IBM Notes and Domino Applications

Transcription

1 January 2015 IBM Notes and Domino Applications A road map for modernization using IBM XPages

2 2 IBM Notes and Domino Applications Forward Being an IT leader in 2015 is a challenging job. We have to balance the desire for lower costs with higher user demands and the ubiquity of being available 24/7. This has made strategic decisions challenging: buy vs. build, cloud vs. on-premises, start-up vs. enterprise vendor, consultant vs. internal resource. All of these decision points factor into every decision we have to make. But so does the impact of current consumer technologies. Users demand modern, interactive, and mobile applications because that is what they are using every day outside of the workplace. The choices on how to solve the problems of our customers the internal lines of business require flexibility and speed. As part of modernizing the business processes and applications within my company, a powerful application development platform was required. Something where applications could be built quickly, using modern web and mobile technologies. We wanted to build it internally without needing an army of consultants. IBM XPages provides that platform. We run our business on applications built in XPages. Applications that track inventory, manage project details and track every piece of work we do from inception to completion. This is all done in a vendor-agnostic environment that includes IBM technologies, but also leverages Microsoft and others, including various cloud vendors. We get all of the power and flexibility of a modern web application platform that we can integrate easily, with low costs to manage and maintain the infrastructure. I believe strongly in finding the right tools and platforms for the job. I don t pick by vendor, nor by what is popular. I pick based on what is best for our business. XPages has provided that solution for our ongoing development needs. I highly recommend that anyone looking at a modern web application platform consider XPages. John Roling Director of IT Czarnowski John Roling (jroling@czarnowski.com), Director of Information Technology at Czarnowski ( has been working in the collaboration space for nearly two decades. He has been a tech journalist and has held jobs training, developing and administering various collaboration technologies. He s also spoken at major technology conferences and has blogged about this space since He currently manages the IT infrastructure for Czarnowski, a premier exhibit and event marketing firm and is responsible for overseeing IT decisions from the desktop to the cloud. About this technical brief As IBM Notes and Domino evolves, it is important to update existing applications with a modern user experience that includes web and mobile capabilities. This technical brief is intended as a follow-up to Collaborative and business applications for the connected company, to help clients modernize existing Notes and Domino applications. To gain a real-world perspective on modernizing applications, we brought in long-time partner, John Head, who has extensive experience evaluating and updating applications, as a co-author of this document. John D. Head (jhead@psclistens.com), director of Enterprise Collaboration at PSC Group, LLC ( is a 20 year veteran of collaboration application development. He is a frequent speaker at technology events and works with companies to apply application modernization and mobilization to their business processes and applications. PSC Group, a professional services and information technology consulting firm, created the Application Modernization Center (AMC) to apply a methodology to invested platforms and applications and bring mobile, cloud, social and analytics to business process. Executive summary Over the past 20+ years, companies have relied on IBM Domino to run their businesses. Domino s built-in messaging, directory services, and security model presented a solid foundation for building mission-critical workflow applications. Replication services provided a solution for distributed workforces, and an integrated development environment made rapid application development a reality. As a result, millions of applications were created to support business processes at both the department and company-wide level.

3 Social Business 3 As new technology has been introduced to the greater market, such as HyperText Markup Language (HTML), Java, and Representational State Transfer (RESTful) web services, it has appeared in Domino. Adding these services to a solid foundation is good reason to stay with Domino as an application platform. Moving from Domino, especially in the presence of missioncritical applications, would seem unwarranted, but the notion exists because of another feature of Domino as an application platform. Domino has a long-standing commitment to backward compatibility. This means that applications written for one version of the product should work in subsequent versions. This made it easier for companies to upgrade their version of Domino and take advantage of new features, knowing that they wouldn t need to re-write their existing applications. This also had the undesirable effect of existing applications being left in their original state, with a user experience that had not been updated in years. Today s employees are more technically savvy than ever before. They come to the workplace with knowledge of what modern applications are capable of from their personal experiences with smartphones, tablets, and television sets. They expect more from their corporate applications and rebel against outdated solutions forced upon them by their IT departments. These outdated Domino applications must be dealt with. Pixelated screens with 16 colors may get the underlying job done, but not if everyone refuses to use them. So how do we go about solving the problem? Is a new application platform needed? How do I know what to attack first? This whitepaper will help you understand what can be done with Domino and how to move from the old to the new. It will address the process of auditing and prioritizing your existing applications. After reading this, you will be armed with the information needed to modernize your Domino applications. A Changing Business Application Environment Two recent shifts have been particularly impactful on business applications. The first is that mobile devices are increasingly replacing traditional workstations. The second is the always-on, high-bandwidth Internet is now essentially ubiquitous. As a result, the need for a desktop-based rich client and offline applications has reduced. Today s user is also more sophisticated. They know how to update the operating system on their phones, and they can download applications from the app stores to their devices. This gives them the ability to look at internal applications, compare them with other applications that are available online, and quickly decide which to use whether or not an application is sanctioned by their IT department. Savvy users may choose to try unauthorized applications, outside the firewall, when internal applications don t fully meet their needs. When asked why they might do this, it s reasonable to assume the following reasons: Too slow Too restrictive Not accessible at home Not accessible on mobile devices Not sexy enough or a bad user experience The results of the survey demonstrate the problem: end users expect the same kind of modern web experiences at work as they have at home. As a result, these users frequently bypass internal solutions for outside options. In order to overcome this, corporate IT must modernize their internal applications, at the very time their resources are more constrained than ever. Updating your existing Notes and Domino applications for a new workplace Once an organization has decided to update an application, the first decision is on what approach to take. There are a few options to the approach: Update the existing application with a new coat of paint approach. This is the shortest and quickest approach, and usually focuses on updating the look and feel of the application. Applying a new web user interface, making it work on a mobile device, and addressing a few minor issues. Re-platform the application on a new technology platform. This is neither a trivial nor inexpensive effort.

