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> From: Nathan M. Andelin > > You pointed out that when the underlying business process is flawed, the > addition of a Web or GUI component won't solve it. On the other hand, it > seems that a process that's already sound doesn't benefit much from a 5250 > to GUI conversion. It makes me wonder how Jacada earns their millions. > Marketing to the intense pressure that ISVs are under to supply a GUI? Or > by offering solutions with real value? For many clients, the issue seems to be an evolutionary one. Here's one example. It doesn't reflect any particular company, but instead an amalgam of issues: Company A starts out with a perfectly acceptable green screen system, driven by either telephone contact or by data entry from paper forms. Up until this point, the fact that they are on the AS/400 works in their favor, especially since Company B, their primary competitor, is on a less robust and capable platform. Company B puts up a web site, little more than a set of static pages with a "contact us" page. Company A begins to build a web presence in response. At this point, the battle begins to heat up. They match presence for presence, putting up all the neat things that you can do with static content. Eventually, however, their users demand that they begin exposing one or more of their business processes. For Company B, they may be running on Unix or Microsoft and some sort of SQL database. For them, it is relatively easy to put up an appealing, though not particularly powerful, web application, with all kinds of nice inquiries and even a little bit of data entry, such as a storefront. Company A is now in a bind. In order to keep up with the competition, they need to web-enable their order entry process. However, since they are on the AS/400, they have one of two basic options: develop a non-AS/400 solution and integrate it, or put a screen scraper on the front of their existing order entry system. Neither solution is particularly elegant, and either way they are committing a large amount of resources to a process which doesn't actually improve their core business systems. This is where an approach like PSC400 comes in. By web enabling one or more of their applications, they can quickly provide a counter to Company B. Because they are exposing their actual AS/400 application, chances are that it has far more features and capabilities than any simple SQL-based storefront, including those unique business practices which their customers have already come to value. At the same time, by using a UI-isolating technique such as JavaServer Pages, they can quickly take advantage of the style sheets and logos that they have already implemented in their existing web presence. It's this coordination of the powerful, time-tested AS/400-based applications with their already existing web presence that makes the 5250-to-GUI translation so appealing. Joe Pluta www.plutabrothers.com
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