The Business Case for ASP

by Jeff J. Rodenburg
Developer, MacKenzie & Roth, Inc.
St. Louis, MO
http://www.hyperdata.com/

As the use of Intranets as an application server and information distribution platform grows in corporate usage, IT organizations founded on Microsoft operating systems can utilize Active Server Pages to create new and migrate existing applications effectively and efficiently. Will corporations entrust mission-critical processing to ASP? Maybe not, but ASP technology does serve a useful purpose and can have a positive influence on corporate application development.

A typical corporate development group might comprise individuals with multiple responsibilities - project management, code production, legacy system maintenance, and end user support - in addition to the tasks of application development. Exploratory work into new technology sits perpetually at the bottom of the priority list. These groups often manage multiple demands to maintain the existing IT framework without delving into new technological arenas. From the organizational point of view, corporate IT staffs are traditionally viewed as a cost center with no discernible revenue or income.

As a result, there is usually great emphasis placed on cost savings. This environment has produced a niche for ASP to succeed in as a development platform. With cost factors playing a significant role in application development within corporate IT structure, ASP offers a viable and attractive solution for several reasons.

Centralized model
ASP utilizes true client/server architecture (absent client-side Java applets or ActiveX controls.) With business logic and system processing maintained at the server, the client becomes the presentation logic layer.
 

Three-tier client/server architecture
Client		HTTP Server		Database Server

ASP's server-based functionality simplifies application deployment. ASP applications require configuration on the web server, whereas a traditional Windows-based application requires installation and configuration on each user's desktop. Though an ASP application must be configured to inter-operate at the server level, a standard Windows-based application must work on every desktop. This creates a "configure once" vs. "configure everywhere" situation. Ongoing maintenance is minimized as only one version of the physical application exists. This structure provides a benefit to the corporate IT group in terms of reduced implementation and operational costs.

This evolving structure is considered by some to be the de facto application "landscape for the future". Microsoft's Distributed interNet Applications (DNA) architecture builds on this environment: multiple applications, distributed across more hardware, increased resource sharing and inter-operability with multiple operating platforms.1 ASP is a basis for this model, as Microsoft prepares to extend this computing environment in the future.

System leverage
An analysis by the META Group evaluating Return on Investment (ROI) generated from corporate Intranets concluded that interactive applications generated a positive ROI in 80% of companies surveyed.2 The ASP platform is based on this infrastructure. The study also revealed that a company's vertical market and relative size are not predictors of intranet ROI. These facts suggest the intranet platform is pervasive and can benefit organizations without regard to their line of business or their stature in the industry. ASP extends this cost-effective platform.

ASP also capitalizes on the Component Object Model (COM). The Giga Information Group estimates the market for third-party COM components at $670 million dollars in 1998, growing to approximately $3 billion dollars by 2001. (Source: Giga Information Group). 3 With multiple languages and development tools available to produce these components, the ability to leverage existing code is tremendous. Legacy applications with business rules and imbedded logic can be ported to a COM-based object, exposing its methods and properties. This model lends itself to faster, simplified code production for developers with varying technical backgrounds, and the programmatic learning curve is greatly reduced. Existing corporate applications can be migrated from their legacy counterparts to an Intranet-based front end with business logic implemented in the form of COM-based objects and components. This approach can save development time in upgrading present systems or creating new applications altogether, which consequently translates into better use of resources and improved cost control.

Once an ASP application has been deployed, the browser as a front-end utility provides two distinct advantages over traditional desktop applications. First, the simplicity of a browser reduces training costs, as users can readily assimilate with the browser. Second, the use of a generic front-end simplifies future application deployment, as the user simply accesses new applications with the same front-end utility. This reduction in training cost as well as speed to deployment generates additional cost savings for the IT department.

Improving business processes
Perhaps the greatest benefit of ASP technology is its ability to improve communication and information sharing among its users. The platform offers up-to-the-minute updated information through database access or whatever resources it provides. As a lightweight mechanism, ASP is well suited for providing opportunities to streamline business processing.

For example, the corporate telephone directory is a constantly changing, evolving set of data. Employees are hired, transferred, promoted or simply retire or resign. Paper-based guides are nearly out of date the day after they are printed. Additionally, in large corporations, searching through a printed directory for a name or location can be time-consuming. Using an ASP application, accessing the data through a back-end database server could provide updated phone numbers or other pertinent information as soon as they become available. A searchable directory can easily be created, helping the user find the information they need quickly. In this scenario, users benefit due to increased availability of updated information, and maintenance personnel benefit from the decreased workload of providing paper directories throughout the organization.

Many business processes have been migrated and adapted for integration into corporate Intranets with ASP as the underlying technology. These include expense and timesheet reporting, company calendars, knowledge bases and threaded discussion groups. While the information remains the same, its manner of dissemination is changing.

Summary
The Active Server Pages platform provides several benefits to the corporate IT organization. Centralized processing gives the development and support teams with improved control over development, deployment and maintenance issues. Leverage of existing systems and object/component reuse are heavily utilized to take advantage of legacy applications. Increased communication and information distribution creates better working environments for users throughout the organization. These factors make the ASP development platform a valid choice for application development within corporate IT organizations.
 

Jeff Rodenburg is developer and consultant with MacKenzie & Roth, Inc., a consulting and development firm in St. Louis, MO. He works with Visual Basic, Visual InterDev, Java, COM, SQL Server and Exchange to create client-server architectures and systems. Jeff is also pursuing Certified Solution Developer status from Microsoft.