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" Solarsoft Business Systems supplies modern enterprise software (ERP) and IT services to manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers in North America, Europe and Asia. "
Source : Solarsoft Business Systems
Why Build 100 Percent .NET ERP Solutions?
Microsoft .NET Framework is also known as :
Common Language Runtime,
.NET-Connected Solutions,
.NET Framework Solution,
Enterprise Application,
Developmental Tools,
CMS Software ,
.NET technology,
CLR,
Managed Code,
ERP Solutions,
Common Intermediate Language,
Common Language Specification,
Software Framework ,
Web Services Framework.
Contents
- To Build or Not To Build in .NET that is the Question!
- What exactly is .NET?
- The Big Picture
- .NET Components
- The .NET Framework
- Common Language Runtime
- Managed Code vs. Unmanaged Code
- .NET Framework Class Library
- ASP.NET
- XML Web Services
- Visual Studio
- Mobile Internet Toolkit
- Web Forms
- Windows Forms
- Windows Communication Foundation
- Windows Presentation Foundation
- Windows Workflow Foundation
- .NET Benefits Summary
- Don't Get Caught... Look Under the Hood Before You Buy
- About CMS Software
To Build or Not To Build... in .NET... that is the
Question!
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to build .NET
Wrappers around legacy code,
To seek one's outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by fully opposing, adopt .NET? To start from scratch;
No more; and by scratch to say we end,
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks,
That code is heir to, 'tis an integration,
Devoutly to be wish'd. To buy, to invest;
To invest: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub.
OK... so enough of my interpretation of Shakespeare's Hamlet. There's the rub indeed.
Should software providers invest in .NET marginally or wholeheartedly? By marginally
we look at the benefits of .NET wrappers in the form of API's to simulate a .NET
environment. Alternatively, software developers have the ability, now that the tools are
ready for primetime, to take arms to embrace .NET and build the next release of their
enterprise application using only .NET code. You may or may not be familiar with
Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1 or not recognize the creative license used above
to get the point across but hopefully you understand there really is a difference between
using .NET to make an existing application better and creating an entirely new
application using .NET tools from the ground up.
What exactly is .NET?
.NET, Microsoft's Web services technology, provides the ability to quickly build, deploy,
manage, and use connected, security-enhanced solutions. .NET-connected solutions
enable businesses to integrate their systems more rapidly and in a more agile manner. If
adhered to diligently, it helps companies realize the promise of information anytime,
anywhere, on any device.
In other words, think of .NET in terms of plumbing. It's not just the pipes or the solder or
even the water that flows through. It's not the water plant that supplies the water and it's
not the processing plant that handles the waste. It's not the city that controls the flow of
water either. .NET is really the culmination of all of the above. It is an architecture, a
framework, a language, an overall development philosophy in a way that enables
applications to share data across intranets and internets alike. It handles protocols and
security and ensures that information sent is the same as information received,
regardless of the circumstances. It handles translations at both ends of a transaction
enabling two disparate applications to share information in real time.
The Microsoft platform includes everything a business needs to develop and deploy a
Web service-connected IT architecture: servers to host Web services, development tools
to create them, applications to use them, and a worldwide network of more than 35,000
Microsoft Certified Partner organizations to provide any help you need.
There are distinct advantages to using .NET as the building blocks of a new application.
The following breaks down the various components of .NET and relates it back to
advantages to the developer and how this translates to end user benefits.
The Big Picture
Let's step back and take a look at the history of computers. We all know that the
computer industry travels on a ribbon of time that is on a different plane than the rest of
the world. Changes in the industry today are at an unprecedented scale. The creators of
computers created 30 years ago could never have imagined what they would be used
for today. As such, the developers of software that ran these behemoths were unable to
predict today's computer usage either. It is therefore understandable that the languages
used to develop that software are inadequate compared to today's standards.
We really don't have to go back 30 years at all. Even 10 years ago, developers were
working in a vacuum - unable to predict the future. It only stands to reason that 10 years
from now, society, industry and everyone else will be using computers and other hightech
devices in ways that today are unimaginable. Languages, architecture, hardware
and operating systems that were used to develop today's standards of computing will
seem archaic compared to what we will see in 10 years, or 20 or more.