4 4 IBM Notes and Domino Applications Update the application to modern business processes as well as user experience, regardless of the technology platform used. All three approaches provide the updated experience that users are demanding, but not all of them provide the needed value vs. cost. With tight IT budgets and a never ending to do list for IT professionals, prioritizing the business critical applications for updates is a requirement. The success rate on projects that tackle application upgrades is highest when both the business process and user experience are updated together. This takes more time and resources than the new coat of paint approach, but the return on investment is higher. Re-platforming typically focuses on a functionality-match feature list, to make sure the application meets the business requirements as it is rebuilt. There is no wrong approach, but perceived value and return on investment favors option 3. The real value of XPages goes beyond its technological strengths, even thought there are many. XPages allows for the merging of a 25 year history of applications with today s technology standards and development patterns. In 2015, where agile development, modern web application frameworks, cloud and Platform-as-a- Service (PaaS) platforms are dominating the development conversations, XPages embraces all of them. Application Modernization vs. Migration Functional updates to applications offer a unique opportunity for a company to modernize them, update processes, improve security and prepare for a more data driven, mobile and dynamic future. In the Notes and Domino world, there are hundreds of thousands of applications in the work environment waiting to be updated. They were built to solve a business need and have been maintained as needed. The question on how to update these applications, when looked at from a distance, will bring up many options. XPages provides a platform for building modern versions of Notes and Domino applications, but a company has to decide between a modernization or migration approach. Migration is when an application is updated with a desire to map all of the existing functionality to the new platform. The user experience is made elegant and available through a browser or on a mobile device, but the majority of the user experience and business process remains the same. This can often solve the requirement of helping an organization remove (or reduce) the need of an installed rich client, but it has a much lower return on investment. Many companies take the migration approach with the promise of reduced cost, using tools to automate the development. Across any technology platform, including Notes and Domino, no tool can replace the value of a business analyst and a developer. Many promises have been made to create the ultimate assembly line for application migration automation to other platforms, with reality requiring unwieldy and costly framework requirements that yield very little user value. When modernizing applications, simply converting LotusScript to XPages or.net will not necessarily make users of the application happy. A methodology that takes other factors into account to provide a modern experience for the best value, is tantamount to widespread acceptance. Providing the best user experience and updated business processes for applications requires a human element that cannot be achieved through automated tools, alone. A successful modernization approach Experience in modernizing applications has provided a key list of tasks that make a modernization project successful. Those tasks include: Planning This is more than just a project plan with deliverables and tasks. It is the ability to coordinate the users, developers, testers, and infrastructure team members. The key to any successful modernization project is proper planning and strong project management. A project manager who can effectively manage the project, work across the company, and can manage scope creep and changes on the fly is essential. A successful plan includes business impact reviews and key performance indicator creation & tracking. Business Value Analysis This provides a working view of the existing application(s) from an end user perspective. It allows the organization to update and improve the business process, adding to the return on investment for the modernization project. This

