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Component software can be thought of as a new architecture that extends the capabilities of traditional client/server and three-tier models, providing increased flexibility to meet changing business needs. In keeping with this perspective Clarify Inc., a leading provider of front office solutions, last week announced its new Clarify Business Object (CBO) architecture, which the company defines as "an advanced N-tier object-oriented technology infrastructure that will serve as the foundation for future Clarify products," as well as upgrades to its existing product line. The new architecture will be introduced in phases throughout 1998.

Clarify's Business Objects will enable developers to customize applications with a single tool, then deploy them via a LAN, WAN, or the Internet on a wide variety of desktop machines. Applications will be viewable through both desktop clients and through Web browsers, with the Web interface providing full access to Clarify application functionality, according to a company release.

Building blocks

The CBO architecture furthers Clarify's strategy of providing out-of-the-box functionality, fast implementation and a rich customization environment with plug-and-play support for third-party modules. The scaleable architecture is based on emerging standards including CORBA, Microsoft DCOM and ActiveX.

The CBO architecture supports both existing and new-generation applications, with all customizations carried forward. Clarify offers a broad choice of development tools, including Clarify's integrated development environment and built-in scripting language, ClearBasic, which is based on Microsoft's Visual Basic.

As a result, Clarify customers will have the flexibility to quickly customize and distribute functionality based on business needs rather than technological constraints. The company intends businesses to benefit from better resource utilization, better interoperability with multi-vendor systems, as well as scalability for broader end-user access to and simpler point-and-click configurability of Clarify applications.

Adding value across the firewall

The CBO architecture also holds potential benefits for the integration of customer management systems among key suppliers, customers, and business partners. Scalability of up to 10,000 users at the enterprise level and several million over the Web should make users less susceptible to fluctuations in network latency, enabling companies to collaborate more efficiently to solve service and support issues.

"This is our way of addressing the new realities of corporate computing," said Dave Stamm, president and CEO of Clarify. "Technology must adapt to business processes, not the other way around. With the new CBO architecture, our customers will be better positioned to optimize the use of their resources, upgrade to new versions of Clarify software more quickly, and take advantage of the latest technologies as soon as they become available."

Adaptive Business Process Automation

In many Global 1000 corporations, business and administrative processes are changing more rapidly than existing IT infrastructures can accommodate. According to research published by the META Group, the horizon for change in business processes during the past decade has accelerated from 5-7 years to less than 24 months today. Inflexible infrastructures have inhibited a comparable reduction in IT delivery processes, a limitation Clarify hopes to remove.

"The primary goal of an enterprise-wide architecture should be to enable rapid change in business processes and applications," said Larry DeBoever, senior vice president and service director for the META Group. "The architecture of the future will be adaptive: component-based, scalable and easy to manageenabling the businesses that implement to sustain competitive advantage in periods of rapid, ongoing change."

According to Robert Shelton, president of Open Engineering and a noted expert in object-oriented technology, "Clarify's business objects architecture will enable customers to harness the full power of their networks. Companies will be able to deploy applications to any combination of desktop, mobile, and Web clients, and upgrade software over the network in a matter of hours rather than days or weeks."

Added Randy Raynor, vice president of research and development for Clarify: "With the CBO component architecture, all business objects and user interface components will be based on a common infrastructure, whether they are deployed via Clarify's client or over the Internet in a Web browser. So forms can be customized once, and be instantly available in any of these environments. That means users can enhance application functionality at the business object or user interface level, and distribute them instantly to any user, anywhere."

Availability and Migration Strategy

In keeping with Clarify's commitment to rapid and easy upgrades to new releases, the migration to the business object architecture will be phased. Each stage will add substantial value for Clarify customers while minimizing disruption. As with prior releases, Clarify will provide its unique, easy upgrade capabilities, ensuring that previous end-user customizations are preserved, without change, into the new version.

The first step in the migration was delivered to Clarify customers in December 1997 with version 5.0 of the application suite, and the introduction of flexible deployment which provides messaging services and process management.

Step two of the migration will take place in the first half of 1998 by making the Clarify applications suite component enabled. In this phase, the Clarify client application will become an ActiveX container, Clarify's toolset such as the UIEditor and ClearBasic will provide ActiveX support, and Clarify forms will become ActiveX components that can run inside of a browser.

Step three of the migration involves repackaging of Clarify functionality and data into the business objects infrastructure. By the end of 1998, Clarify will provide support for DCOM as the initial object bus, and Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) 3.0 will provide transactional control for all business-object-to-business-object and application-to-business-object interactions, while 3rd-party CORBA gateways will provide interoperability with CORBA-based applications. Business objects-based applications will be fully Internet/browser enabled.

By early 1999, Clarify intends to deliver full support for CORBA, providing complete flexibility for the end user to select DCOM/MTS or CORBA/Tuxedo technology for the object bus and transaction management infrastructure. Clarify customers will gain the full benefit of business objects, and will be able to deploy any combination of business objects and client applications on whatever mix of DCOM and CORBA may be required for their information systems environment.

Additional details are provided in a new white paper, "Clarify Applications Architected for Change." available by calling 888-CLARIFY.

About Clarify

Founded in 1990, Clarify Inc. (Nasdaq: CLFY) is a global leader in front office solutions that unite companies and their partners around customers. The company's integrated front office suite provides organizations with an infrastructure that uniquely leverages every interaction with customers and partners, increasing customer loyalty and maximizing sales at significantly reduced costs. Clarify is headquartered in San Jose, CA. Its products are sold through sales and service offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. For more information, call 888-CLARIFY; or e-mail info@clarify.com.