Browser cuts network charges

By Adam Gifford

Pharmacists will be the first group to see the benefits of an ultra-thin client browser that allows companies to access Jade applications through ordinary telephone lines without crippling network charges.

That is the plan of Jade Direct, a division of Christchurch software company Aoraki Corporation set up this year as a service provider to help ISVs (independent software vendors) and other organisations to host Jade applications.

General manager Ken Camp says there are application service provider (ASP) opportunities for generic and specific business applications that will appeal to trades, professions and clubs.

Two projects are at beta test phase: a pharmacy reporting application developed by Christchurch pharmacist John Saywell, and a set of basic accounting applications developed by a chartered accounting firm.

Mr Saywell's application, which presently relies on pharmacists sending in floppy disks, takes raw sales data, analyses it, benchmarks it against industry trends and provides the pharmacist with a report.

The application has been rewritten in Jade by an ISV. Jade Direct is polishing up the user interface using a proprietary tool called Juice, and will host the application on a central bureau.

The ISV, Mr Saywell's company Retail Reporting Ltd, and Jade Direct will each take a share of the $60 a month rental.

Mr Camp says Jade Direct can draw on the expertise Aoraki has built up through Cardinal Networks running 24-hour service bureaux.

"We can now take this Cardinal model to small firms which traditionally could not afford to pay network costs, and can afford to do so because networking is almost free."

The customer will use a standard internet browser to download the Jade thin client, a browser of less than 1Mb that can talk to any Jade application.

When they want to use an application, they fire up the Jade client, dial in through their ISP or Telecom's 0867 IP network, and begin work in real time.

"Because it is narrowly focused and only talking to a Jade system on the other end, the amount of overhead on your network connection is peanuts," Mr Camp says.

The Jade client works on any PC running Windows 95 and above or in Windows emulation.

Mr Camp says the ASP accounting package being developed is "to let the small business person with a PC and internet connection do basic data entry, run a cash book and capture the transactions on file at a centralised point where an accountancy firm can get at them and do more complex things such as GST returns.

"We were getting a lot of anecdotal evidence that there is a high level of dissatisfaction with $500 software packages running on a simple machine."

Mr Camp says one of the reasons for the development is the imminent introduction of GST in Australia.

"All of a sudden the small business person has to make a decision, and it's not which $500 software package to go for, but finding the best way to do things in future."

The ASP model eliminates the problem of bug fixes, patches, new versions or changing software on thousands of PCs whenever regulations change.

A demo is available at www.jadedirect.com.