Web Client Experience

Hello:

We're currently running ERP 8.0 and will be moving to ERP 8.11. Compared to ERP 8.0, what is the web performance like in 8.11? Will I have to consider using compression programs and such? I know that ERP 8.0 web is horrible.

Also, as a separate topic, for those who have gone through an upgrade, do you recommend implementing the web on ERP 8.0 first and then upgrading to 8.11 (in order to contain the upgrade scope)? Or... should we introduce the users to the new web UI (currently using Citrix) when ERP is upgraded to 8.11 (using the big bang approach)?

Thanks,
Vince

Without getting too technical, I would have to say that the performance in 8.11 is definitely a step above that in 8.0. As far as compression goes, this largely depends on where your end users will be connecting from. Obviously, if you are going to be opening up the html client to the internet and have users connecting from the other side of the country, you may want to consider implementing compression. IBM HTTP 2.0 comes with built-in compression. Other solutions such as Red Line also offer very good compression solutions should you want to look into them further.

As far as the upgrade, wait until you get to 8.11 before installing the web server. The supported versions of WebSphere (or Oracle App Server) vary between 8.11 and 8.0. Additionally, the upgrade process for the web server is simply a fresh installation of the EnterpriseOne JAS Server code. Since the html client is the only supported end user client at release 8.11, I would recommend introducing your user community well in advance of actually going live with the new release. Expect some resistance from your user community as a web-based client is significantly differently, look and feel wise, than the win32 client. Good luck.

Sincerely,

Jose D. Phillips
Managing Partner

E1 Services LLC
www.e1services.com

"Your EnterpriseOne Solution Providers...."

Jose's advice is pretty much right on. If your users are used to windows based clients, they are going to squirm regardless, so you might as well wait for the JAS component available with 8.11. Also, as Jose mentioned, compression will really depend on how/from where your clients need to connect. The big push for clients that already have an investment in Citrix is to use those terminal servers for serving up the internet explorer sessions. This is a great idea if you have a lot of remote (over a WAN) users, or your local user base has older PC's. A recent white paper from Oracle showed that "performance" of the web client is very processor specific, a very large increase in performance is seen between a P4 and anything lower.

Also, performance is greatly affected by grids on the HTML client. So for those applications that have 100 columns in the grid, but your business uses/needs only 10, there could be a lot of application design modifications to be performed to speed up specific apps.

I often suggest the approach to sites that moving to HTML to let the developers test everything first (they are usually techies anyway), then let business analysts or team leads go through your QA scripts. They can identify any issues. Tackle those issues, clean up performance where possible, decide on compression, and only then let the end users see the system. My experience has shown that rarely do users like the HTML interface after having used the windows based client. Though I often wish I had a copy of the first HTML version to show people how much it's improved.

My only two cents worth here is for when I hear the term "compression".
Web client over Citrix is great but if you are talking about using the
WebSphere compression option to compress graphics files before transmission
over WAN, be careful. I invoked this once and it totally corrupted my
HTTPD.CONF file. What the relationship is there I have no idea but after
invoking WebSphere compression, we started getting all kinds of weird
anomalies from missing buttons, missing graphics, missing grid records, to
slow slow slow performance and all points in between. When we continued to
have these issues after removing WAS Compression we had to dig really deep
to find the problem which turned out to be a corrupted HTTPD.CONF file.
Luckily we could recover a good copy of this file and got back on our feet
but not until we had suffered quite a while. - Just a word of caution.

Good luck!








jstooge
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Subject
Re: Web Client Experience
04/04/2006 08:57
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Please respond to
JD Edwards®
EnterpriseOne






Jose's advice is pretty much right on. If your users are used to windows
based clients, they are going to squirm regardless, so you might as well
wait for the JAS component available with 8.11. Also, as Jose mentioned,
compression will really depend on how/from where your clients need to
connect. The big push for clients that already have an investment in Citrix
is to use those terminal servers for serving up the internet explorer
sessions. This is a great idea if you have a lot of remote (over a WAN)
users, or your local user base has older PC's. A recent white paper from
Oracle showed that "performance" of the web client is very processor
specific, a very large increase in performance is seen between a P4 and
anything lower.

Also, performance is greatly affected by grids on the HTML client. So for
those applications that have 100 columns in the grid, but your business
uses/needs only 10, there could be a lot of application design
modifications to be ! performed to speed up specific apps.

I often suggest the approach to sites that moving to HTML to let the
developers test everything first (they are usually techies anyway), then
let business analysts or team leads go through your QA scripts. They can
identify any issues. Tackle those issues, clean up performance where
possible, decide on compression, and only then let the end users see the
system. My experience has shown that rarely do users like the HTML
interface after having used the windows based client. Though I often wish I
had a copy of the first HTML version to show people how much it's improved.


Jim Thinks about EO CNC In His Spare Time
iSeries/Win2k/Win2K3/DB2/UDB/Oracle/SQL

Thanks for the suggestions. It looks like the best way to go would be to introduce the web clients when we go live with 8.11 (with training prior to go-live, of course).

We currently have people accessing ERP 8.0 over a WAN across N. America (including as far west as Hawaii). Compression, it seems, is highly recommended. Is there a preference of hardware or software compression products?

Thanks,
Vincent

Vincent,
For the most part, I have found IHS 2.0 meets the majority of my client's compression needs. However, if you are looking for a hardware solution with a little more compression power, I would look into Redline Networks which was recently purchased by Juniper Networks (www.juniper.net). Additionally, Redline offers load balancing, SSL and other performance options for your web servers. Good luck.