What would you like your website to be able to do? Regardless of your particular response to this question, the answer, in general terms, is a custom, Web Application. Whether the objective is eCommerce, entertainment/interactivity, collection of information, etc. (or all of the aforementioned) a custom Web Application can be designed to deliver the goods.

Web Applications can come in many forms and be designed to do almost anything a regular software application does. The primary difference is that while a software application runs on your PC and is designed to be accessed from its Graphical User Interface (GUI), a Web Application runs on your website's server and is designed to be accessed via any web browser. Consequently, the Web Application can be accessed by anyone with Internet access anywhere in the world; or, alternatively, access to your custom Web Application can be restricted to only those to whom you specifically grant access, e.g., your employees or special clients. The particulars are up to you.

An Example

As an example of how a business might benefit from a custom Web Application, consider the following, fairly common scenario. A business has a pool of several traveling sales representatives each of whom is frequently 'on the road.' To assist the sales reps in keeping track of orders, each one has been given a notebook computer, equipped with a PCMCIA modem. At the end of the day, each sales rep does one of the following from his/her hotel room:

• He/she dials up the company's network to enter the day's orders into the company system.
• He/she e-mails the day's orders to another employee, who then enters the day's sales into the company's system.
• He/she calls the company and relays the day's orders to another employee, who then enters the day's sales into the company's system.

The first and third options involve long distance phone charges, which, I'm sure you are aware, can be ridiculous. Further, the second and third options involve a third party, which increases the potential for error in the entry of the day's sales into the company's system.

Now let's look at what a custom Web Application might be designed to accomplish for this company.

• The sales rep dials up a local Internet access number; and enters the day's sales into the Web Application, which is connected via a Web Gateway to the company's system, or, is designed to generate compatible input for the company's system.

In this case, there is no long distance bill to pay, and the third-party handling of the day's sales has been eliminated. Either the day's sales are input directly into the company's system via the Web Gateway, or a third party merely imports the day's entries from the Web Application into the company's system. The result is more accuracy and reduced costs.

Of course, we can take the savings even further. Let the sales rep use a PC at the client's location, Internet cafe, or public library to access the Internet and you no longer need to buy and maintain notebooks. Let each client access the Web Application directly, and you don't need the traveling sales reps. The possible advantages are limited only by one's imagination.

If you're still wondering just what a Web Application might be, stop by our Technology page and look at some other examples.