Matthew,
Let me clarify, first from the marketing side of the fence, I completely agree that Edify needs to have their web development tools. Any company that is looking to automate a call center will be looking for all of these technologies and it is certainly a plus that Edify has a product to deliver in each of these environments. In reality I think we still have some problems, first if your host data is on any type of client/server relational server web access can be easily accomplished with little or no cost through your vendors product. Some examples of this are Sybase (web.sql, $696.00), Oracle (Oracle Web Server, $2,495.00) and Microsoft (Internet Information Server, FREE).
In the case that your data is stored in a mainframe or other legacy system. The more traditional middleware companies have developed solutions that will meet your needs. These companies would include Sybase's Information Connect Division, IBM etc. These solutions will cost more than above but they address the entire problem of allowing users to access legacy data from distributed clients through open protocols and the solutions are far more stable/reliable/flexible.
In addition if you are a IS Manager out there struggling with this problem. You will probably have a short career if you start suggesting that you provide access to your mainframe data through a overpriced screen scraping HTML enabled VRU.
Don't get me wrong I do understand Edify's argument for having and developing their web tools. And I do not fault them for developing them. But what I do not see is a lot of organizations getting out their checkbooks and writing a check for $60,000.00 + so that they can have web access for their legacy data. I would expect these organizations would more likely be addressing one of the following issues: getting this information completely off of the mainframe environment, replicating to a client/server database or utilizing middleware to access this data from a distributed clients (Web, Visual Basic, Visual C++, JAVA, Powerbuilder).
As to your point about Edify having the experience developing applications against host systems. This is true but in no way do they have a monopoly on this market. Look at all of the system integrators (EDS, Anderson Consulting, IBM, Etc.) , and vendors (ORACLE, Sybase, Microsoft, Informix) that have or are gaining experience developing client server/web applications against legacy systems.
I suppose only time will tell if they can make the argument or not. I am in for 2 -5 years and I expect Edify will turn its focus to back to the voice side of things as the web tool market thins.
Louis |
