| EDM
Products |
Case
Application
W7.2 |
TABLE W7.1 | Maps and GIS |
| NLP
Software |
GUI | AIS
In Action
W7.1 |
AIS
In Action
W7.2 |
| TABLE W7.2 | AIS
In Action
W7.3 |
Internet
Exercises |
Miscellaneous
Links |
| Links |
EDM (Electronic Document Management) Products:
Case Application W7.2: CSX Builds a Major Shipping Application Saving Development Time and Millions of Dollars 1
In late 1996, CSX Corp. rolled out TWSNet, a shipment tracking and processing application that uses World Wide Web technology to give CSX customers Web browser access to CSX's customer applications. TWSNet, originally a DOS-based application, has become one of the first--and arguably the largest--mission-critical applications written in Java, Sun Microsystems Inc.'s object-oriented, platform-independent programming language.
CSX, the nation's largest freight transporter, is one of a handful of large companies in different industries that are deploying Java-based applications for systems that connect with their customers over the Internet. Java, which hit the market just over a year ago, has been used mostly in nonbusiness applets like animated Web site graphics. Now its platform-independence and ease of distribution are starting to impress IT managers.
"Java arrived in the market at the right time for us," says John Andrews, president of CSX Technology, the Jacksonville, Fla., IT subsidiary of the $10 billion transportation company. "We were already rethinking our electronic commerce strategy, trying to deal with interoperability between different operating systems and hardware platforms. So far, TWSNet is getting raves from customers."
"The standard browser with HTML is just a tease," says John Gawkowski, director of marketing at Donnelley's Coris subsidiary in Willowbrook, IL. "Customers now want the next step--a full-blown client, right on the desktop--and that's what Java enables."
At CSX, Java didn't percolate up from developers--it flowed out of an executive boardroom decision to move to the Internet.
CSX expects huge improvements in customer service from TWSNet--and very tangible cost savings. Development costs through mid 1996 have been less than $1 million, says Gibbs, assistant VP of enterprise solutions at CSX Technology. By comparison, he says, If CSX had elected to upgrade the DOS-based TWS with all the functionality that will be in Java-based TWSNet, the estimated cost of customer PC hardware and communications upgrades and software distribution alone was $7 million. CSX also expects to drastically reduce customer phone calls, saving on customer call-center expenses.
The TWSNet client accesses a dedicated Web server, separate from CSX's public home page on the Web, that runs on a Sun UltraSparc 170E server behind the corporate firewall, with password and client authentication security features. The CSX corporate applications and databases accessed by the Java client include Oracle7 on Sun 6000E servers, IBM DB2 on MVS mainframes, and Lotus Notes on Microsoft Windows NT servers.
The TWSNet pilot has a three-phase rollout. The first phase, includes shipment-status queries, E-mail, corporate address book, customer account information, and an interactive shipment tracking map, developed with Neoglyphics Media Corp. in Chicago, a third-party Java developer assisting CSX on the project. Phase two includes freight-car ordering, freight claims, and bill of lading submissions. Phase three includes more comprehensive way--bill information.
"We wanted to get beyond clerical forms processing to true electronic commerce," says Gibbs. "If we're going to add value, we have to deliver real-time, key information to the owner of the shipment."
Java's distributed objects model was a big plus. It allowed development chores to be divided among CSX's internal team of about 25 developers in Jacksonville, Neoglyphics' staff in Chicago, and infrastructure consultants in the Atlanta office of Sun's professional services unit.
As for relying on unproven technology for crucial applications, CSX says the benefits outweigh the risks. "...there are few languages that are as well-suited to distributed programming," says Gibbs. "It's fully robust and stable. When the CIO can go in and tell the boss that the application runs anywhere, that's a pretty powerful argument."
1Source: Condensed from C. Wilder, "Java in Gear," Information Week, August 12, 1996, pp.14-16.
Case Application 7.2 Exercises
1. What does TWSNet do?
2. Why wasn't the original version of TWSNet upgraded?
3. What kinds of paper documents would CSX employees have to provide or refer to on the telephone for their customers in the absence of TWSNet?
