s a beauty parlor scheduling its customers or a chip maker publishing real-time part-availability data from corporate databases, many more firms will soon be doing it with shrink-wrapped software and on the Internet.
Opening the Floodgates
Internet phone applications, introduced last year, were the first products that exploited the "free" bandwidth of the Internet (see
"Dial 1-800-Internet,"
February BYTE). These products take an analog voice signal, compress and digitize it, and send it out over the Internet. The reverse process occurs at the other end of the connection, allowing two people to hold a phone conversation. Such products have algorithms that buffer incoming packets to help smooth out the unpredictable delays packets may experience while traversing the Internet.
The ne
xt type of product we're likely to see modified to run over the Internet is group-scheduling software. Campbell Services is modifying its OnTime Enterprise so that you can use it for intercompany scheduling running over the Internet. The new product is called OnTime Web Server, which is implemented as a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) application that will run on Windows 3.x, Windows 95, and Windows NT Web servers that support CGI.
Such intercompany group scheduling would, for example, help coordinate meetings between an advertising agency and the marketing department of a corporation. It could also be used by an industry consortium to plan its meetings.
Group scheduling over the Internet would work this way: A company would maintain a Web server running a modified version of OnTime Enterprise. Users pointing their browsers at that site would be able to view schedules in the form of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) pages (
see the screen
).
Security issues are a concern
when using such a system. Imagine what the stock market would do if someone got to a scheduling Web site and saw that Bill Gates and Lou Gerstner were meeting for lunch five days in a row.
For this reason, Campbell Services will use the existing security and access-control features of OnTime Enterprise to prevent such abuse. These features include management tools for adding, modifying, and deleting users. Any part of the user community that's also on NetWare can be easily added through OnTime's NetWare Bindery integration capabilities.
Microsystems Software has slightly different plans for its enterprise group-scheduling product called CaLANdar. One idea that Microsystems has is aimed at intracompany scheduling, where users could pick up a revised schedule from any place they have Internet access. A salesperson could dial into a Web site from a hotel room and get a list of the next day's appointments that incorporates any last-minute changes entered in the home office.
Such access to gr
oup scheduling could be useful for a virtual corporation. For example, a consortium of vendors might use it to post its meeting schedule on one vendor's Web site for all to see.
Nigel Spicer, president and COO of Microsystems, sees scheduling programs being used in another way. "When it comes to getting a haircut or your oil changed, these programs used over the Internet could replace what you do on the telephone," says Spicer.
Internet service providers might offer this type of group-scheduling service for communities. The idea would be to let people browse through the local Jiffy Lube's or beauty salon's schedule of appointments. A user can then make an appointment from his or her PC.
Privacy issues are involved in a plan like this. For instance, you probably wouldn't want any person with a browser to see that you spend three afternoons a week at your psychiatrist's office. Similarly, you wouldn't necessarily want everyone to know that you'll be out of your home for 2 hours tomorrow aft
ernoon getting your brakes repaired.
CaLANdar, like many group-scheduling products, has built-in security features that deal with these potential problems. For example, it lets an administrator import an E-mail user directory into CaLANdar, where he or she can then determine who has access to the group-scheduling system (rather than building such a list from scratch). CaLANdar also lets you hide a message or note. In that way, you can reserve a time slot so others can see that the slot is taken, but no one knows it's taken by you.
Microsystems has one large corporate client (which does not want to be identified) interested in a different scheduling-over-the-Internet project. The client is a greeting card company, and its plan is to offer a calendaring host service for its customers. Each person reaching the company's Web site would enter such information as the birthdays and anniversaries of friends and relatives. The system would send early-warning E-mail to give you enough time to buy a card a
nd present. The company would also send you an on-line version of its catalog of gifts. This company sees the Internet used in this way as a free, global communications channel.
Come Together
It's one thing to give users a view at meeting schedules over the Internet, but how about setting up the meetings in the first place? You would need a contact management program to pull the meetings off.
Elan Software's latest version of GoldMine, a contact manager for workgroups, already has many of the tools you'll need. A new feature in GoldMine for Windows 95 (introduced last fall) was the ability to send and receive Internet E-mail. When you receive a message from one of your contacts, the message is automatically linked to the contact's GoldMine record.
You can compose messages off-line. These messages are queued up to be sent automatically when the next Internet connection is made.
Additionally, users can now synchronize databases over the Internet. Originally, Gold
Mine allowed point-to-point synchronization, a feature that was typically used by one person with a laptop and a desktop system. That concept evolved into a many-to-one product, called GoldSync, which allowed groups of users to synchronize databases of client contacts, conversation history, and appointments.
GoldSync works with dial-up phone lines or over a corporation's WAN. A natural extension was to modify the program to run over the Internet. The result is GoldMine for Windows 95's Internet-connectivity features, which let users send database updates over the Internet.
Get That Data
For many corporate users, the real impact of Internet-enabled applications will come in the DBMS arena. Larry Ellison, Oracle's chairman and CEO, has made it clear that the Internet is the way to go for accessing corporate data. He is one of the major proponents of the stripped-down, networked PC that's geared toward retrieving information over the Internet.
Oracle's product line alrea
dy includes Web-server software and a browser. The company is also developing a server-based applications suite that will include database and Web-server technology, systems management tools, and a messaging server with text search tools and E-mail.
Last fall, Computer Associates announced CA-Unicenter/ICE (Internet Commerce Enabled). This set of products, once available, will be the foundation for a Web-centric database that lets you build Web pages incorporating company data and that makes this information available to anyone with a Web browser.
Computer Associates plans to offer a tightly integrated set of products under the CA-Unicenter/ICE architecture. Using the tools, a company might set up a Web-based catalog of its products. When a customer places an order over the Internet, the inventory database would be updated and an E-mail message could be sent to the customer when the order is shipped.
The point is to make existing information available without having to do much extra work.
Along those lines, Sybase has announced a database application that dynamically generates Web pages from an existing database.
Basically, we're about to see the first wave of products that have been modified to run over the Internet. And some organizations, like the greeting card company mentioned earlier, are already thinking about new ways to use this capability.
Security seems to be the only obstacle standing in the way of an explosion in the use of Internet-enabled applications. Many of the vendors who are modifying their programs to run over the Internet are addressing security up front by linking access control and user rights to existing security systems, such as user rights assigned for LAN access. How well a job vendors do in this area will determine whether these Internet-enabled applications are embraced by large corporations.
WHERE TO FIND
Campbell Services
Southfield, MI
Phone: (800) 559
-5955 or (810) 559-5955
Fax: (810) 559-1034
Internet:
http://www.ontime.com
Computer
Internet-Aware Applications
