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The cumulative efforts of about 200 people went into the initial development and implementation of the Idea Factory and the Marketplace Insider. Many of these people, however, were only peripherally involved. For example, the same network managers and technical staff that keep the division’s network up and running by default keep the intranets up and running, because they all run off the same server.

The daily maintenance of the two intranets requires only the part-time efforts of three people from the marketing group and three people from the technical group. Although this might not seem like a resource-intensive effort, it is important to stress that the caliber of skills individuals bring to the task is much more critical than the number of people actually involved.

Although it takes people with specialized skills to develop an intranet, it takes a different set of skills to sustain one. What CSG has tried to do is recruit multifunctional people — those who can apply what they normally do on the job to the medium of the intranet. The secret to productivity is to have the best people.

Among the improvements planned for the Marketplace Insider are links to some of CSG’s legacy applications. In the future, Unisys customers will be able to access the intranets for such things as global procurement, order tracking, problem reporting, and software ordering. In building these applications, the Computer Systems Group is positioning itself to offer consulting and support services to customers who wish to implement intranets within their organizations.

IMPLICATIONS OF JAVA AND NETWORK-CENTRIC COMPUTING

Lower Cost of Network Ownership

For the past 10 years, companies have been struggling with the ever-growing complexity and cost of computing. First came mainframes, then minicomputers, and then PCs, each bringing with it a higher cost per person. Now the fourth big wave in information technology is about to begin with the introduction of net-centric computers that leverage corporate intranets and the new Java development language to enable mission-critical work to be done at a fraction of the cost.

Sun Microsystems has been the leader in the development of the net-centric computing model, as well as Java. The company’s worldwide Java Computing initiative includes the JavaStation network computer, which leverages the power and flexibility of Sun’s Java technology.

Aimed at slashing the high cost of networked environments, Java Computing enables companies to ease the burden of network and desktop administration, speed applications development and deployment, and improve network security. Because Java technology allows developers to write applications that will run on any device, Java Computing shifts applications and storage from the desktop to the network and the server. The advantages of this platform-independent approach is that it could save many large companies anywhere from 50% to 80%on the total cost of network ownership.

Fully configured, JavaStation systems will start at less than $1,000 with entry systems priced at around $750. These initial hardware and software costs pale in comparison to what companies will save in the long run on total cost of ownership. Industry estimates put the average annual cost of administering a single PC in a network at about $11,900, or approximately $35,700 over three years. Hardware and software only account for about 21% of that cost, according to industry estimates. By comparison, Sun estimates a JavaStation will require about $2,500 per year to administer, or about $7,500 for three years. For Fortune 1,000 companies with thousands of desktop PCs in their enterprises, the move to a Java platform could slash total cost of ownership by tens-of-millions to hundreds-of-millions of dollars.

Platform-Independent Applications Development

Java technology unlocks the potential of the network by allowing companies to write applications once that will run anywhere, regardless of operating system or hardware. Java applications reside on the server, where they can be easily managed, deployed, and updated by network administrators. Although the zero-administration desktop computer, or JavaStation device, needs no hard drive, floppy, or CD-rom to make this happen, applications are still executed locally on a powerful RISC processor.

Java technology can be gradually deployed without having to discard current client/server investments. JavaStation devices will run alongside PCs, Macs, workstations, or even dumb terminals. In fact, much of the growth in JavaStation network computers will take place in companies looking to replace their aging 3270 terminals. This is a significant market with an installed base of approximately 35 million nonprogrammable terminals worldwide.

Companies with so-called fixed-function applications will be among the first to reap the benefits of JavaStation network computers. These include companies that offer airline or hotel reservation desks, kiosks, health care systems, and stock brokerage services. These types of companies will benefit from the simplicity, cost-effective systems management, and more efficient applications deployment that Java affords.

Many large companies are actively deploying Java technology. More than 60% of Fortune 1,000 companies surveyed by Forrester Research are already using Java technology for some applications development, and 42% expect Java to play a strategic role in their company within a year. Although JavaStation and other network computers were only rolled out in 1996, the Gartner Group market research firm estimates that 20% of client/server applications in the late 1990s will run on so-called thin clients like the JavaStation.

Other vendors are pursuing the net-centric computing model. Oracle’s Network Computing Architecture is a common set of technologies that will allow all PCs, network computers, and other client devices to work with all Web servers, database servers, and application servers over any network. As the manifestation of Oracle’s vision for network computing, the Network Computing Architecture will help companies protect their technology investments by allowing mainframes, client/server, Internet and intranets, and distributed object software to work together.

Like Java, the Network Computing Architecture transcends the Internet/object standards battle, so users and developers can make software programs work together without getting locked into dead-end solutions. The Network Computing Architecture will simplify the problem through the use of open Internet standards and unique bridging software that helps proprietary application programs work together.

In contrast to the PC-centric computing model, which focuses on independent users and computation, the Network Computing Architecture recognizes the increasing importance of Web servers, database servers, and application servers working together over corporate intranets to enhance communication and deliver a wide array of information on demand to internal and external corporate constituents.

CONCLUSION

Corporate intranets are becoming as significant to the telecommunications industry as the PC has become to the computer industry. They fundamentally change the way people in large organizations communicate with each other. In the process, intranets can improve employee productivity and customer response. They are also being used to connect companies with their business partners, allowing for collaboration in such vital areas as research and development, manufacturing, distribution, sales, and service.

A variety of tools are used for these purposes, including interactive text, audio and video conferencing, file sharing, and whiteboarding. In fact, anything that can be done on the public Internet can be also be done on a private intranet — easily, economically, and more securely.


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