4. What security measures did CSX take to prevent tampering with their data?
5. What features of Java and the World Wide Web made such an application effective and even possible?
6. What risks were inherent in the new technology? How were they avoided?
7. Can TWSNet be described as an EDM system? Why or why not?
8. Can TWSNet be described as a DSS? Why or why not?
9. Describe the potential benefits of TWSNet in detail. Specifically focus in on what benefits it provides to CSX's customers, and CSX itself. What synergies are there in providing benefits to both?
TABLE W7.1 Representative Sample of
Geographic Information System Software
| Package | Vendor | Platform |
| ARC/Info | ESRI, Inc.
Redlands, CA ftp://redlands.esri.com/pub/arcview1 |
DOS, Unix, Windows |
| Atlas GIS | Strategic Mapping, Inc.
http://www.stratmap.com |
DOS, Windows |
| CARIS | Universal Systems Ltd.
Fredercton, New Brunswick, Canada http://www.universal.ca |
Unix, Windows |
| GRASS | Geographic Resources Analysis Support System from
U.S. Army Crops of Engineers Champaign, IL http://www.cecer.army.mil/grass/GRASS.main.html |
MacIntosh, Unix |
| MapInfo | MapInfo Corp.
Troy, NY http://www.mapinfo.com |
MacIntosh, Unix, Windows |
| MOSS | Bureau of Land Management
Service Center Denver, CO (public domain, ftp site: ftp.csn.org) |
DOS, Unix |
| MOSS OSU MAP | The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH (free from: http://thoth.sbs.ohio-state-edu or ftp from: bastet.sbs.ohio-state.edu) |
DOS |
| SPANS | TYDAC Technologies Inc.
Nepean, Ottowa, Canada http://www.tydac.com |
DOS, OS/2, Unix |
Maps, GIS Data and Information about GIS are available over the Web through a number of vendors and public agencies. Web site sources are listed in:
See Murphy [1995] for a discussion of Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDSS), a hybrid of GIS and DSS that may be useful for more than one phase of the decision making process, but often provide implicit guidance in decision structuring by the narrowness of the specialty. When developing the analytical tools for decision support, the nature of spatial data must be considered. Spatial statistical software tools are described in detail by Levine [1996]. Two such tools are Venables & Ripley's Spatial Statistics Function in S-Plus, a superset of the 'S' programming language of AT&T Bell Labs, and SASP: A Two-Dimensional Spectral Analysis Package for Analyzing Spatial Data.
Virtual Applications on the Web:
There was a great episode of Forever Knight on the science fiction channel that wove virtual reality into the plot.
Natural Language Processing Software for Database Interfacing
Many NLP software packages are available on the market, both for mainframes and for personal computers. Such products include Clarit (Claritech Corp.), Conquest, ConText (Oracle) and WIN (Westlaw). Here is a brief description of three representative products:
Access ELF (from ELF Software Co., New York). ELF Software Co. has created the natural language front-end interface Access ELF for use with Microsoft Access databases. Elf understands plain-English questions such as "Which customers have placed fewer than 10 orders?" Access ELF interfaces smoothly with Access and provides very powerful tools for transforming data into useful information by asking questions in plain English and obtaining results in a variety of formats, including tables, graphs, automatic forms, etc. Access ELF can be extended and tailored to fit the specific application requirement. (See ZD Net Software Library, March 25, 1996, and the ELF Software Co. Web site: http://users.aol.com/elfsoft/elfsoft.htm.
Natural Language and PC/Icon (from Natural Language Inc., Berkeley, CA). Natural Language is the Windows-based PC version of Natural Language Inc.'s Natural Language Software for front-ending databases to interpret natural language statements and produce SQL queries. PC/Icon lets developers build, test and debug natural language applications by creating the semantics and structure of a specific database. Developers describe key business entities and relationships in English. PC/Icon can manage and track development of applications using a visual "global view" feature, and help and reference information is integrated into the tool. Using Natural Language, end users type in an English query; PC/Icon parses the English query and performs a syntactic analysis to determine what is being asked. The product then generates the appropriate SQL statements. See Ballou [1993], Mace [1993], DelRossi [1993] and NLP In Action 7.10).
