AppDev Issues:

Talking Points
2) Mission Statement
Wordsmithing needed here – can be placed in sync with overall marketing message.

The main point is “Strive for best business practices; make the systems adapt,
rather than just simply run the business the way the system forces you to”.

3) Guiding Principles = Agenda Slide

The major themes of the deck are laid out here. If you edit titles, or change the order of
slides, be sure to adjust this slide accordingly!

4) Everyone’s talking about the ‘New Technologies’ – but why are they important to
you?
The point of the slide is to focus on the benefits of technologies specifically applicable to
strategic improvements in a business environment.
The message: Of course we know about them, the art is to choose and apply selectively
to obtain maximum business benefit.
Object technologies
tiered application architecture
object wrappers
messaging architectures
Web technologies
intranet
public website – dissemination of information
self-service transactions
Data warehouse / data mart / data mining
Perform data analysis across the traditional barriers between applications
Get control of formerly inaccessible data
Make decision support information more widely available within your organization

The goal is virtual integration; using the new technologies to provide the “virtual glue” that
creates a unified view of the organization’s data, even though the existing environment is
disparate.

The tools are great, but planning is paramount to derive business benefit from the
deployment.

5) Graphic of Integration Strategy: Before Pre-existing condition -- before integration

6) Graphic of Integration Strategy: After Integrated solution deploys object technology,

data mart/warehouse, internet

7) Main principles of Unified Data Backbone for organization, touches on all the key
points
Single point of maintenance for data and business rules
Connect user tasks to views of the “real” data
Let them use familiar formatting tools
but eliminate independent data maintenance
8) Unified Data Backbone, continued

Represent the entire core business process in data, to extract metrics on each
component of the organization’s value add process

9) Commentary on problems with spreadsheets – self-explanatory

Main strategic point is that nobody starts out with the intention of becoming trapped with
a complex problem under an unwieldy spreadsheet – it gets that way by degrees. Needs
a project if ever it is to be overcome.

10) Segmentation and componentization

Explanation of benefits of 3-tier (n-tier) application development in layman’s terms.

11) Decentralize Authority / Centralize Information

12) Explains the main principles of business process reengineering;
Results not possible without automation

13) Custom vs Canned Considerations and Comparison

Important to convey that we are allies, and potential contributors to the decision.
We don’t want to build what can be bought.
We can bring substantial expertise to bear on customization and integration strategies

14) Canned: Strengths and Weaknesses

Identifies compromises to be accepted for a lower price
More features and functionalities per $
Lower maintenance cost
Software may guide possible improvements over current business practices

Can’t gain strategic advantage over competitors

Can’t get the last 10% of perfect, custom fit
Have to live with the vendor’s decisions of what’s most important for “next version”
Your success is now tied to vendor’s success (terrible if they go out of business)

15) Custom: Strengths and Weaknesses

Tradeoffs if you build your own

More control of deliverable, its enhancement and its future

Higher costs, development risks, ongoing management burden, risk of failure

(Platform issue: Upgrades are necessary regardless of feature completeness, to keep
platform consistent with company standards. These can introduce added cost.)

16) Project Based Investment

Brings the whole discussion back around to company approach and philosophy

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