It therefore makes sense as a developer to adopt the newest technologies when building
today if there is any hope of having a solution that will span the expected lifecycle of an
application. This certainly makes sense for new Greenfield development projects, but
what about existing applications? How long should a software developer hold on to
legacy technology? When is a good time to adopt a new standard? When is new
technology considered a standard in the first place? It's these types of questions that
keep Product Managers awake at night. The streets are littered with just as many
companies that have jumped too late as those that jumped too early. It would be nice to
have a crystal ball so we would all know when to change and when not to, however, they
are few and far between.
The smart money is on waiting for industry leaders to put a stake in the ground. They are
the ones that have the deepest pockets and can afford to make a play for dominance
with new bleeding edge technology that will one day be the standard that others will use
to follow. Such is the case with Microsoft's new .NET standards. They are certainly big
enough to handle such a huge paradigm shift in development standards. They have the
clout to influence hardware vendors, ISV's, systems integrators, and customers alike.
However, this being said, one must also admit that we have seen changes in Microsoft
and its offerings simply for change sake. What makes .NET any different? Simply put,
the industry itself has changed so dramatically with the advent of the internet and the
demands of the market to share resources and information in real time that islands of
automation are no longer appropriate. Microsoft felt that it had to change the way in
which applications were written. To support this theory, a new framework and
architecture also had to be developed to support new development efforts that would
take advantage of new web services.
.NET Components
Before we can discuss why building an application from scratch is better than merely
modifying existing code to take advantage of .NET features, we first need to take a
closer look at what .NET is. As we start to dissect .NET, some benefits will become
immediately clear while other benefits will become evident after we look at the entire big
picture.
Here are the basic .NET components:
- The .NET Framework
- WinFX Meta Framework, consisting of:
- Microsoft® Windows® Communication Foundation (WCF)
- Microsoft® Windows® Presentation Foundation (WPF)
- Microsoft® Windows® Workflow Foundation (WinWF)
The .NET Framework
Although the .NET Framework is made up of many components, for the purposes of
these discussions, we will not be going into detail on all of them.
Common Language Runtime
The Common Language Runtime
(CLR) is at the root of the.NET
Framework. It manages code during
execution times while providing
services such as memory management and execution, code
safety verification, code compilation,
remoting by way of creating proxy
objects, thread management and
enforcing strict type safety and code
accuracy for enhanced security. Due
to new security protocols, a
running on a web server can be
accessed via an HTML browser
knowing that security protocols will
eliminate risk on the client computer
resulting in exceptionally feature-rich
internet-based applications.
Code that target the runtime is known as Unmanaged Code while code that does not target the runtime is known as Unmanaged Code (more on this later). The Common
Type System (CTS) ensures that all managed code is self-describing. The various
Microsoft and third-party language compilers generate managed code that conform to
the CTS. Unmanaged code on the other hand contains CPU specific instructions. Many
languages and compilers that were written prior to the .NET standards can produce
mixed applications; containing both managed and unmanaged code. The result is that
although mixed mode applications can integrate with the .NET framework and provide a
phased-in approach to a migration to a .NET environment, it contains CPU and
operating system specific information. Therefore, applications written prior to.NET
standards or any applications containing any legacy code don't run completely on thE
.NET framework and are therefore not truly compatible with the 64 bit .NET Framework
Although these applications can simulate .NET functionality today because they contain
some level of .NET converted code or add-ons, they will eventually have to be
completely rewritten to take advantage of future advancements offered by the .NET
Framework.
Managed Code vs. Unmanaged Code
No discussion about the pros and cons of a pure .NET solution would be complete
without at least having a tertiary discussion about Managed Code. Managed Code not
only takes advantage of the benefits of the CLR but it exclusively relies on it. The
application cannot run without it. In other words, code that is written to work off the host
computer's operating system is, by definition, Unmanaged Code. Managed code enjoys
all the benefits of the CLR such as enhanced security, rich debugging support,
portability, interoperability, simplified deployment, consistent error handling, language
independence, platform independence, etc.
Only managed code can access managed data. Managed data is special data that is
managed by the CLR through a process called Garbage Collection where memory is
allocated and released automatically. This is a very important feature as it virtually
eliminated memory problems associated with DLL's and the Registry that we have all
grown to love to hate. Therefore, managed code is more stable, less memory obtrusive
and requires less code to do the same thing as pre-.NET unmanaged code.
