1. The role of WareLite BOSS
To put WareLite BOSS in perspective, think of an operating system like UNIX or
Windows 2000™ which supports the enterprise by acting like a container
of applications, business systems, etc.
The operating system offers the application developers a uniform level of
abstraction that is, they only need to develop within the environment created by the operating
system, which then provides the applications with access to a set of shared resources
(RAM, Mass Storage, other general purpose software services, etc.).
The operating system also provides a set of Application Program Interfaces (API) to
facilitate the development of applications, and the basic infrastructure to control them.
From a business perspective, an operating system can be viewed as a container of
different independent (and vertical) business applications.
The single container model (referring only to the logic, not the 'hardware')
offers several advantages: it facilitates code re-usability, a consistent approach to
delivery, and more. Where the model tends to fall short of its potential is that it
still contains independent instances (applications) that do not provide shareable
resources (in terms of logic or data), even though they share the operating system's
lower layers.
WareLite Business Operating Support System acts like an operating system, or container. But the
significant difference is that WareLite BOSS will not contain independent and uncoordinated
applications, but the whole logic as business rules and business processes.
What is the advantage? All logic hosted by WareLite BOSS is available for sharing by all
applications -much like the operating system-, which provides the 'lower layer'
resources. The difference is that with WareLite BOSS, the shared resources are not memory,
disks, or the like, but the whole set of classes, objects, frames etc. already defined
to support other aspects of the business.
Thus WareLite BOSS allows the deployment of solution suites rather than just applications,
which tend to be independent and uncoordinated. A solution suite is a set of data frames
and 'functional units' required to deal with a specific (vertical) problem/opportunity.
The enterprise ecosystem will thus become a single system (the BOSS run-time environment)
hosting the whole logic and data devoted to the business of the enterprise. Internal to WareLite BOSS, there
is no integration issue: any business suite immediately shares data owned by any other business
suite within WareLite BOSS.
2. Enterprise Benefits
Thanks to WareLite BOSS, the whole enterprise ecosystem can be contained in a single, extensible,
scalable system. With "one" system the Enterprise can stop expending the ongoing effort
required to integrate uncoordinated applications, and focus the (smaller) effort to simply
extend their core business infrastructure to meet new business challenges as they come up.
What does this mean in practical terms?
Today, companies invest a great deal of resources to integrate systems from different
vendors to gain the functionality they need to solve business problems, because a single
package does not offer all that is required. These recurring costs require the creation
of technical capabilities that are not part of the core competence of the business, and
as such do not necessarily contribute to overall competitiveness, but create what could
be termed as "avoidable" cost.
WareLite BOSS offers a viable alternative approach: rather than integrating
different functionalities offered by different self-contained, but uncoordinated,
systems it is possible to extend one single environment to host the same set of
functionalities (business rules and business processes) offered by several applications.
The extension process, however, is business need driven and does not necessitate extra
cost for ad-hoc infrastructure integration (or building the skills required to
facilitate it).
Extending functionality using WareLite BOSS is a low-cost and low-risk process, since
it leverages the infrastructure layer within. In our vision of a business driven
systems deployment and upgrade, a set of properly packaged vertical development
tools allows the 'business expert' to quickly transform their knowledge into
running software. Thanks to these development tools, WareLite BOSS supports
aggressive Time-To-Profit schedules, by dramatically reducing the delay between
business decision and implementation.
WareLite BOSS also addresses the expense of customisation - which we liken to buying a
Ferrari to get parts for an off-road car. With WareLite BOSS, customers can buy off-road
car's parts to build a Jeep now, and then upgrade it to a Ferrari, when required.
3. Solution Providers Benefits
For an Enterprise Application Software Vendor or a Service Provider, WareLite BOSS
provides a number of exceptionally strong and sustainable "unfair" competitive
advantages:
• Costs
Elimination of costs associated to the ad-hoc infrastructure usually required
to integrate different vertical solutions - any vertical solution (or suite)
can be deployed effectively as an extension of the same enterprise ecosystem
• Consistency
Complete consistency in the development of new solution suites
• Reusability
Complete reusability of the infrastructure and of the logic (e.g. in terms of
business rules and business processes), as well as development and deployment
expertise
• Modularity
Totally modular offering (always formalized as a set of business rules,
business processes, roles and class dictionaries) based on an extensible set of
solution suites, etc.
• Scalability
Apply the same skills and resources to address the needs of both small and large Enterprises
• Focus
Focus exclusively on the development of Business Logic, not of System
Infrastructure
Thanks to WareLite RTPD² methodology, Small Service Providers will be able to provide
their clients with services that currently are the exclusive domain of large players.
Thanks to WareLite BOSS horizontal scalability, Small Application Vendors will be able to
design Business Suites that support Enterprises of all sizes.
Thanks to WareLite BOSS Unified Enterprise Backbone, large Software Vendors will have an effective
way to drive partnership with smaller software vendors, easily combining their otherwise independent
applications into a 'unified' solution offering. The result could bring significantly faster growth
in multi-market share (without de-focusing the vendor from its core business).
With the BOSS, an aggregation of multiple solutions could become a de-facto unique and
ultra-modular offering.
In addition, WareLite BOSS Unified Enterprise Backbone will make Service based offerings a
viable business opportunity.
4. Conclusion
WareLite Business Operating Support System provides a viable alternative
to the integration retrofit-solution approach by allowing software vendors to
develop a strongly unified, but completely modular, product offering. Moreover,
using WareLite BOSS, Systems Integrators can quickly and easily implement different software
systems as extensions of a single environment.
But the true benefit of WareLite BOSS will be for the Enterprise, which can quickly and easily
streamline its ecosystem from an expensive multitude of overlapping and
uncoordinated systems to an extensible single infrastructure layer which is built
to support their business.
Our vision is to provide enterprises of all sizes with the tools they need to meet
their business needs cost-effectively and time-effectively without the need to build
expensive and often non-recurring technical knowledge that is outside their core
business competence.
The shift towards enterprise ecosystems is clearly demonstrated by the appearance in
the marketplace of composite applications, a combinations of Enterprise Applications
and Integration tools, which represent an advance, but fail to solve the real issues
related to the cost of developing, implementing and maintaining a set of uncoordinated
business applications.
WareLite BOSS represents the next step toward a unified enterprise ecosystem where
every solution suite is hosted in a single run-time environment and integration is
no longer an impediment to business progress, but a natural part of it.
