Google Gears, the recently released open-source technology that lets developers create offline Web applications, is one more indication that on-demand application users are looking for more offline capabilities.
What’s needed, according to industry analysts, are improved development environments that enable companies to more seamlessly give users offline access to diverse data sources from on-demand and legacy data systems through the latest communication technologies, such as smart phones.
While established SAAS (software as a service) vendors like Salesforce.com, NetSuite and RightNow Technologies have had offline capabilities for a number of yearsSalesforce.com introduced its Offline Edition in 2003experts agree that there’s more work to be done.
Click here to read more about Google Gears, the open-source browser extension for Web developers.
For those SAAS applications that do provide offline access to data, the next frontier is to provide access to data that resides in both on-demand and on-premises applications to fit a specific business process, according to Jeffrey Kaplan, an analyst with Thinkstrategies.
“All major as well as emerging SAAS vendors are trying to build a level of functionality into their multitenant environments in such a way that they can anticipate a variety of scenarioswhat kinds of legacy apps, offline environments users might needand how to properly regulate that so that when they are connected it properly integrates in an automated fashion and mitigates any customer involvement,” Kaplan said.
“It’s certainly a work in progress. My sense is [SAAS vendors] are making aggressive efforts to satisfy this need,” he said.
What’s needed, according to industry analysts, are improved development environments that enable companies to create a more seamless offline capability with access to more information in more ways, as well as the ability to access information offline that spans across on-demand and legacy systems.
“Offline clients are usually very limited. Within Salesforce only a subset of information [is available] and just as an XML data transfer, so it’s not a true baked offline client,” said Yankee Group analyst Sheryl Kingstone. “When you’re thinking about the availability of information you want it any time, anywhere. Some Web-based applications don’t provide that.”
While on-demand vendors may well take the lead in creating better integration for offline data accessSalesforce.com users want to be able to access legacy data for CRM (customer relationship management) from their Salesforce environments, for exampleoutside forces will work to beef up offline capabilities as well, analysts said.
Yankee’s Kingstone pointed to tools being developed by Adobe that will allow a more interactive GUI. “Eventually some of that will be able to go offline,” she said.
The result of these developments will be more mature development tools that vendors can integrate with their products, analysts said. Google Gears is a good example, though it’s unclear at this point whether on-demand vendors will incorporate the technology into their own development environments, or exactly what that will enable.
Given recent rumors that Salesforce.com will strike up a partnership to utilize Google’s SAAS productivity toolsan announcement that some expect to come as early as the week of June 4a pairing of Google Gears and Salesforce CRM applications seems likely.
Adam Gross, director of product marketing for Salesforce.com, based in San Francisco, was noncommittal in an e-mailed statement. “Salesforce.com [has] made offline technologies available to our customers since 2003,” Gross said. “[We] think Gears and other new browser technologies will be able to further enhance that capability.”
RightNow Technologies and NetSuite executives were not available at press time.
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