Task Level Applications

Integrating existing data sets and rounding them out with additional business relationships that are not captured in other systems provides an important foundation for building future business applications. Once a centralized data repository is created, and the underlying support for role-based access is established, it often becomes cost-effective to automate certain previously manual business tasks, by creating a web-based front-end to support the task. These are known as task-level applications.

Task-level applications improve productivity and create efficiencies by automating process orientated tasks that would not be solved through your traditional, off the shelf products. The new application already uses data from these packages and, when the user interacts with the application, the entries they make are integrated directly with the data from other systems via the centralized data repository. Updates to data in other systems can be made in real time to keep data current throughout the enterprise.

The centralized nature of the application, along with the web-based access being available everywhere, makes it possible to reach out into the organization and support an individual user’s tasks in a cost-effective manner. They may be performing these tasks currently with the aid of desktop applications such as Excel and Access. The task-level application approach has several key advantages over the desktop approach.

First, the application can perform business logic, calculations and validation specific to their task to automate a greater percentage of their work. Second, updates to the logic and calculations are performed from a central location, making them available to everyone immediately and making it possible to create enterprise wide standards for performing the task. Third, data from each user is captured in the central repository and is available to support other business processes and for analysis and reporting.