<<The thin client/web browser interface approach is the wave of the future.>>
Well, that's partly true, but it's only half the story. Keep in mind that FSTW sells an SFA application that is suppose to automate a mobile sales professional, freeing him/her from having to find a phone line and tie into a network to do all their work. That dictates that the SFA app must be able to run a local SQL database and then synchronize that local SQL database with the corporate database. That's not a thin client guys, that's a fat client built with thin client tools. Pure thin client has it's benefits but it won't do for mobile professionals.
The benefit of the thin client approach for FSTW isn't "thin client" per se, it's the com/dcom architecture that it's built on, which can go thin or fat as needed. A traditional client server application like FSTW's TakeControl product has one big 10mb file sitting on a laptop. The problem with that approach for mobile professional is every time a field change is made the salesman has to download the whole 10mb executable, or come into the office and have it reinstalled. With the com/dcom architecture of Netgain, they only have to download that component object, say 40kb. When they're on the road they have their own database, but when they're in the office or on the net, they operate as a thin client....the best of both worlds.
It's a nice architecture, but keep in mind that FSTW's not the only company doing this. But for a company with such a low valuation, it's a good bargain. |
