From the Inside March/April 2016
Over the last ten years, new interface technologies have emerged, but LOB (Line of Business) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) applications are not taking advantage of them. This is causing LOB and ERP to become very cumbersome and blocky. I'm not just talking about MultiValue applications; this is across the industry.
The Rules Have Changed for Windows Applications
There is new pressure to update your approach. Windows 10 has arrived on the Business Desktop. Some of us have installed it. Some of us are still waiting a bit longer. Either way, IT departments are working through the user issues of Windows 10 while developers are still wondering how best to use its features. And it does provide new options that we that should be interfacing with our LOB and ERP applications. They are not as widely talked about as Universal Apps, the return of the Start Menu, the write-once-run-everywhere design, and the HaloLens Apps, but can become far more important.
If your existing LOB and ERP applications do not fit with the new interface models, then your employees and your customers will start looking for alternatives. People expect the ability to access and update your masses of enterprise-level data from the programs they use the most. They don't want a model which requires them to move from program to program, or device to device, to do their work. That's the old way.
This idea is reflected in Microsoft's new API convergence. It was introduced as part of Windows 10, but really isn't Windows 10 specific. That's the point. This isn't the API for Windows Desktop OR Windows Tables OR Windows Phones OR Office OR Office 365 OR OneDrive OR Sharepoint OR Azure OR Surface OR HaloLens OR Surface Hub OR iPhones OR Androids OR the slew of other hardware and software technologies on the market today. This is the API for ALL of them. Together. At once.
What this really means is that Microsoft is turning their software and O/S into a set of APIs. Developers will be able to integrate an application into everything that Microsoft supports, instead of building an application that runs on top of a Microsoft O/S. These new APIs are based on current standards which span across devices and programming languages. Now developers are even less locked into .NET or C++ or some other Microsoft Language when interfacing with Microsoft tech or software. Windows 10 Desktop is not an O/S anymore. It is transforming into just another UI Framework that interacts and responds to these APIs.
Leverage the Advantages
LOB and ERP applications all have important information-gathering and distribution components. That's what makes them so powerful. Once we integrate these components into this new Windows 10 UI framework, suddenly our LOB or ERP application has more power than it ever had before.
Your applications should all be taking advantage of Windows Live Tiles found in the Start Menu. They should be updating and interfacing with Windows Search to find contact or customer information. They should be interfacing with Outlook directly, and sending and retrieving contact changes from within the Windows People and Outlook Contact managers. Notification systems, customer updates, and order completion should all be notifying users through Windows Notification Center. Users should be able to interface with these notifications to interact directly with the needed application or data.
Any data or action presented in those places should also be presented in Mobile Applications on Android and iDevices. The information should be securely accessible from outside the enterprise through Cloud APIs or Cloud Apps.
The API approach brings more power and flexibility to your application, allowing interaction with hardware and software that is closer to seamless. It also permits better expansion and enhancement to the important software: Your software .
Stop looking at Windows 10 as just an OS that runs your application. Start looking at Windows 10 as a UI framework for presenting your users with modern features and state-of-the-art integration.
Nathan Rector, President of International Spectrum, has been in the MultiValue marketplace as a consultant, author, and presenter since 1992. As a consultant, Nathan specialized in integrating MultiValue applications with other devices and non-MultiValue data, structures, and applications into existing MultiValue databases. During that time, Nathan worked with PDA, Mobile Device, Handheld scanners, POS, and other manufacturing and distribution interfaces.
In 2006, Nathan purchased International Spectrum Magazine and Conference and has been working with the MultiValue Community to expand its reach into current technologies and markets. During this time he has been providing mentorship training to people converting Console Applications (Green Screen/Text Driven) to GUI (Graphical User Interfaces), Mobile, and Web. He has also been working with new developers to the MultiValue Marketplace to train them in how MultiValue works and acts, as well as how it differs from the traditional Relational Database Model (SQL).
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