DataFace can be used to develop any line-of-business application but is particularly valuable for the modernization of legacy software and vertical-market application packages.
The DataFace framework is suitable for all types of traditional business data processing applications, but not for games, consumer-oriented web applications, or computational problems.
LEGACY MODERNIZATION: We offer outstanding value to any organization that wants to develop a new generation of an existing application. Reasons for wanting to do this might include:
- Experience having shown a need for new functionality but existing programs are increasingly difficult to maintain and lack agility;
- Customers, suppliers, or other outside business partners want access to the application over an internet/extranet connection to reduce processing costs;
- The existing application runs in a hardware environment that is costly to maintain or does not conform to current management policy and standards.
- The application is a commercially-available package which faces a decline into irrelevancy unless it keeps pace with the technological and business environment.
ENTERPRISE BACKLOG: There are typically many more demands from the business than I.T. can handle. I.T. has to spend a great many resources just to maintain existing infrastructure and programming. The business does not understand why it is so difficult to get systems changed.
"The business wants a quick and dirty way to prototype: the business often comes to IT with requests that don't have budget approval or lack a fully-baked business case, hoping IT can squeeze them in."
James Staten, Forrester
DATABASE MAINTENANCE: DBAs (Data Base Administrators) are often called upon to trouble-shoot data problems for which they have no suitable tools.
- Scenario: an application was not quite finished, so the business users come to the DBA asking for table updates, such as new codes, that they have no way to input. A $125,000/year DBA has to do $15/hour data entry.
- Scenario: the business questions a summary report, so the DBA has to trace data back to its origins, potentially through dozens of tables. DBAs' standard tools are design aids and do not understand the table-to-table interrelationships in a business database well.
"Developers love the "cool" or "wow" factor of applications. CIOs seek stability and standardization."
From "8 reasons why CIOs think developers are clueless" (Infoworld)