.NET Framework Class Library
Think of the Framework Class Library as a head start or short cuts for programmers. It is
a collection of reusable types that integrate with the CLR. The class library is objectoriented,
allowing other applications to access and use the functionality derived by each
type. These shortcuts can be as simple as file access, data collection and database
connectivity and a myriad of other common tasks or as robust and complex as Windows
Forms, ASP.NET applications, Windows Services or XML Web Services.
In this way programmers can take advantage of work that has already been done and
preauthorized to work. This makes the .NET Framework not only easier to use but it also
makes it faster to build new functionality by using components that have already been
written. Programmers no longer need to worry about some of the mundane tasks that
used to take up their time but rarely added any value due to their repetitive nature. They
are now afforded the luxury of focusing on the unique business functionality of the
application rather than the syntax of the code.
So what does this mean to the company buying an enterprise application like an ERP
package? What makes an ERP application better if it is written in a pure .NET
framework? To answer this we need only look at the cost breakdown for an ERP
application. In addition to licenses, there are the implementation costs. Typically they run
at least double the license fees and it is not uncommon for implementations to grow far
beyond expectations and estimates. The majority of these fees are eaten up with man
hours needed to perform some level of customization. There is a love-hate relationship
with customizations. The customer loves them because it gives them a chance to get
what they want out of the application to make it their own. The implementation
consultants love it because they make great money doing them. The software vendors
use these modifications to help plan new releases with new functionality and bug fixes.
Unfortunately there is a downside to customizations as well. As mentioned before, they
are typically very expensive to produce but the main disadvantage is code integrity. Most
modifications are “workarounds” geared to simulate changes to the base code but in fact
they are functional bandages that eventually start to peel away to leave horrible scars
during the next major upgrade to the software.
By buying an application that uses 100% pure .NET architecture, customers will benefit
from the combination of the Common Language Runtime and the .NET Framework
Class Library because not only will customizations take much less time to complete but
the resulting code is much more stable because of the inherent benefits of the CLR.
Companies like CMS Software, an ERP vendor that sells a 100% pure .NET ERP
application called CMSm5, are reporting customizations in less than 24 hours that would
have taken weeks if not months to complete had they not gone with a total .NET
solution.
ASP.NET
ASP.NET is the hosting environment within the .NET Framework that developers can
use to target Web-based applications. Unlike its predecessors, ASP.NET is more than a
simple runtime engine. In fact it is a completely integrated architecture that uses
managed code for hosting web-based objects and websites. ASP.NET in conjunction
with IIS, Microsoft's Internet Information Server, offers a complete publishing mechanism
for Web Services and Forms. ASP.NET is built on a .NET Framework and as such has
inherited all of the .NET Framework's features making it ideally suited as a web platform
for building enterprise class software applications.
By building an enterprise application from scratch using only .NET code, a software
developer has the advantage of extending the application to its users via the internet
without sacrificing functionality or security. Users of these applications should be excited
if for no other reason than providing a very inexpensive mechanism for distributing
functionality to multiple locations and people regardless of location. Now consider the
extension of web services to include mobile technologies, remote isolated facilities and
home offices and you have an extremely compelling reason to look for enterprise
applications that are completely .NET and not just compatible. Functionality like this has
only been available through expensive integrations and a lot of customization. As
functional demands expand to take advantage of the benefits derived from .NET
technologies, the greater the need will be to have a genuine .NET solution. Anything less
will simply not keep up. It'll be like driving a bicycle in the fast lane of the Autobahn. Sure
you'll get there eventually but at what cost?
XML Web Services
The introduction of XML Web services has made the use of distributed server-based
applications not only viable but absolutely advantageous over traditional client-server
based applications. These servers are made up of reusable software components that
can be used by other applications or components of various types such as traditional,
web-based and/or other web server applications.
The .NET Framework promotes interoperability among disparate applications by
providing a set of classes that conform to communication standards, such as SOAP,
WSDL, and XML. These standards are used in the development and consumption of
XML Web Services. Again, developers can use these classes as a library of processes
allowing them to focus on business logic rather than the plumbing to drive that logic to
consumers or the application.
