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User benefits Operational capacity enhancement
Shifting processing resources from the client to server end enables the sharing of far more computing power by many users. Capital investment saving As the number of users increases the marginal investment costs in client hardware fall significantly because individual client processing, software and hardware resource requirements are lower. These economies represent a significant saving on total investment outlays on individual client hardware and software and result in lower running and maintenance costs. Client interfaces and platforms On the applications user side, additional savings arise from the fact that all that is needed is an access to an Internet or Intranet link making use of a personal computer or laptop. The user interface requirements are modest with the only software required being a browser. Browsers, such as Microsoft© Internet Explorer come as a part of the utilities included in operating systems software and incur no significant extra costs for users of online services. In addition those clients using other operating systems and browsers can access and use the central server resources as effectively as Internet Explorer users.  The main investment is in a central server which manages the online services using a dedicated server software which runs scripts which manage data comunications and storage in a database, control data processing and control the formats of html pages presented by the server to the browser.Script processing configurations The performance of deployed online systems varies with the processing configurations for operational scripts. Thus in the case of JavaScript, a popular language used in web-applications, this is frequently used as code on HTML pages, known as client-end coding. This is slow and there are problems related to the conveyance of data to and from pages in the user's browser to any central database. These problems relate to security related to illicit access by other parties as well as relating to possible data loss and corruption. The Vanguard system makes use of a server-end configuration Server-end processing Vanguard Software developed a decision analysis script known as DecisionScript which has the same syntax as the international standards for JavaScript (EMCAScript core and the ISO standard) which is deployed at the server-end. The server end deployment enables the processing to operate at around 100 times faster than conventional JavaScript deployed on the HTML page and interpreted by the user's browser (known as client-end processing). Although server-end processing provides a theoretical gain in processing capability of something like 100 times that of client-end processing, in practice the delays in communication and switching and other factors will reduce performance gains to around a factor of 50. However, this is still an impressive speed of response and a significant saving in economic terms resulting from the cumulative time saving associated with processing speeds. It is this gain in processing capabity (speed) achieved with server-end processing that makes possible reductions in client end hardware requirements and the achievement of far higher overall processing capabilities at a lower cost. An important output from a well-structured online decision analysis system is transparent reporting and documentation explaining and justifying any decisions taken. These can provide a description of the factors taken into account, the models applied and use of the best available information. The comparison of decisions with outcomes has an important role in assessing the quality of decisions by gaining a better understanding of how decision models reflect operational outcomes. This information can be of vital strategic importance to a company in enhancing decision quality and competitive status in the market. The accumulation of considerable decision analysis data and information and its ability to generate transparent reports in real time online is of importance in providing all constituencies involved with an adequate understanding as to why certain decisions were taken. Such access to objective data is of fundamental importance not only in strengthening the foundation of manageemnt decisions but also improves the quality of reporting to regulatory, legal, accountancy, audit, revenue and professional practice associations, authorities and agencies. This transparency has an important impact on corporate work ethic, professionalism and indeed the spirit of teams all operating in the knowledge that their actions take place as a result of their taking the best decisions based upon the available information. Occasionally good decisions can result in unexpected outcomes. Under such circumstances decision analysis sustains a sound professional ethic and helps avoid the destructive impacts of recriminations but diverts attention to a more dispassionate analysis of the cause of such disparities, driven forwards by an objective focus which can sustain team initiative. |
