mrc's Cup of Joe Blog

Join us in exploring the world of modern development, evolving technologies, and the art of future-proof software

Productivity

How to modernize a legacy application in 5 minutes

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developmentLegacy modernization. It’s such a daunting task. You must take your outdated (but functional) applications and turn them into modern web applications…without disrupting the business at all.

On top of that, many legacy applications have been in use for decades. They’ve likely been maintained and altered by different employees over the years…each with their own way of doing things. The result: Legacy applications are often a jumbled mess of spaghetti code.

Once you look at the challenges of modernization, it’s no wonder why so many organizations put it off.

The good news: There’s an easy way to modernize, using the “extend-and-surround” approach. This modernization method delivers a few huge advantages:

  • It’s fast: You’ll have modern applications faster than you thought possible.
  • It doesn’t touch the legacy applications: There’s no need to alter your existing applications, or even touch them at all. But, it still lets you include custom business logic from your legacy applications if needed.
  • There’s no business disruption: Because you’re not changing your legacy applications, you don’t need to worry about breaking anything or disrupting the business.
  • You can use your existing skills: You don’t need to be a web developer to create modern versions of your legacy applications. You can use the skills you already have in-house.

Want to see this modernization approach in action? We created a video that walks you through the modernization process for a simple legacy application. The best part: You’ll see the whole process in just 5 minutes! You can watch the video here:

Do you want to see a solution like this in your company? Setup an m-Power demo here.

How to integrate cloud data into a dashboard (using web services)

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developmentDo you remember back when cloud computing was a new trend? Back then, most businesses ran their software on-premise. Cloud computing was viewed as a security risk and many doubted whether or not it would ever see mass adoption.

Fast forward to the present and cloud computing has most definitely experienced mass adoption. Most businesses these days use multiple cloud services/applications in their day-to-day operations.

In fact, businesses rely so heavily on cloud apps and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) they now face a growing challenge: Their data resides in multiple places. How can they pull data from their disparate cloud apps into a single place for reporting and analytics?

It’s easier than you might think. We just created a video that shows you how quickly you can integrate cloud data (from multiple sources) into a single dashboard using the m-Power Development Platform. In this video, we show you how to:

– pull data out of cloud applications (using web services),
– create web apps and reports over that data,
– and combine those apps and reports into a dashboard.

You can watch the video below:

Do you want to see a solution like this in your company? Setup an m-Power demo here.

How to create actionable business intelligence (in 10 minutes)

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developmentWhat’s the difference between traditional business intelligence and actionable business intelligence? Let’s break down each one:

Traditional BI: Traditional BI and reporting applications deliver data in an easily consumable format. They display key business metrics using charts, graphs, and tables. If done correctly, traditional BI and reporting apps deliver data that decision-makers need to take action.

Actionable BI: Actionable BI takes things a step further. It offers everything that traditional BI offers with one key difference: It lets you take action on your data from within the application. It lets users analyze their data, update data, and trigger workflows. Rather than simply displaying data, actionable business intelligence also lets you do something about it.

If you think about it, this is incredibly useful in all types of situations. Just imagine what you can do with a report or dashboard that also lets you take action on your data and trigger workflows. The possibilities are truly endless.

The big question: How do you create an actionable BI application? Is it more complex than a traditional BI app?

We just created a video that walks you through the whole process using the m-Power Development Platform. You might be surprised by how easy it can be. You can watch the video below.

Automate a workflow process in 7 minutes

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developmentThese days, every business wants to improve productivity. For many, the answer lies right under their nose. While they may not realize it, they’re wasting hours of time every week completing manual tasks that could (and should) be automated.

What types of business processes are ripe for automation? Here are a few of the most common processes that you can automate:

– Invoice processing (from paystub generating to all tax forms)
– Employee onboarding
– Approval processes
– Support ticket applications
– And much, much more.

How can you quickly automate processes like these? We just released a video that walks you through a simple workflow automation process in just 7 minutes. While we demonstrate a support ticket application workflow, the same process can be used for any type of workflow process. You can watch the video here:

How to create a custom, web-based scheduling calendar in 10 minutes

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developmentLet’s be honest: There’s no shortage of web-based calendar tools these days. You’ll find dozens of off-the-shelf scheduling calendars that you can set up and deploy in your business.

The problem is, they’re all generic and every business is different. While these off-the-shelf scheduling applications might fit most of your needs, they won’t provide a perfect fit. They might do some things very well but lack key features in other areas.

But, what if you could create a custom scheduling application…faster than it takes to deploy a generic solution? What if you could create a data-driven, web-based calendar that was 100% tailored to your business…in 10 minutes? It’s possible, and we’ve created a video to show you how it’s done.

Want to try it for yourself? Set up an m-Power Test Drive.