Companies using applications that use the NET Framework exclusively benefit because
the creation of web services is faster, more secure, and more robust using the .NET
Framework. If you buy into the Microsoft vision that the future of computing will no longer
reside on the desktop but rather a service offered over the Internet or other mechanism
for a distributed environment, then it only makes sense to start looking now for
enterprise applications that are written using a .NET Framework. By doing so,
companies ensure that the investment they make today will have short term as well as
long term ROI while avoiding intermediate redundancies.
Visual Studio
Visual Studio is a complete set of development tools for building XML Web Services,
ASP.NET Web applications, mobile and desktop applications. Developers can use either
Visual C++, Visual C#, Visual Basic or Visual J# and still take advantage of the
Integrated Development Environment (IDE), which allows them to work in a mixed
language environment while still sharing a common set of tools. All of these languages
use the functionality of the .NET Framework simplifying the development of XML Web
Services and ASP.NET web applications.
Visual Studio is comprised of Visual Web Developer Tools for designing web pages and
Visual Studio Tools for Office for creating code to extend Word and Excel documents,
templates and workbooks respectively. Both have been developed to make the building
of business solutions using Web Services easier and faster. In this way, developers can
take advantage of functionality derived from basic Office tools rather than trying to write
it themselves. Ultimately, more and more functionality will be extended as shared
services to allow ISV's to focus on their core competencies rather than redundant
functionality that already exists and is already familiar to most users.
Users will appreciate this new approach because it means smaller learning curves.
Eventually we should see a reduction in pricing of applications because ISV's should be
able to reduce their overhead and development costs by adopting these development
standards. Companies like CMS Software, mentioned before are poised to take
advantage of these services already as they have taken a Greenfield approach to their
CMSm5 ERP solution. Company representatives have indicated that their customers are
already reporting lower educational requirements, which they say results in faster ROI.
Mobile Internet Toolkit
One of the fastest growing benefits of Visual Studio is its robust toolset for targeting
devices such as Smart phones, Pocket PCs, PDA's and other mobile devices under the
old product name Windows Mobile Developer Resource Kit. These tools provide for
multiple form factors for an ever-growing list of mobile device formats, data handling
tools, and a new emulator for faster deployment for user-specific requirements.
Web Forms
Web Forms are an ASP.NET technology that you use to create programmable Web
pages. Web Forms render themselves as browser-compatible HTML and script, which
allows any browser on any platform to view the pages. Using Web Forms, you create
Web pages by dragging and dropping controls onto the designer and then adding code,
similar to the way that you create Visual Basic forms.
Windows Forms
Windows Forms is a framework for building rich Windows client applications that make
the most of the CLR. Windows Forms applications can be written in any CLR supported
language and provides a set of object-oriented extensible classes that can work as a
local user interface in a distributed environment. Although the toolset offers a more
simplistic methodology for building forms, reducing total cost of ownership, it also
provides a more robust solution ensuring better controls over security, more flexibility
over controls and a more powerful vehicle for GDI+, a new version of the Windows
Graphical Device Interface. Windows Forms also provides a new Printing Framework
that allows applications to create comprehensive reports. This feature will be extremely
attractive to users that want to migrate away from or eliminate expensive report writers.
There is a growing need for companies to share information more seamlessly throughout
their organization and with customers, partners, and suppliers in real time. Applications
that take full advantage of the .NET Framework will therefore become very attractive to
companies searching for an enterprise solution that can be modified to adhere to a
variety of user perspectives. Modifications to the user interface as well as reports that
are generated can be done with less effort and more confidence than ever before. In
cases like CMS Software, where the entire application has been written from scratch
only using the .NET Framework, customers will be able to take full advantage of the use
of SQL Server Reporting Services to transform valuable enterprise data into shared
information by creating, managing, and delivering both traditional paper-oriented reports
and interactive Web-based reports at a fraction of the cost and time using traditional
methods.
ADO.NET
Our insatiable appetite for knowledge can only be quenched by improving our ability to
access raw data. This is most evident in the enterprise applications that we use to run
our businesses. Whether we talk about financial applications, maintenance software,
production, distribution or transportation and logistics, we need to get answers through
data acquisition across globally distributed databases in real time to maintain our
competitive edge.
