Ross Systems Announces Major Advancement in Technology Infrastructure
- New Architecture Supports e-Business Strategy
For Mid-Market Process Manufacturers -
ATLANTA, June 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Ross Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: ROSS), the leading provider of enterprise resource planning systems, advanced planning systems and customer management systems for mid-market process manufacturing companies, has announced the availability of the Renaissance Network Architecture (RNA), a comprehensive framework to support the company's growing range of application solutions.
RNA is an n-tiered architecture leveraging and extending the Microsoft Distributed interNet Application (DNA) architecture. RNA uses a component based, object-oriented application software model designed to support the broad range of business application requirements used in business today.
"RNA is a new architecture for Ross Systems," said Pat Tinley, President and COO for Ross Systems. "In simple terms, we have taken our traditional proprietary architecture and opened it to the world of Internet/intranet application processing. We have had this architecture under construction for the past two years and have delivered an architectural framework that is powerful and intuitive, while maintaining the high level of integration required in today's enterprise resource planning and advanced planning systems."
RNA is a comprehensive architectural framework engineered to support the following initiatives:
1. RNA will support a range of new e-business applications from Ross
Systems.
2. RNA supports the integrated requirements of advanced planning
solutions applications.
3. RNA supports the backbone transaction requirements of the company's
Renaissance ERP (enterprise resources planning) system.
"The challenge in building an architectural framework that supports a truly open processing environment is to maintain high levels of integration in transaction processing while supporting a truly open, scalable structure," said Eric Musser, Vice President, Research and Development for Ross Systems. "With RNA, we have achieved that delicate balance.
"Architectures today must be open," explained Musser. "Open means that customer orders can come in from a variety of different sources, including the Internet or remote laptops, and be recognized and processed by the backbone transaction system. Ross has always provided excellent integration from the within its application structure. Now, we have expanded our scope to embrace the world of e-business."
Using Microsoft DNA
A key component of the company's introduction of its new architecture is the use of Microsoft standards.
"We chose Microsoft standards based on the overall quality of their design and their market acceptance," noted Pat Tinley. "Since a significant portion of our business is delivered on the Microsoft NT platform, it is logical to support the other Microsoft standards including COM/DCOM distributed architecture components."
The Microsoft DNA architecture provides a platform, component technology, application infrastructure, interoperability services and tools developers and corporations need to develop and deploy distributed business solutions. "By choosing the Microsoft DNA architecture as its distributed application services provider, Ross acknowledges the significant role and contribution Microsoft has made to the world of interoperability. The commercial success and acceptance of the Windows platform make it a logical choice," explained Tinley.
The synergy between the Ross RNA and Microsoft DNA systems is achieved through a module called RNA COM. RNA COM synchronizes with the layered approach used by both Ross and Microsoft including the presentation layer, business logic layer and data access layer of an application.
"Through RNA COM, business processes are executed by calling various business objects that can be sourced from a variety of environments," said Eric Musser. "RNA's design allows these many objects to be brought together and assimilated as part of the processing strategy. We have termed this ability 'Task Oriented Computing.' Task Oriented Computing provides a processing environment where application logic from any number of sources is being combined completely transparent to the user."
RNA COM provides both a physical and logical view of components and data. The logical view shows how the internal components relate to one another, without regard for where they are actually running inside the networked computer environment. The physical view shows where the components fit into a tiered processing model.
"We have chosen an n-tier application model for RNA because of its tremendous flexibility," noted Musser. "The n-tier architecture is a logical model, not a physical model. An application is defined as a logical network of cooperating components. The components act as 'consumers' and 'producers' of services. This model promotes scalable applications, since the producers (servers) are shared. It becomes easy to replicate the producers to support additional consumers. This design is optimum for scalability and improved distribution of the application across multiple network environments."
RNA Environment Services
RNA provides flexibility to support a wide range of processing and business requirements in a sophisticated open architecture. For the day-to- day administration of the environment, RNA provides tools to assist in deploying the enterprise application; an integrated development environment to modify, customize and build new applications; and enterprise modeling tools.
"We have built into RNA tools that help the MIS organization handle the administration of the environment easily and efficiently," said Musser. "We give our users the flexibility of selecting an enterprise topology that fits their current and future requirements."
Among the many deployment options include:
* N-tiered deployment
* Web deployment
* Thin Client deployment
* Portal deployment
* Global and multi-entity deployment
"RNA supports the revolution we see in the way business is being conducted," said Pat Tinley. "Organizations have increasingly become extended enterprises integrating the diverse parts of their expanding global operations. These new organizations often include subsidiaries, customers and suppliers as well as both local and remote facilities. The result is a flatter more closely connected organization that is better suited to current business conditions. RNA gives enterprises the opportunity to manage their businesses and IT investments in this quickly changing world."
Ross Systems, Inc. is a leading provider of enterprise software solutions for the process manufacturing, healthcare, and public sector markets. Ross Systems solutions are differentiated by their strong fit to specific industries, their strong product functionality and integration, and the firm's ability to produce rapid results and ROI for its mid-market clients. The flagship product, Renaissance(R), comprises a broad range of applications including financials, manufacturing, supply chain management, maintenance management, transportation management, materials management, and human resources/payroll. More than 3200 companies around the world use Renaissance in open systems environments including NT and UNIX. Ross Systems employs over 650 professionals in more than 60 offices around the world to serve its customers. Ross Systems, Inc., Two Concourse Parkway, Suite 800, Atlanta, Georgia 30328, 770-351-9600, 1-877-ROSS-INC, www.rossinc.com .
Renaissance is a registered trademark and GEMBASE is a trademark of Ross Systems, Inc. Microsoft, Microsoft Windows NT, Windows, and Windows NT are either registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. Solaris is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
SOURCE Ross Systems, Inc.
CO: Ross Systems, Inc.
ST: Georgia
IN: CPR MLM
SU:
06/15/99 09:30 EDT prnewswire.com |
