 Most website experiences today are pretty much the same. You start on the homepage, then navigate by clicking through a series of other pages before you finally arrive at the one with the information or functionality you need. Chances are, you are so accustomed to using the “paging-through-a-book” method for accessing web content that you don’t give it a second thought.
Until, that is, you encounter an application like Google Maps. You can see and feel the difference immediately. Google Maps, the online mapping service, in no way resembles a hypertext markup language (HTML) web application. It is, in fact, a rich Internet application (RIA)—a new type of web application based on a set of user interface technologies that provide a significantly better user experience than straight HTML. Think of RIAs as easily deployed web applications that provide the same level of richness and responsiveness as desktop applications. HTML made possible the tremendous advances of the World Wide Web. But as a first-generation web application language, it carries certain limitations—one of the most notable being the need to connect to the server and refresh the page anytime information is updated. RIAs offer superior performance in part because they can better use the processing power and other resources on the user’s computer, instead of being dependent on the server. With RIAs, calculations can be performed on a user’s computer, and small amounts of data can be constantly exchanged with the server behind the scenes, so the screen does not need to be redrawn every time the user takes an action, as with HTML. That makes navigation easier and more fluid. No longer forced to “page through the book” using HTML, people can do more online thanks to RIA—finishing a transaction in fewer steps, for example. RIAs also overcome the technical limitations of programming in HTML, such as the inability to “drag and drop” objects from one application to another. In Accenture’s technology forecast for 2006–2010, which was conducted in late 2005, we identified RIAs as one of the 10 most important emerging technologies, because they open up the potential for vast improvements in the usability and productivity of web-based applications—and because they increase the web’s usefulness as a computing platform (see Sidebar 1, below). Today, Google Maps is one of the highest-profile RIAs, demonstrating how the technology can enrich the sophistication, responsiveness and reliability of business-to-consumer applications. MINI USA is another early adopter: Its customers can configure a MINI Cooper on the company’s website, watching their dream car come to life, with all their desired features. The site now generates more than half of the company’s sales leads. Even more notable is the average rate of conversion-to-sale for customers configuring a car online: an impressive 30 percent. In the enterprise arena, salesforce.com —which pioneered the delivery of sales force automation and customer relationship software over the Internet—is also leveraging RIAs to deliver a robust experience for users that puts its software service on par with the rich graphic interface of major packaged software products like Oracle’s. With RIAs, salesforce.com can offer a host of teamwork automation capabilities, including project management, collaborative calendaring, document management and team communications. These are the kinds of applications that wouldn’t be attempted with HTML, which is primarily intended to present content retrieved from a server. RIAs, on the other hand, enable the seamless distribution of applications that run on a user's machine. Accenture Technology Labs is already focused on the next application wave: RIAs as the front end for service-oriented architectures. With an SOA, business applications are constructed of independent, reusable, interoperable services. Soon it will be common—especially among high-performance organizations— for business managers to assemble technology services, drawing upon reusable components developed by their counterparts in IT. RIAs will play a key role in this by enabling end users to reconfigure IT services to meet business needs, without requiring vast amounts of technical labor. HTML simply lacks the interactivity and functionality to allow users to manipulate complex components like web services. Early Mover Advantage
Companies that offer transactions or complex multi-step processes on their website (where users have to “page” through lots of content to get to their desired destination) will be particularly well served by recasting these applications as RIAs. Other good candidates for RIAs are such data-intensive applications as project management and business intelligence. Building RIAs today requires a significant investment of time and money. However, as the market recognizes the value of RIAs, many vendors are investing in them to make their platforms and tools easy to use (see Sidebar 2). Salesforce.com is just one example of a company that isn’t waiting for standards, tools and mainstream development to fully mature. By using innovative technologies like RIAs, salesforce.com—with its AppExchange platform—has greatly strengthened its position as the poster company for the software- as-a-service business model. For it and other RIA pioneers, getting a head start is well worthwhile. Sidebar 1
The world in your browser? The launch earlier this year of Google Spreadsheets, along with Google’s acquisition of online word processor Writely, are widely seen as the company’s latest attempts to steer the computing world toward web-based applications that are operating-system (read: Microsoft) agnostic. It’s a sign that Web 2.0—a buzzword for a new generation of more usable and productive web technology—is on the move. RIAs are a major enabler of Web 2.0 and mark an important milestone in the evolution of the Internet, consumer and business applications, and possibly the software industry itself. Some industry observers are predicting that consumers will switch en masse to free, web-based applications, leading to the demise of Microsoft Office. But that overlooks an important point: Microsoft’s products offer far superior functionality and usability. The web version of Outlook, developed by Microsoft in 1998, was one of the first mainstream RIAs, and the company is not standing still. Microsoft continues to be well positioned with its investment in the new Windows Live and Microsoft Office Live online services. The 2007 Microsoft Office system will provide an alternate platform for building some forms of RIAs and will compete with AJAX techniques and the Adobe Flex RIA development platform. Sidebar 2
Gaining Momentum: New Tools and Standards An emerging set of new tools, standards and development techniques is enabling RIAs. AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), currently the most notable, is used on such sites as Google Maps and Yahoo’s Flickr photo sharing service. OpenLaszlo is an example of an open-source development platform for RIAs (originally developed by Laszlo Systems, but now sustained by the open-source community). Momentum is building as industry giants, including IBM, Oracle and Microsoft, push for broader RIA acceptance. Startups like Nexaweb Technologies, which provides a platform for building enterprise RIAs, are appearing on the scene. TIBCO Software, an enterprise application integration player, is integrating an RIA platform into its existing product lines. It is still difficult and costly, however, to build an RIA that works well in a wide range of platforms. Many estimates have indicated that RIAs won’t be in the mainstream system development until late 2010. The frameworks for building RIAs are proprietary and come as browser plug-ins, Java applets or ActiveX controls, which require disruptive downloads, at least the first time the applications run. As with any new technology, there is currently a lack of skilled developers. Despite these challenges, the promise of a better user experience and a reduced load on the back-end servers is already compelling companies to begin rewriting their sites using AJAX and Dynamic HTML (DHTML). Don Rippert is based in Reston, Virginia. Back to Contents
Return to Outlook Online main page To Top |