ADO.NET, a loosely interpreted evolution of the ADO Data Access model, is the primary
relational data access model for Microsoft .NET-based applications. It is used to access
data sources that have a specific .NET Provider or specific OLE DB Provider, ODBC
Driver, or JDBC Driver. It was specifically developed to take full advantage of XML
source code and is fully scalability and stateless, making it an ideal for web applications.
Inherent in ADO.NET is Interoperability. Because it exclusively uses the XML format to
move and share data it can be used on any platform making it the ideal solution in future
application development. As an added bonus, it truly takes advantage of distributed
disconnected datasets making it fully scalable, eliminating the database as the
bottleneck in most application performance.
In other words, software that has been completely written in the .NET Framework
intrinsically takes advantage of ADO.NET. By using applications written in .NET,
companies will start to benefit from new found interoperability and better performance
through distributed databases and processing. It is a methodology that so far has proven
to be most promising and as the rest of the world becomes more XML savvy, the
benefits will no doubt grow exponentially.
A Retrospect
The .NET Framework is a truly decentralized architecture. Keeping this in mind, we can
see the magnitude of the importance of developing an application, especially one as
complex as an enterprise solution, from the ground up using only .NET technologies.
With the .NET Framework being such a radical change from older architectures one can
only begin to imagine the complexities of trying to adapt a legacy application with
existing code to the .NET platform. Most enterprise applications are riddled with
spaghetti code as it is. Now imagine throwing in a brand new paradigm shift like
changing the underlying framework and you have a recipe for disaster. Not to say that it
can't be done. Many applications seem to be functioning quite well by supporting
existing functionality with .NET wrappers to take advantage of some of the benefits of
the .NET Framework. This being said, it really is a matter of time before these
applications will be forced to rethink their strategies and retrench back to their roots to
stay competitive.
Windows Communication Foundation
Think of the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) as a repository for all the old
Microsoft connectivity technologies - all of them now using a single System Service
Model namespace. It is a new kind of communications infrastructure developed to take
advantage of the Web Services architecture. This is an important step in the right
direction as it gives developers a chance to write once and apply it to multiple instances
across what would normally be disparate islands of information. Regardless of how an
application communicates with another, i.e., a loosely coupled Web service or a tightly
coupled Enterprise service, the way in which the model is coded will be the same and
the translation between disparate communication types will be practically seamless
because they will all be using the same programming namespace. WCF transcends
security systems, messaging patterns, programming languages and network
configurations. Simply put, it is Microsoft's new technology standard for communicating
between applications, people, databases and geographies that will deliver on the
promises of interoperability guaranteed by the new .NET Framework.
When we look at the global village that we all play and work in we see physical borders
disappearing and virtual distances shrinking. The advent of the Internet assisted in
accelerating this phenomenon but it is not until the advent of the .NET Framework and
its use in designing and developing new enterprise applications that we see the
acceleration of this experience. Software development companies that choose to cut
corners or, worse yet, ignore this trend will likely one day find that their solutions are no
longer competitive. It only stands to reason that companies buying this software will also
suffer the same consequences eventually if these trends continue. It therefore makes a
lot of sense to hedge your bets on software applications that are completely rearchitected
and rewritten in the .NET Framework.
Windows Presentation Foundation
The Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation provides the foundation for building
applications and high fidelity experiences in Windows Vista, blending together
application user interface, documents, and media content, while exploiting the full power
of your computer. The functionality extends to the support for Tablet and other forms of
input, a more modern imaging and printing pipeline, accessibility and UI automation
infrastructure, data driven UI and visualization, as well as the integration points for
weaving the application experience into the Windows shell.
Like other components of the .NET Framework already discussed, the Windows
Presentation Foundation (WPF) is a radical change from the older methods of displaying
visuals for Windows. It provides the ability to develop either markup-based interfaces
such as HTML pages or code-based interfaces such as Windows Forms allowing
developers to separate user interface design from coding. With the new toolset provided
it is also much easier to design the layout of these displays, reducing the amount of time
required to build them. WPC also shows promise for a richer user experience like 3-D
effects and animation because it now takes advantage of new advancements in
hardware such as chipsets, better displays with higher resolutions and processor speeds
that quite frankly the older development tools simply could not have anticipated.
To manage this paradigm shift in user interface development, Microsoft developed
Extensible Application Markup Language, or XAML. It allows developers to separate the
User Interface definition from the underlying program logic. It is based on XML and
therefore provides a mechanism for complex UIs including shapes, images, controls,
text, etc.
