21 CFR Part 11 Compliant CAPA, Quality Management Software, Corrective Action Software, Complaint Handling Software, Compliance Management, Audit Management, Compliance Software, SOX

A Few Words for the IT Manager

Let's face it, the job of IT Manager is not an easy one. Conflicting priorities and organizational goals often leave you feeling like you are walking a tightrope spanning a deep chasm. Your users need and demand responsive support and problem resolution, yet corporate management insists that you keep costs under budget. New information systems promise to deliver substantial benefits to your users, but you are concerned that you may not have the resources in place to deploy, integrate, and support them. Solving these conundrums is why you get paid the big bucks, right?

AssurX can help. Our true Zero Client CATSWeb system runs with all web browsers, on any operating system, anywhere an Internet or intranet connection is available. This means that once the software is installed on your web server(s), all 10,000 of your users have immediate access. No client software installation is required at all.

With 100% HTML being delivered to the client, compatibility and security issues that arise when "web-enabled" systems utilize JavaScript, VBScript, ActiveX, etc., on the client are non-existent. And nothing beats HTML for firewall friendliness and minimal bandwidth consumption, right?

Think back for a moment to the last system you deployed that used the traditional (and some would say obsolete) client/server architecture. Or, think about the client/server systems that you inherited from your predecessor and now actively support. One of your staff had to visit each of the client machines, in all your company's locations, and install/configure/test the software individually on each machine. The process went smoothly on many, but fighting the seemingly unavoidable "DLL Hell" issues meant some were real bears to get running. You had been around the block enough times to know that a shared installation on the file server was no solution. Network bandwidth would be eaten up as the application components shuffled from server to client computer, performance would suffer, and DLL Hell issues turned into Russian Roullette, as the order in which the user launched their applications would then determine which set of DLLs were loaded into memory.

To make matters worse, some of your users may have had older computers that lacked enough RAM to run the new software, or needed operating system upgrades and patches to be compatible. Or, some of your users may not have been able to take advantage of the new software at all since (for example) they use Unix workstations but the client/server software only supports MS Windows.

Once installation was finished, you still hadn't reached the end of the road. Against your strong advice, some users installed other applications that ended up "breaking" the same client/server program that had been running fine moments ago. Your support staff had to make another unwanted and expensive foray into DLL Hell to solve the problem, and with people being people, and programmers being programmers, you are pretty sure you'll go down that road many more times.

Deploying the application to remote locations brought its own set of problems. Client/server applications consume large amounts of bandwidth, and require a true LAN connection to the database server. The expensive high-bandwidth VPNs you deployed were costs that corporate management really didn't want to incur. But what alternative did you or your company have?

Now you do have a choice. CATSWeb was designed from the ground up as a native, web-based system that delivers rich functionality while minimizing your deployment and support costs. Concerned about scalability and availability? Don't be. CATSWeb fully supports load-balanced server farms, clustered database servers, and distributed configurations.

Integration with other information systems is becoming more and more critical as companies deploy best-of-breed systems from a variety of software vendors. The words "integration" and "customization" can also bring on nightmares for the seasoned IT manager, as they reflect back on past failed projects that relied on outside contractors or software vendors to deliver the desired functionality. The projects were over budget, completed late, and may not have ever delivered the desired functionality.

CATSWeb is different. Most customization can be performed directly through the CATSWeb/CATSWeb Manager interface: design your own forms, selection lists, notification lists, escalation rules, filters, queries, etc. Advanced customization and integration can be performed entirely by your staff, who can use the tools they are most familiar with, such as SQL, Visual Basic, C++, etc. AssurX will provide you with documentation, working examples, and technical support to assure that you are successful. Or, our technical services personnel can implement the entire project for you, to your specification, on your schedule, and for a quoted fee.