BUSINESS FIRST, Applications Fast

The Composicial^TM BUSINESS FIRST contains a set of software components for the implementation of your business applications. For ease of use, these components operate in a combined environment bringing together two major technologies to assist you in composing your application:

• Application Suite, which enables data modeling and automatic user interfaces.
• Process Suite, which assists in defining your business processes and workflow execution.

Each of these components include everything you need for creating dynamic business applications:

• In the design phase, Application Composer and Process Composer are the main tools. Application Composer is used for developing and/or integrating data models and user interfaces. Process Composer lets you design and develop your company business processes.
• At runtime, the engines come into play: Application Engine interprets the application model on the fly and dynamically creates screens in response to user interactions, while the orchestration of business processes is managed by Process Engine.

To find out more, see the BUSINESS FIRST documentation

To identify application data more quickly, BUSINESS FIRST lets you explore and automatically incorporate the various data sources available in the company:

• Relational Database Management Systems
• Miscellaneous files
• Electronic Content Management Systems
• Company Directories
• …

You can also modify data sets or create new ones.

From this physical data, a logical model matching the projected real world data structure can be adjusted and fine-tuned. In this way, the designer simultaneously organizes the data handled by the end user and prepares the layout of the different screens that will subsequently be displayed dynamically when the application is put into use.

To find out more, see the BUSINESS FIRST documentation

BUSINESS FIRST helps you define your processes graphically and describe how the different steps are linked together to take a case from start to finish. For each step, the roles of the people involved, the data and the deadlines are defined in order for the task to be executed.

Simple enough to be understood by everyone, the description can easily be extended to take into account new features. It serves as an efficient communication tool between engineers and end-users.

BUSINESS FIRST provides the user with the full W4 experience in terms of human workflow and BPM, including comprehensive options for describing all kinds of processes, from the simplest to the most sophisticated.

By formalizing business processes, applications become collaborative: in addition to fulfilling the need for user-friendliness and meeting individual workstation constraints, they also automate the relationship between individuals and the way in which they interact each day.

To find out more, see the BUSINESS FIRST documentation

The graphical user interface (GUI) covers the application screens, the transitions that allow you to navigate between these screens (based on the designed navigational tree) and the choice of actions offered to the user. By default, the GUI is automatically generated from the previously modeled data and processes.

Then the designer refines the different screens so that they fit progressively with each user's individual context.

User controls are available (navigation tree, predefined forms, reporting objects…) along with their functions (sort, filter, print and add features) and are filled with the data that needs to be visualized and managed. This approach maximizes productivity while at the same time minimizing associated risks.

Thanks to the use of viewers, composing a BUSINESS FIRST application remains independent of its final end user environment. It may indeed, by setting simple, be deployed indiscriminately either in a Web 2.0 (Ajax / DHTML), or as a standalone application (Swing, SWT) or Eclipse plugin.

To find out more, see the BUSINESS FIRST documentation

With its runtime engine, the application can adjust to each user's particular context and dynamically produce the appropriate user interface to manage pertinent data as defined during the design phase.

The BUSINESS FIRST engine orchestrates the defined transitions by offering the right action to the right persons at the right time in their work schedule:

• It watches for designated deadlines and triggers alarms should they be needed.
• It offers full traceability of all events with a comprehensive activity log and a graphical follow-up capability.
• It dynamically creates the screens as they are requested.
• It offers consistent transitions between the screens according to the pre-designed navigation tree.
• It ensures synchronization with the company IT system and with third party systems via connectors (data, documents) that are available with BUSINESS FIRST.

To find out more, see the BUSINESS FIRST documentation