An important aspect of WPF is that it uses a vector-based rendering engine compared to
a raster-based engine common in older versions. Raster engines utilize pixels that can
lose detail and integrity depending on the size of the display while Vector engines
defines display elements using scalable coordinates that are relatively independent of
the output device's size or resolution. We can see the first sign of this trend with
Microsoft's new Internet Explorer 7. One of its new features is a zoom level, allowing
users to zoom in on a particular part of the screen. As we see more vector-based
elements come into play, our experience with this feature will become much more
enriched.
It only stands to reason that a better user interface will lend itself to a much richer user
experience. Too often good business logic is lost on the average user because of the
developer's inability to provide the information in a user-friendly environment. Software
developers will no doubt make it past this hurdle with the new tools and technologies
afforded to them using the WPF. This may be yet another very good reason to look for
applications that have been written in an absolute .NET environment. A simple wrapper
will no doubt provide some semblance of this ability but to truly experience the benefits
WPF has to offer, one should look towards a pure .NET solution.
Windows Workflow Foundation
Most, if not all business environments require some level of cooperation between
applications and/or people to share information to do their jobs. No one person or
application is efficient working in a vacuum. Proper business processes require
information to flow throughout the enterprise while occasionally being altered by its
various residents and constituents. The passing of this information is known as
Workflow. And like the passing of a baton in a relay race, if not handled in an expeditious
and efficient methodical manner, it can be the bottleneck in the race to be competitive.
Many companies have spent millions of dollars trying to automate process and
informational workflow throughout their internal and extended enterprise. Third-party
applications abound to help separate companies from their money in an effort to improve
workflow - some successfully and some not so much. The need for a simpler, easier to
use and more secure workflow engine has become doubly important with the ongoing
concerns of audit trails, ISO Certifications and introduction of Sarbanes-Oxley.
Microsoft has answered the call by introducing Windows Workflow Foundation (WF or
WinWF). It is a development platform for building workflow-enabled applications in the
Windows operating system. It incorporates system as well as human workflows. It
includes a workflow engine and design tools that can be used with Visual Studio .NET to
organically build workflows into an application or used as an aftermarket product for
companies to bolt on to their .NET applications in the future.
Applications that are not entirely written in the .NET Framework may not be entirely
compatible with the features offered in the Windows Workflow Foundation platform.
Companies looking to take advantage of workflow enhancements should look carefully
at their new enterprise application acquisitions. Alternatively, applications coded in .NET
should be natively compliant and in many cases will have a basic workflow already
incorporated in the basic code. With the toolset that comes with the .NET Framework,
the IT department will be able to modify these workflows to specifically reflect the unique
business requirements of their enterprise.
.NET Benefits Summary
Without rehashing the entire discussion thread above, there are countless reasons for
investing in an enterprise application that has been completely written using the .NET
Framework. Naturally some of these benefits can be realized initially by acquiring
applications that have incorporated some level of a .NET infrastructure but to ensure that
you achieve all of these benefits now and in the future, one really needs to consider a
genuine 100% .NET solution. The following are just a few of those benefits and by no
means complete:
- Platform Neutral
- Better Stability
- Better integration
- Lower Operating costs
- Higher Levels of Security
- More easily customizable
- Better GUI
- Extensibility to Mobile Devices
- Faster Development Cycles
- Lower Cost of Ownership
- Shorter Learning Cycles
- Greater Scalability
- Better Memory Management
- Faster Implementation
- Better Toolsets
- Web Services Leveraging
- Managed Code
- Better Connectivity
- Faster Easier Development
- Distributed Processing
Looking under the hood of the .NET Framework has made it relatively easy to see the
advantages of jumping into the .NET waters with both feet. There are a lot of technical
reasons for moving toward a .NET landscape and even more reasons for migrating to a
completely pure .NET environment. Somewhat less quantifiable are the intangible
rationales. For instance, consider the amount of investment Microsoft has put into
reengineering their entire development platform. Also consider how much investment
their partners and customer collectively have spent so far. Even hardware companies
have had to adjust their product offering to accommodate the changes that are about to
take place the IT Industry. .NET is here to stay and it will replace most of the old
standards The tide is turning and companies need to start to change if they have any
hope of surviving this sea change. Even Microsoft's new Vista Windows operating
system includes .NET Framework 3.0.
