Efficient architectures eliminate the information flow's dependency on the user interface and permit information to move whenever there's a network connection, rather than waiting on someone to press the Enter key.

This is not vaporware—these principles are in use today, with excellent results. The most life-enabling example I can think of is a medical imaging solution implemented at Allina Healthcare. The previous system required doctors to request the files they needed before sending the images along, resulting in doctors and patients waiting up to 45 minutes until the request could be fulfilled. Now images are routed to the doctors' points of care. When the doctor logs on, the images are already there.

Not only is this more convenient, it has a direct impact on the quality of medical care.

Enterprise efficiency: repeal the permanent employment act
Forman's experience with the personnel form illustrates the labor burden an online-only model imposes on an enterprise. Using a Web site for transactions such as personnel forms or grant applications requires, among other things:

1. Ongoing creation and maintenance of the HTML presentation layer
2. Multiple round trips between the user and the server
3. Storage for uncompleted forms
4. Authentication of users returning to work on previously saved forms
5. A resilience layer to cope with network failures and latency

There is a better way. All these inefficiencies can be eliminated by enabling users to enter data offline and to submit completed forms. This return to a simpler, batch-type submission process looks much like the asynchronous message-based architecture of scalable enterprise applications. It also facilitates designing out—or end-of-lifing—the tedious labor associated with the care and feeding of Web sites.

Man vs. machine
It's a good thing that Forman was only filling out a personnel form when the network connection broke—the average government grant application is 100 pages long.

Enabling offline user productivity can streamline enterprise application architecture and help an organization eliminate the redundant human labor associated with many of today's enterprise applications.

About the author
Considered one of Intel's visionaries charting future directions for industry and computing, Chris S. Thomas drives key e-Business marketing and architecture activities within Intel's Solutions Market Development Organization and is an active Industry spokesperson and organizer. His teams have been chartered with developing an enterprise/internet architecture and vision for Intel, resulting in driving Web Services, 3rd Generation Internet Business activities and creating the Distributed Enterprise Architecture Lab. Also at Intel he was director of industry Sstrategic Mmarketing in the Enterprise Server Group, and managed core technology teams designing Intel LANDesk® solutions.

Mr. Thomas is well known for his work driving industry standardization specifically in the networking and systems management arenas. He was founding chairman of the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) advocating the Desktop management Interface (DMI) standard. He has extensive background in developing enterprise solutions involving some of the earliest TCP/IP based client and server integration to mainframe systems. Prior to joining Intel in 1988, he managed systems engineering and technical support for Information Technologies, Inc. pioneering early development of LAN gateways to enterprise systems.

Mr. Thomas received a BS in Computer Science and a BA in Spanish from Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Related links
Chris Thomas: Reduce Costs by Choosing When Not To Portal

Chris Thomas: Are You Taking the Easy Way Out?

Chris Thomas: From Here to There: Software Architecture for Mobile Computing

Chris Thomas: Revolution in Our Hands

Mark Forman in Federal Times: http://federaltimes.com/index.php?S=232747

e-Government Presentation (PowerPoint): http://www.affirm.org/Pubs/wpapers/Forman_KMpresentation(9_20)Affirm.ppt

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© 2006 Intel Corp.