Paradox (from Borland International, Inc.). Paradox is a relational DBMS with AI technology based on the "query by example" approach, developed by IBM. It has an inference capability that allows users to retrieve information from the database with only a most cursory knowledge of its inner details. Users are presented with a graphical representation of an empty record in the database called the "query table," which they fill in with data exemplary of the desired result of the search. By analyzing these entries, Paradox infers which information users are looking for, and takes appropriate action, creating an "answer table" on a screen to display its findings. Users may stipulate which fields should be included in the report and/or make changes in the query table. Paradox provides two major advantages: ease of use and correct interpretation of the user's request. The program uses a "heuristic query optimization" approach to improve the efficiency of the database search.
Bob Os Shareware, Web Hal and Ultra Hal (from ZabaWare). A Natural Language Processing Set of Tools. Web site: http://www.zabaware.com
Graphical User Interface
Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) are interface systems in which the users have direct control of visible objects (such as icons), and actions replace a complex command syntax. The most common GUI is Windows from Microsoft Corporation. Experiments indicate that GUIs have significant benefits. Users just touch or aim at visual areas to interact with a computer (see Figure 7.3). GUIs are predicted to be the interface for the 1990s. This next generation of GUI technology will incorporate elements such as virtual reality, head-mounted displays, sound and speech, pen and gesture recognition, animation and multimedia, artificial intelligence, and highly portable computers with cellular/wireless communication capabilities (Nielson [1993]).
The GUI combined with object-oriented programming has evolved from the Xerox Star system and Apple's Lisa as a most powerful programming tool, especially for PCs. It encompasses many of the concepts underlying the object-oriented system analysis and design methodology (see Chapter 4).
The Major Components of GUI
Many GUI products are available on the market. The capabilities of GUIs are increasing constantly (see Cortese [1996]). The major components of GUIs are windows, icons, and hotspots. A brief description of each follows.
Windows. A window is an area of the computer screen that behaves as if it were an independent "terminal." It may contain text, graphics, motion pictures, or other windows. It may represent the active portion of a running program such as a spreadsheet or a word processor. A window can be resized or moved. Several windows can appear on one screen, so the user can see presentations from several tasks (generated by databases, other computers, etc.). Windows can overlap each other and are associated with devices such as scrollers, which allow the user to move through the content of a window.
Icons. An icon is a small picture that represents a window that is currently not shown (closed or "minimized"). However, the user knows what is in the window. When working with GUI, the user can see many icons on the screen. Clicking on an icon activates the related window, expanding it to full size. Windows are temporarily shrunk to an icon when the user does not want to follow a particular thread of dialog. These icons are referred to as smart icons. Icons represent other objects, such as unwanted files or items on menus, and can take many forms (e.g., the bottom part of Figure 7.3).
Hot spots. These are objects on a window that contain additional information. When a point cursor "touches" a hot spot, a text, a picture, or other presentation is activated. For example, menu buttons in Microsoft Word are hot spots that activate short descriptions of their function ("open," "print," "save," etc.). Table 7.3 shows a comparison of current interface technology to next generation interfaces along twelve dimensions ranging from user focus to software packaging.
Point-and-Click Approach
GUI users point at an object on the screen with a cursor (or mouse pointer) and then take action on that object by clicking on the mouse (see Figure 7.4). Within active applications, items can be selected by holding down a mouse button and scanning them. Then a desired action can be selected again by a mouse click on a menu item or icon. For example, in Microsoft Word the user can change a word to boldface type by double clicking on the word and selecting the B (bold) icon button. Then that word immediately appears in bold on the screen.
