Application architecture case study

Capital Budgeting Techniques

Business is becoming more global in nature. The internet and technology have expanded boundaries far beyond their geographical limits. As such, business must adapt to these changes by realigning processes in a manner that increases productivity while minimizing error. Payroll systems are no different in this regard. As organizations have offices spread across the United States, unified systems are crucial to the proper functioning of the business. Payroll in particular is very contentious, particularly due to the excessive regulation surrounding it. Penalties regarding inappropriate clocking's, errors in the disbursements of benefits, or underpayment of salary can all be a detriment to the business. For one, it harms moral of the employees, confidence in the organization, and the overall reputation of the business. Therefore proper payroll programs are essential to all organizations.

Due to the large overall scale of organizations, certain types of architecture lend themselves well to payroll applications within the context of the business. The increasingly competitive, global marketplace puts pressure on companies to create and deliver their products faster, with high quality and greater performance. To get the new products and technologies to consumers is through a new industry called Application Service Providers (ASPs). Similarly to Internet Service Providers, that linked businesses and consumers up to the Internet, ASPs lease software applications to businesses and consumers via the Internet. These applications range from word processing programs to payroll management software, document management systems, and many others. The major challenge is to develop an efficient Internet-based architecture, which will efficiently provide access to these software applications over the Internet. Payroll systems in particular are interesting as they will be using more internet based architecture in the future. As such, the server-based computer model would work the best for a large organization needing to scale its payroll applications across the entire business.

Server-based computing model is very efficient for enterprise-wide application deployment, including cross-platform computing, Web computing, remote computing, thin-client device computing, and branch-office computing. To begin, the fundamental three elements of the server-based computing model are:

Multi-user operating system- Multi-user operating system allows multiple concurrent users to run applications in separate, protected sessions on a single server. This is particularly benefititial for large organizations as they will undoubtedly need multiple users to help account employees to benefits, 401 contributions, and other payroll related activities. Have a multi-user operating system provide more flexibility and quick reaction time irrespective of the time of day.

Efficient computing technology- Payroll applications must be efficient in nature. This is generally true as large organizations often have diverse business segments and operations. These operations are often functional 24/7 which requires efficiency on the part of the overall payroll architecture. In addition, efficient computing technology separates the application from its user interface, so only simple users commands, received through keystrokes, mouse clicks, and screen updates are sent via the network. As a result, application performance does not dependent on network bandwidth. This is important for large corporations who undoubtedly have large amounts of employees and payroll related issues. By being as efficient as possible with payroll, companies can respond faster and more readily.

Centralized application and client management- Finally, the centralized nature of the application allows the business to have a more concentrated approach to problem resolution. As the client management system is centralized, the business can readily pinpoint and react to various problems within the architecture itself. Centralized application and client management allows efficient solution of application management, access, performance, and security. Below is figure one taken directly from Citix Systems (Server-Based Computing, 1999).

The new architecture will have various types of technology implemented throughout the system. The main component will be the internet which provides the foundation for the architecture. Other web related technologies such as HTML, and communications protocols are also used. The architecture first begins at the presentation level. In regards to payroll this would consist on online paycheck review, or benefits review. At the presentation level, there is the client system, which is used to view Web page information. The client contains both presentation and application logic components. At the content level, there is a Web server that provides interactive view of information from a relational database. Finally, at the data and service level, there is a relational database system, which provides data for the Web server. This architecture is also called three-tier architecture consisting of client tier, Web server tier, and database tier.

With the advancements of the Internet, the Web, and related technologies such as Java advances to the architecture have been made. In addition to technological advances, standards such as communication protocols (TCP/IP and HTTP) have now been implemented to provide a more comprehensive approach to the architecture. In this architecture, sometimes referred as to the network-based application architecture, focus is on highly targeted, private distribution of software services over Intranets and Extranets. In this architecture, the Web page is not only the agent for providing information, but it also offers a variety of application services to speed up business transactions and offer additional services. This is ideal for payroll transactions which are often value added services provided by the company. This architecture consists of n-tiers and offers maximum functionality and flexibility in a heterogeneous, Web-based environment. An example of four-tier architecture is shown in the diagram below (I created this diagram in Microsoft word, so bare with its simplicity).