EXT JS “HUB” LICENSE

Unlocking New Revenue Streams for Your Business

Kirti Joshi

The Rise of Web Platforms

SAAS COMPANIES ARE INCREASINGLY OFFERING SOLUTIONS THAT ENABLE CUSTOMERS TO CUSTOMIZE AND PERSONALIZE SOFTWARE TO MEET THEIR END-USERS’ NEEDS.

In many instances, popular, single-use web applications reach a point where customers could extend and customize them to add new functionality to cater to their own use cases. Such applications eventually evolve into online platforms called web platforms.

The most common examples of web platforms are ERP and CRM platforms. Take Salesforce.com’s Force, for example. Their ‘Lightning Platform’ provides out-of-the-box tools and services to enable developers to write applications with drag-and-drop tools, customize data models and automate business processes. Developers can create these add-on applications that integrate into the main Salesforce application. Almost all leading companies in ERP and CRM are building or have attempted to build their own platforms.

OEM Solutions — What Are They Exactly?

YOU MAY HAVE OFTEN HEARD THE TERM “OEM SOLUTIONS.”

The acronym stems from the manufacturing world, referring to the original equipment manufacturer (OEM), such as the hardware components, boards, designs, parts or independently functioning units that could be programmatically customized to create additional, larger solutions. Essentially, OEM is a company that produces parts or equipment used by other larger manufacturers in their product. The same analogy is extended to the software industry are libraries.

Enterprises typically leverage third-party best solutions to create their own branded software portals or web platforms. They repackage and in turn resell these platforms to their customers, who could potentially modify, customize and build on them to create additional end-user products. These original third-party solutions are typically referred to as OEM solutions.

Building a Web Platform — The Pitfalls

A GOOD WEB PLATFORM SHOULD BE FLEXIBLE, EXTENDABLE AND CUSTOMIZABLE.

Developing a consistent-looking and easy-to-operate web platform requires a robust framework with a large number of UI components, layout, theming and testing tools that work well within the framework ecosystem.

Building successful web platforms without leveraging OEM solutions can be a daunting and expensive task. Not that it isn’t possible, but if you take into account the overhead to build the platform in-house or from open source, it’s a tall order.

Tasks involve finding front-end UI components, design and testing solutions that interoperate, keeping up with frequent software updates, being agile with addressing open source security vulnerabilities, determining browser and platform compatibilities, managing documentation inadequacies, understanding various license nuances and many others.

They Tried on Their Own—
They Never Completely Succeeded

Large companies demanding full control over their software technology often develop broad scale solutions in-house. With abundant initial resources at hand, they spend large cycles developing the bare bones of their solutions. But most companies tend to underestimate the hidden costs of software maintenance and feature enhancements. Technology advances rapidly— what’s in today may soon become obsolete and could trigger an entire software stack rewrite

A leading CRM company using Sencha solutions for their smaller application development decided to shift to “build in-house” methodology when they were expanding their solution to a larger web platform. Given the abundance of resources (not everyone has that luxury), they built the solution on their own. The resulting UI was modern and elegant (undoubtedly, the effort was huge). Subsequently after launch, the performance was significantly slower than a comparable Ext JS application, and performance continued to affect their new web platform and business.

Similarly, one of the largest ERP providers tried multiple ways to extend their ERP solution into
a platform. Instead of leveraging available best solutions, they decided to build the UX extendable framework in-house. It wasn’t the smartest choice as they weren’t ever able to get the solution to scale to its fullest potential.

The Risk of Open Source for Platform Investment

Open source, though great for broad JavaScript development, isn’t really a good fit for platform investments. The risks are just too high given their strong rooting in other giant technology companies such as Google and Facebook, who ultimately decide the framework roadmap direction and can change direction at will. However, when you invest in an enterprise solution backed by a single entity with a product that is the core of their existence and security and customer satisfaction as the cornerstone of business success, you can rest assured that it is a safer option in the long run.

How Can The
Ext JS ‘Hub’ License
Help Tap New Business Opportunities?

Have you thought about extending your enterprise product offerings by allowing end-user customization?

Or do you have solutions in the market that already enable this?

Either way, products that provide customers the freedom and flexibility to mold solutions to suit their unique business needs can unlock new and innovative revenue streams. As companies extend their offerings, developing the core building blocks in-house, from scratch, isn’t the most efficient solution as it involves costly and often lengthy development cycles.

If your business is creating solutions that allow end users to build and customize on top of them, the Ext JS “Hub” License (formerly known as OEM License) would be a perfect fit.

The license provides access to the entire set of the Ext JS framework, components and tools, often providing unlimited user licenses for an annual fixed cost.

Here are some simple use cases best suited for this type of license:

Many successful solution providers on the market such as Salesforce.com, Adobe ColdFusion, FICO, Kofax, and many others have leveraged the robust Ext JS framework to power their customized software solutions and generated significant ROI as a result.

Sound interesting? We’d love to demonstrate how an Ext JS “Hub” License can reduce overall costs, increase efficiency and help reach your business goals faster.