of the work is performed on the server. A web browser interface is analogous to a slide show, where the projector (the server) does the work and the screen (the browser) just hangs there. Clearly, the lite-client processing model mirrored that of the mainframe with its dumb terminals rather than leveraging the nimble and ever more powerful PC.

Also, the “lite-client” architectural model put more strain on the limited IT resources and budgets available in smaller manufacturing plants. It meant ERP customers must use larger server hardware and web server software and maintain IT budgets to keep it all running. They would not be giving up their PCs; web servers would be an additional element to manage.

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