5 Social Business 5 process includes a detailed review of the application functionality with its business owners, a review of business impact, and user acceptance criteria. Technical Analysis The first technical effort in any modernization project is to provide a detailed and robust technical analysis of existing applications. This includes a detailed review of current applications, a deep dive into the code, and a matrix that maps the design elements. This leads to a complexity score that helps determine the difficulty of updating the application. From this, a recommended plan and estimate can be created. Categorize & Prioritize Taking the data from the business value and technical analysis tasks, a company can categorize and prioritize applications that are candidates for modernization. This can be done by application function or functionally area, and is also a great time to look for an opportunity to consolidate applications. The output will group applications into categories and help to define a modernization sequence and schedule. Cultural Change One of the keys to any modernization project is to understand the impact on users. Through end user meetings, review of training, and measuring user satisfaction, the company can mitigate cultural risks. In many modernization efforts, the key to the success of the project is how the cultural impact was managed. Governance Many Notes applications were built before companies had governance models and polices. A modernization effort is the perfect time to review the current governance policies, make recommendations for updates and how they affect the application in question. Reviewing data retention requirements and application sunsetting plans helps provide a model for continued success. Security A modernization effort provides an excellent opportunity to review the security model of any application. This is an opportunity to simplify and consolidate the security of an application, while matching internal application security guidelines. Network Impact When a user complains about a slow application, there are many potential culprits. As applications move from rich client to web and mobile interfaces, the impact on the application and user must be determined. This includes a detailed traffic analysis, reviewing local and remote access requirements, determining off-line usage needs and investigating caching strategies. By comparing overall network load of old vs. new technologies, best practices and recommendations can be provided for the modernization that optimizes the use of resources and provides the best user experience. Data Center Impact With the shift from a client application to a mobile and web application, the data center impact should be considered. What is the topology of the current server environment? Can they handle the increased web and network traffic? This is the time to investigate hardware and server upgrades. The use of cloud servers for infrastructure and platform should also be considered. IBM Bluemix can help reduce IT costs, speed the development of applications and make them easier to update. Data Management With the application modernization taking place, this is the perfect time to review the data life cycle requirements that include archival and removal. Reviewing the legal requirements that the application must support for audit takes place here. Reducing data redundancy within the organization can also provide real cost savings. Tools & Standards As the project moves from planning and analysis into development, establishing the tools and standards for the new application is a key activity. This is fundamental for a successful modernization and provides a roadmap for future development. This element includes creating a standard theme and application guidelines. Application Development and Testing The first 11 tasks are keys to a modernization project s success. The actual modernization effort includes having the right resources for the project, skilled in both the platform and process. A well-managed project with proper testing and user acceptance is needed. Test scripts ensure the application is not only technically sound, but matches the user requirements. A significant amount of time in any modernization project will be spent in this task.

6 6 IBM Notes and Domino Applications Project Completion Once the project has been completed, it s time to document the effort. Developer documentation is important for maintaining and extending the application. Infrastructure documentation allows the administrators and help desk to support the application. End user documentation provides tools and training for the end users. Like the perfectly wrapped present, this task is the bow on top. It provides a runway for long term success. Every organization will approach a modernization project differently. The tasks above provide a roadmap that have been proven in numerous engagements. Whether the project is a company-wide modernization of a platform or a single application, this process has been used with great success. IBM business partners have embraced this process with digital agencies and adoption of modern development practices. infrastructure and development costs. Modern collaborative environments and applications must be measured by more than a cost amount. User productivity and usage are just as, if not more, important. One customer who successfully used XPages to modernize a business critical application is Czarnowski. Who Is Czarnowski? Czarnowski is an exhibit and event marketing leader with over 60 years experience helping clients put their best marketing foot forward. They strategize, create, fabricate and build world-class events and exhibits. Challenge Several years ago, the Czarnowski IT Team was tasked with replacing an antiquated system they were using within Notes to track customer inventory. The system was based on a generic framework of Notes databases and could only be used via the Notes client. Customers had started to want barcoding and real-time tracking of data across all of their properties. Employees wanted the ability to move around inventory via ipads, which wasn t easily done with classic Notes applications. It was a difficult system to use, and cost Czarnowski considerable time, effort and money. Measuring success If you have existing Domino applications, it makes a lot of sense to modernize them with XPages. Re-architecting, rebuilding, and re-deploying your many applications is a costly and timeconsuming undertaking with little to no upside. It is even harder to measure user experience successes when compared to

7 Social Business 7 Solution To fix this problem, Czarnowski used Domino and XPages to integrate inventory tracking into their existing XPages based job tracking system named COMS. COMS is a browser-based solution with a modern design that reengineered the job tracking process from beginning to end. New integrations with existing Domino databases were built to create the new inventory functionality, and COMS Inventory was born. COMS Inventory became a tab within COMS where project managers could see the inventory on their jobs in real time. In addition, a dedicated scanning website was created to allow employees on the trade show floor to check inventory in and out. Employees could utilize ipads in ruggedized cases along with handheld bluetooth scanners to scan inventory pieces in and out of a show via the XPages based scanning website. This website was connected to the Domino back-end and updates COMS Inventory in real-time. Updating the inventory system with XPages also provided easier access for end users. Users could access the inventory from anywhere using browsers and mobile devices. It also saved time and money on the show floor by shortening the time to check crates in and out, and increasing the accuracy of the counts. Benefits Improves productivity of employees with increased access to information, data accuracy, and speedier updates. Improves speed of application deployment by allowing updates to be pushed to the browser as soon as they are ready rather than needing a local client install. Deployment time decreased from weeks to hours. Improves access to information by supporting all modern browsers including mobile access on tablet devices. Domino applications hold tremendous value for the organizations that use them, but that value dissipates when the application is left unchanged as the technology around it continues to evolve. End users are familiar with the technological possibilities through personal experiences and bring higher expectations to the workplace. Business applications that do not live up those expectations are in danger of not being used to their full extent. In a worst-case scenario, savvy users may choose to try unauthorized applications, outside the firewall, to meet their needs. XPages presents a solution to this problem. It provides a straightforward path to modernizing your Notes and Domino applications. When planning to modernize your applications, it s wise to think holistically. Employing a methodology that prioritizes applications and reviews security, mobility and the process that the application serves is most likely to provide a modern experience for the best value. John and John would like to dedicate this whitepaper to Tim Tripcony. He was a pioneer in the XPages community and a great friend. He is missed.

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