For Micropole-Univers, a European consulting and engineering company specializing in Business Intelligence, E-Business, CRM and ERP, and Twinsoft, market leader in Enterprise Mashups and expert in SOA, Mashups bring added value by customising interfaces, both the content and form, without disrupting the information system.
Mashup potential was initially revealed by its' first mass market application, with web sites combining business names and addresses with their localisation on GoogleTM Maps, all on a single page. In fact, a Mashup is an application that combines many web apps in one. It gathers interlinked user interfaces and builds composite applications. This concept appeared together with web 2.0, which brought new concepts together under a single banner (Weblog, AJAX programming, RSS flow, collaborative and share tools).
Up to then, this data combination had been a web developers' job, rather than that of the end user. Today, the next Mashups challenge is to enable the most experienced users to organise their own composite apps, without programming.
The first thing that comes to mind with web 2.0 is its' high potential for the public at large, but what are the benefits for operational managers? The answer is obvious. Why wouldn't companies need user-friendly interfaces, information sharing, collaborative work, and information flow and customisation capacity? Now a well-established fixture on the market, Mashup technologies have been chosen by companies for their capabilities and their capacity for making in-house IT architecture more flexible. "The big challenge for corporate Mashups, acknowledged by IT management, is to integrate existing apps with SOAP, REST and RSS interfaces", states Olivier Picciotto, CEO of Twinsoft Company. Yet leaving this technical difficulty aside, companies have at least eight good reasons to adopt Mashups:
The use of existing corporate applicative resources.
Indeed, rather than constantly rewriting, changing or integrating applications as standard upgrades occur, the Mashup approach enables companies to capitalise on their existing resources to modernize, gather and integrate them easily within a dynamic information system.
User work process optimization
Mashups allow the concentration of a series of applications in one, avoiding to-ing and fro-ing between applications... In this sense, they generate productivity.
A customised, streamlined user interface offer
Uniting applications in a single interface, Mashups offer custom-made interfaces for each user type, with access to specific functionalities (ex. a business manager won't access all CRM data, but only some).
Allowing developers to focus on their area of expertise.
Thanks to Mashups, COBOL or RPG developers don't have to expand their programming knowledge to other languages to make their applications work in a dynamic web environment or SOA. Indeed, Mashups facilitate the development of traditional architecture within a modern architecture environment.
Connecting SaaS applications to the Information System.
In fact, a major plus of Mashup technologies is to enable rapid connection of external applicative resources with internal ones; SaaS applications can be totally integrated in a transparent way.
Enabling interaction on demand between applications and customer and supplier Information Systems.
Mashups promote the creation of an open and homogeneous system where customer and supplier applications can interact and complete data coming from company apps.
Easy release of own applications in a mobile environment.
By creating custom-made interfaces, Mashups allows corporations to separate information from within the company, in order to release it easily in a mobile environment. Only selected parts of applications are published to meet users’ fundamental expectations.
Integration cost optimization
The strength of Mashups also lies in their simple implementation and their ability to significantly reduce integration costs. Indeed, the Mashup approach focuses on a tailored integration of desired functionalities. Thus, it enables the reduction of global –approach- oriented traditional integration cycles.
Some concrete examples of mashup use
A cable producer wants to consult the copper exchange rate
The purchaser uses a Mashup to compile internal data (ERP, company weekly sales for example) and external data (exchange rate, stock-exchange, supplier’s prices, etc.). His business Mashup offers him a unified and global monitor of copper average rates: the Mashup will calculate the factory price, comparing different suppliers. The purchaser also consolidates the data figures in real time and organises a competitive watch on his suppliers.
An e-business company wants to offer its' customers a credit option on purchases.
The company can offer credit solutions to its customers, to facilitate the purchase of high value goods. Depending on his criteria,the purchaser can see all the credit offers for a specific area on a single screen (his Mashup). He can visualise the potential monthly-payment terms and the credit agreement. His Mashup offers him a transversal view and thus the possibility of rapidly finding real data on the web site.
A bank wants to make its data visible to its employees, in a customised way.
The bank salesperson Mashup interface (who is the final user) is made up of widgets which represent data contained in the back office management system (bank accounts, financial products, IARD contracts / health / insurance / life insurance) and marketing (corporate campaign management and product targeting to customer profile ). The Mashup gives a complete customer overview in a unified and global form. The final user can consult the basic data (contacts, portfolio, equity and savings for instance). He can launch a sales operation, thanks to pushing data and other real data. The result is better employee productivity and better information with which to advise customers.
With the advent of Web 2.0 in business, Mashups (or software solutions which gather different existing web services) are a new phenomenon, gaining an increasing foothold n a market showing growing interest. Let’s not miss this window of opportunity... "We strongly believe in Mashup use for businesses. It will enable the creation of individual value, irrespective of job specialisation and without disruption of the Information System. Each user will customize his/her Mashup to meet individual needs better and to facilitate decision making. Not only are we integrating Mashups in our working processes, we are also recommending them to our customers", confirms Renaud Finaz de Villaine, Head of Marketing and Communication at Micropole-Univers.
About Twinsoft
Twinsoft is a market leader in Enterprise Mashups. Our flagship product, Convertigo Enterprise Mashup Server helps companies reuse their existing assets to build new and exciting WEB 2.0 composite applications for a fraction of the cost and time needed to complete software rewrites or traditional development. We are also known as an SOA and Mashup enabler for our unique Legacy screen scraping and Web scraping technologies. With more than 300 customers, such as Club Med, Banque Nationale de Paris, Electricite de France, Societe Generale or Carlson Wagonlits, Twinsoft's Convertigo is recognized by analysts to be one of the best WEB 2.0 integration platforms on the market. Our partnerships with Dreamface Interactive, IBM, Magic Software and W4 help us to build WEB 2.0 Mashup
solutions which provide our customers with the best value for money.
About Micropole Univers
Micropole-Univers is a European consulting and engineering company, specializing in Business Intelligence, EBusiness, CRM and ERP. The group guides its customers throughout the entire project life-cycle, from consulting through to solution implementation and skill transfer. A leader in its business sector in France and Switzerland, it benefits from partnerships with leading software publishers. Micropole-Univers has almost 1,000 employees and provides solutions to 800 clients (80% of whom are CAC 40 companies). The group is listed on the Eurolist Paris - Compartiment C and registered in the Next Economy Segment. ISIN code: FR0000077570.
Contacts Press :
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Micropole-Univers Marie Jacob Tél : +33 1 42 47 44 47
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