Today's generation of end-users are vastly different from a generation ago, thanks to the proliferation of the desktop PC and the internet. Therefore, PC users expect that business production systems respond and provide as well as their localized desktop programs. As you can imagine, desktop publishing tools and corporate payroll systems (as an example) fulfill radically different obligations in the business paradigm and therefore carry separate functional dispositions (i.e. useabillity, response time vs security, failover and interoperability). With so much disparity between legacy systems and new age technology, what can be done. One solution that merits discussion is the SaaS (Software as a Service) strategy offered through OnDemand Application vendors.

On-Demand Applications
Managed or unmanaged application hosting strategies has been a mainstream IT staple for many years. Only recently has the idea of On Demand applications struck such an accord with corporate IT. The notion of outsourcing one or more tactical and/or strategic applications offers quite an enticing option for firms aiming to reduce their IT maintenance costs, while providing a fresh new look to an otherwise, legacy application facade. The attractiveness of the SaaS model is truly the opportunity for any IT executive to quickly, and efficiently enable particular functionality that is presently in demand by his or her business user(s). For instance, if the marketing department requested a means to automate large scale mailing campaigns to replace their current manual email and spreadsheet-based customer file, the CIO could choose from a variety of applications that offer integrated email, sales force automation, or call campaign functionality. Furthermore, by simply contracting with the On Demand provider, IT could immediately offer the technology through a web-based interface to the users, with little to no administrative overhead to their own IT cost center. With so much flexibility, sharp new interface styles, and a reduced IT overhead, On Demand Applications appears on the surface to achieve what normally takes project teams months to design, program, and implement. The On Demand Applications Marketplace vendor will have you believe the decision truly boils down to factors of "ease of use" and "reliability and dependability". While both factors carry extreme importance in the overall chemistry of successful IT performance, they are by no means alone.

Ease of Use
Ease of use on a scale of "hundreds of applications" (not one or two) would entail a paradigm shift of the human interface factor from a single application, to a more global, repeatable interface allowing one user to easily transition from one application to another. If a user wants to toggle from an expense reporting application to quickly check the performance of last week's retail promotion, they can do so seemlessly by the click of a button. Any inconsistencies between application interfaces impedes the promotion of an easy user experience tremendously.

Useability is an interesting topic, typically governed by the perspective of one individual. However, when taking into account a larger population of users (i.e. workgroup or department), ease of use becomes less a factor of the application interface (i.e. clicking buttons) and introduces instead security and data availabillity considerations. For instance, have you ever found a product easy to use, but never able to afford you a large enough data set capable of solving your particular need? Blame that on the DBA right? We prefer to suggest you talk to our integration specialists who will suggest that stove pipe, outsourced applications prohibit production-level integration necessary to meet the demands of your workgroup. Case in point: if one of your financial analysts, who traditionally conducts a weekly report on her expenses, was asked to use the same application (outsourced with the On Demand Marketplace) to report on global expenses cross referenced with sales performance, it's very likely the integration requirements (and security protocols) would prohibit that from being possible.

Dependability and Reliability
The term application "reliability" (and the like term "dependability") is a misnomer, since no one application in today's information technology age is an independent, standalone product wihtout some reliance on a third party operating system, hardware bios, and other potential "software influences".. Therefore, assuming the "application" itself has followed a rigorous testing protocol, let's consider reliability at a much larger scale. This magnitude would far exceed application functionality and take into account operational influences such as hardware scaling, fault tolerance, and throughput. If one were to achieve a high level of reliability a system would require either a) establishing an infrastructure to which such applications would operate consistently, without failure, without interruption, in all processing circumstances, and against even the most adverse conditions, or b) find a third party who provides an exact, and equal level of infrastructure. The price one pays for "reliability" then is directly proportional to that one saves when reliability really and truly matters most.

But let's say your On Demand Marketplace solution decides one day to close its doors and cease its operation. Many of us remember the 1990's dot com boom to bust years, but who can forget the disruptiveness that so many upstart ASP's (Application Service Providers) caused to so many businesses who relied on their managed hosting services. Prudency has taught us all that any On Demand strategy must have an escape clause to mitigate risk.

Summary
Every technology offering available today has a place to cause effect and create value. The key to that IT "chemistry" discussed earlier is ensuring that the technology, however innovative it may be, cooperates in a non-intrusive, efficient manner with the existing IT landscape. If it cannot, the benefit it provides on an individual basis is far outweighed by the disruption it causes. Mythics 1Enterprise innovates, not for the sake of innovation, but for the brilliant results it creates within a properly scoped and well defined problem set. In the end, we are sharing with our customers, solutions we've tested on ourselves, engineered using products we represent to the world.