Don't Get Caught...
... Look Under the Hood Before You Buy
Similar to PowerPoint presentations that are used to obfuscate core application
inadequacies, ISV's are creating .NET wrappers around core functionality to provide
.NET functionality. Due to the lack of industry-wide policing, these companies are
marketing themselves as having a .NET application when in actual fact they have some
limited .NET compatibility. So why is this wrong? Technically... it's not. Most software
companies simply can't afford to completely rewritten their existing applications under
the .NET Framework. It's simply not financially feasible. So they do the next best thing
for both their customers and prospects alike.
Fortunately there are some enterprise software vendors that have fully embraced the
.NET future and have in fact completely rewritten their entire application using the .NET
Framework. This is a major undertaking to say the least. So although it is not easy to
find these vendors today, they do exist and the list will continue to grow in the future.
One such company is CMS Softwarewww.cmssoftware.com. CMS has been delivering
ERP solutions to manufacturers and distributors operating in supply chain-intensive
industries since 1986. Their CMSi5 solution is in place at thousands of locations around
the globe. Despite the overwhelming success of the i5 product, the founders made a
conscious decision to invest in the Microsoft vision for .NET and started working on a
new application - similar to CMSi5 but utilizing the benefits of building in a pure .NET
environment. Several .NET architects were hired away from Microsoft and several more
members were added to an exclusive team that were sequestered in a separate
development environment with the sole purpose of creating a brand new solution that
was written exclusively in .NET. Several hundreds of thousands of man hours later
CMSm5 was born.
About CMS Software
Headquartered in Canada, CMS Software has offices in the United States, Mexico,
Germany, Belgium, and China. CMS Software customers include manufacturers and
distributors in a wide range of industries, including consumer packaged goods,
automotive parts, food processing, and electronic components. CMS also works with
diverse manufacturing processes, including metal forming, plastic parts molding, and
assembly.
Their most recent offering, CMSm5, is a breakthrough .NET ERP solution that adds to
the already successful lineup of ERP solutions based on the CMSi5 foundation. CMS
strives to provide its customers with a one-stop vendor offering. For those organizations,
which have standardized on the IBM System i (formerly AS400) platform, the CMSi5
system is considered one of the most functional systems in the world. This application
provides a complete solution for Inventory Control, Financials Production Planning and
Scheduling, Customer Service, Distribution and Logistics, CRM, and EDI, as well as
Product Configuration, Bar Coding, Shop Floor Reporting Quality Control and Preventive
Maintenance among others.
With the new CMSm5 solution, CMS Software intends to continue its dominance in the
ERP market by providing customers with the newest and best technology-enabled ERP
solution available today and in the foreseeable future. From a purely functional
perspective, CMSm5 mirrors the CMSi5 solution in many ways. The company managed
to take its 20+ years of ERP experience and port it to a new solution, developed from
scratch, which takes advantage of a brand new technology that will be greatly
appreciated by IT departments and boardrooms alike.
According to both CMS and Microsoft officials, the real benefit of a pure .NET solution,
like CMSm5, will be realized from the first day of implementation. Using CMSm5, CMS
Software can offer rapid implementation on a smaller platform and still achieve better
results and benchmarks than most other non-.NET solutions. Because the code is pure
.NET, its stability is unprecedented and customers can expect to manage the application
with fewer IT personnel than any other application of its complexity.
When it comes to customization, the CMSm5 solution really shines. Because of the
inherent flexibility in the .NET framework coupled with the Framework Class Library,
customizations and personalizations can be done in a fraction of the time experienced by
older technology solutions. In fact, it is not unlikely to see turnarounds in the magnitude of
days rather than traditional months, if not longer, that we have all grown accustomed to.
CMS Software has taken a major step in providing its existing and potential customers
with a new solution based on a new technology. It is a risk no doubt but it appears to be
a risk that is already starting to pay off - both for the company and its customers.
CMSm5 is an extremely stable product that integrates seamlessly with other solutions
and allows for easier communication with the supply chain. Faster customizations and
implementations mean better return on investment and a lower cost of ownership. So if
you are looking for a new ERP solution and want to maximize your IT expenditure,
CMSm5 should be on your shortlist.