WYSIWYG Environment
In a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG, pronounced wizzywig) environment the user sees on the screen what the final document will look like when it is printed. For example, in Microsoft Word, when the user creates bold, italics, underscored, superscripted, or subscripted text, it appears directly on the screen as it would appear printed. Fonts, charts, pictures, icons, images, etc. also appear on the screen as they would if printed. Many word processors, spreadsheets and databases provide WYSIWYG capability. WYSIWYG is basically a document presentation concept that has been incorporated into most Windows-based software.
Legacy Systems and Graphical User Interfaces
Legacy systems are existing databases or DSS that have been developed and proven themselves over time. Rather than simply discarding the investment in many lines of code (millions in some cases), there is a currently trend for many organizations to update or modernize their legacy systems by porting them from mainframes to workstations (or PC servers on local area networks), and provide GUI front ends to ease the user interaction. In this way, the integrity of the data is maintained and modern user interface mechanisms can be used. These have appeal for organizations making a slow transition to client/server and object-oriented technologies. For example, Dun & Bradstreet Software released a Windows-based GUI for its Millennium and Expert host-based application suites (see D. Bartholomew, "Legacy Apps Get Windows," Information Week, July 15, 1996, p. 80).
TABLE W7.2 Comparison Between the Current
User Interface Generation of Command-based Interfaces and the Potential
Next Generation of Interfaces Across 12 Dimensions.
| Current Interface Generation | Next-Generation Interfaces | |
| User focus | Controlling computer | Controlling task domain |
| Computer's role | Obeying orders literally | Interpreting user actions and doing what it deems appropriate |
| Interface control | By user (i.e., interface is not explicitly made visible) | By computer (since user does worry about the interface as such) |
| Syntax | Object-Action composites | None (no composites since single user constitutes an interaction unit) |
| Object visibility | Essential for the use of direct manipulation | Some objects may be implicit and hidden |
| Interaction stream | Single device at a time | Parallel streams from multiple devices |
| Bandwidth | Low (keyboard) to fairly low (mouse) | High to very high (virtual realities) |
| Tracking feedback | Possible on lexical level | Needs deep knowledge of object semantics |
| Turn-taking | Yes; user and computer wait for each other | No; user and computer both keep going |
| Interface locus | Workstation screen, mouse, and keyboard | Embedded in user's environment, including entire room and building |
| User programming | Imperative and poorly structured macro languages | Programming-by-demonstration and nonimperative, graphical languages |
| Software packaging | Monolithic applications | Plug-and-play modules |
Internet Exercises
Internet Exercise #4:.
Visit VR Internet stores (e.g., Virtual Reality Place;
www.vrplace.com; Virtual Presence;
www.vrweb.com; The Virtual Reality Store;
www.thevrstore.com).
Have a look at the excellent, downloadable K-Vision expert system from GINESYS Corp. at http://www.ginesys.com/Software.htm.
Also, have a look at and download the KPWIN demo expert system software available from Knowledge Pro at http://www.kgarden.com.
ILOG has some interesting ways of performing data visualization and setting up portable GUIs. Visit their Web site at http://www.ilog.com
For more information on the potential of EDM, see Sprague and "Your Eye on the Document Management Industry," AIIM, http://www.aiim.org/aim/publications.
Look at the Microsoft Research Natural Language Processing Group, which is part of the Advanced Interactivity and Intelligence research theme.
See the "Speech at CMU" web site and OTT Spider's Web for speech recognition details.
Try out the free NLP software version of Bob Os Shareware, Web Hal and Ultra Hal available from ZabaWare (Robert E. Medeksza) at http://www.zabaware.com
The natural language processing software MegaHAL, HEX and SEPO are at http://ciips.ee.uwa.edu.au/~hutch/hal
At Carnegie Mellon University, there is an Albert Einstein AI "entity." Check it out!
IBM has a new (Dec. '97), inexpensive voice input system called Voicetype/Via Voice that works with Microsoft Word. Check it out at http://www.software.ibm.com/workgroup/voicetype
Inxight Corporation has a new (Dec. '97) "Fisheye" user interface. Check it out at http://www.inxight.com.
| ©1999 Prentice-Hall, Inc. A division of Pearson Education Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 |