Smart Clients

What is Smart Client Technology?

Today, most businesspeople work on PCs that provide access to information, applications, and resources far beyond the boundaries of their local machine.  There are limits, however.  Today's Internet model for information and application distribution assumes access to a network connection, but ubiquitous Web connectivity still lies in the future.  And some computing tasks require robust functionality that can only be provided efficiently by "rich" client applications that reside on the local computer.  A challenge arises when your organization requires both the flexibility and immediacy that comes with online access to data and applications, and the full functionality of traditional client software.
The answer: smart client software.

Key capabilities now exist which mean that we can take full advantage of the rich client model, providing the user with an excellent user experience, while at the same time reaping the benefits of a centralized deployment and update. In short, this new generation of client applications, the so-called "smart" clients, provide the best of both worlds and add the intelligence to manage data and connectivity to produce an extremely compelling user experience.

How does it work?

Built to take advantage of new XML technologies, smart client software delivers the best of both worlds, combining the reach of the Internet with the power of local computing hardware.
The starting point for understanding smart client software is Web services. Built on open Internet standards, and programmable and reusable like component software, Web services can be deployed easily over a network. They help businesses overcome a number of critical issues, including the problem of enabling programs written in different programming languages and operating on different platforms to interoperate, and the complexity of integrating desktop clients with legacy applications and enterprise systems.
Web services are the magic behind smart client software. Web services enable desktop applications such as Microsoft® Word and Microsoft Excel to more easily exchange information with server-based applications including customer relationship management (CRM) systems. Web services can minimize the time-consuming and error-prone process of cutting and pasting data between applications.

What are the benefits?

Businesses can reap numerous benefits by unlocking information from disparate business systems, and making that information available for employees to act on.  Using smart client technology, businesses can:

Take action anytime, anywhere – Smart clients give users the ability to access critical business information regardless of the availability or quality of a user’s network connection.  By caching relevant data locally, smart clients provide users with continuous access to their business information, enabling them to make the right decisions at the right time and in the right place.

Increase productivity – Smart clients allow people to move beyond viewing static information in a browser.  Smart clients provide an interactive and highly responsive user interface, offering users immediate access to critical data.  By moving processing and data to the local device or computer, smart clients eliminate the need to contact the server every time a button is clicked. This way, users don’t waste time waiting for screens to refresh or networks to become available.

Reduce training and expand access – Smart clients can be easily integrated with familiar user interfaces, such as Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Outlook.  Users no longer have to endure hours of training to learn a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or another line of business client application.  With smart clients, data can be integrated into applications that users already understand.  In addition, the familiar user interface expands the availability of data in these lines of business applications to the “occasional user” who historically would not have been trained on the customized client.

Reduce operating costs – Smart client applications can be centrally deployed and managed, reducing overhead and strain on IT resources.  By relying on a local processor, smart client applications can reduce the number of servers required to support an application.  Also, bandwidth requirements within the business can be reduced by limiting the transmission between smart client and server to only required data.

Create better user experiences – Smart clients can make use of local computer resources (such as graphics acceleration cards), attached devices (such as scanners), and local storage. This makes it possible for software developers to create user experiences that are not possible within the Web browser.  These new applications enable enterprises to differentiate their software and solutions and to compete more effectively in the marketplace.

What does this mean for your business?

For the business world, one of the most exciting promises of the information age is the opportunity to provide employees with access to information and the tools to act on that information whenever and wherever they need to.  To a certain extent, that promise has already been achieved.  
Like a browser-based application, smart client software can be deployed from a centralized Web server. (Smart Clients can also be deployed by CD, DVD, floppy disk, or using an application deployment infrastructure such as Microsoft Systems Management Server.)
Once deployed, smart client software applications can automatically update themselves to the latest version of software that resides on the centralized server.  This simplified deployment helps to ensure that users have the latest version of the application as well as help IT departments reduce deployment costs.
With smart client technology, users can work with data even when they are not connected to the Internet or the network that hosts the Web service.  Because all or part of the application logic sits on the local computer, smart clients can deliver useful functionality even while offline.  This capability sets smart clients apart from browser-based applications, and for many mobile sales forces or remote offices, this is a key requirement.

Today, large organizations are just beginning to build and deploy Smart Client solutions, but because the business benefits are so clear, the technology is taking off quickly.  Currently, Microsoft is working closely with a number large enterprise customers who recognize that Smart Clients will enable them to streamline operations, get solutions to market faster, and reduce demands on their IT departments, while providing users with a range of computing options that enable fast access to information.

MedShare HC is pioneering the way health care agencies are run with the introduction of Smart Client technology. It is this forward thinking approach to solving current agency problems that makes MedShare a true partner with agencies committed to improving agency performance and quality of care.