Technology changes every minute. In a world where technology dictates moves, it is important to change before it becomes necessary to do so. Today, it impacts as never before, not only on our lives but also the way in which we do our business. Technology leadership, a critical factor for IT companies, is what we aim at. For incumbent players and debutants in this sphere, leadership in newer technologies is possible only through constant Research & Development.

Ontrack undertakes R& D activities in selected areas in the sphere of technology with a view to equipping itself with the cutting edge. These endeavors form an integral part of the company's medium and long-term strategies. In addition, it also enables the development of special hardware and software products, which form the building blocks for turnkey solutions offered by OSL in various application areas in core sectors.

Technological R & D is an ongoing process at our India Development Center, Kolkata, India. We focus on the trends in the communications and telephony market, while formulating strategies for technology innovation and successful engineering of products.

J2EE

The Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) technology which has been defined by Sun Microsystems, is based on the MVC (Model View Controller) Model. According to this model, you have more control on each layer and every layer performs a specific task, which improves performance and enables security, portability and scalability as well.

Ontrack has used this technology in the Indenting system created for a multinational Trading house and for an in house project to monitor productivity and efficiency of employees, built on Java. In yet another project dealing with the sphere of healthcare, we have used Struts, which is a Framework by Apache on J2EE.

J2EE™ technology and its component-based model simplifies enterprise development and deployment. The J2EE platform manages the infrastructure and supports the Web services to enable development of secure, robust and interoperable business applications.

The Java™ 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) defines the standard for developing multitier enterprise applications. J2EE simplifies enterprise applications by basing them on standardized, modular components, by providing a complete set of services to those components, and by handling many details of application behavior automatically, without complex programming.

The Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition, takes advantage of many features of the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition, such as "Write Once, Run AnywhereTM" portability, JDBCTM API for database access, CORBA technology for interaction with existing enterprise resources, and a security model that protects data even in internet applications. Building on this base, Java 2 Enterprise Edition adds full support for Enterprise JavaBeansTM components, Java Servlets API, JavaServer PagesTM and XML technology.

The J2EE standard includes complete specifications and compliance tests to ensure portability of applications across the wide range of existing enterprise systems capable of supporting J2EE.

.NET

.NET is a software that connects information, people, systems, and devices through the use of XML Web services. From a technical perspective, .NET is an Internet-centric architecture and technology offering, which defines how different applications; sources of data, or devices can integrate with and share information with each other. .NET is not a new type of user interface or piece of business application that a user needs to learn or worry about. Even though there are some user interface components to .NET - what Microsoft describes as "user experiences" - for the most part, .NET is a technology layer that sits "under the hood" of the application and enables it to exchange information with other .NET-connected applications over a Web-based communications layer.

Interoperability

.NET enables modern software applications to communicate through standard Internet protocols such as XML and SOAP (which are widely accepted as standards by the software giants), creating a channel through which internal and remote systems can easily interact. Applications hosted in house-as well as external systems-can be "stitched together," allowing businesses to quickly meet their unique business needs through specialized yet economical solutions.

One of the most significant advantages of the .NET Framework is its level of interoperability with other languages, applications, and systems. At the heart of .NET is the ability to help businesses integrate and manage their Web-based solutions through XML Web services, which are quickly becoming an industry standard.

The common language runtime (CLR) comes into play by allowing individual components of specific applications within a company to communicate. Through its standard set of types-self-describing type information (meta data) and common execution environment-the common language runtime integrates all programming languages and allows objects created in one language to be read with equal weight by code written in a different language. For example, a new scheduling function written in COBOL can be used with an existing human resources application that was written in Microsoft Visual Basic® .NET.

Multiple Device Support

One of the biggest advantages of .NET technology for consumers is its ability to connect and support a wide variety of stationary and mobile devices. IT professionals will appreciate the ease with which they can facilitate and maintain these connections over time.

Easier Deployment

.NET also makes it possible for businesses to streamline the deployment time of applications they create. .NET Framework and Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET to build and deploy mobile applications that use a single code base and run on multiple platforms.

The .NET Framework helped developers cut deployment time from weeks to mere hours through "XCOPY deployment"-meaning they could design, code, and debug on the development platform, and then simply copy (without worrying about dependencies such as DLL registration or building COM or export packages) their code to a staging server. The code is then ready to run.

Summary

Building solutions with .NET technologies, you can create and connect to an infinite variety of secure, personalized .NET experiences. Individuals can enjoy rich, tailored interactions-.NET experiences-when XML Web services are pulled together, allowing access to information across the Internet and from standalone applications, online or offline.

Today's medium enterprise has a bewildering choice of technologies to choose from to support its business. Web services built on a .NET infrastructure and using services provided by Microsoft and by Microsoft alliance partners and developers have the potential to fundamentally change the way the medium enterprise thinks about business computing.

The Web is obviously a valuable tool for basic communications and commerce activities, but has been generally under-utilized by the medium enterprise. The real value to the medium enterprise lies in using .NET-connected integration capabilities to access dynamic, changing data such as customer leads or inventory levels; to leverage and use services such as personal authentication or credit verification services; and to integrate Web-based content and information with day-to-day business activities.

We have developed Project Workbench, an excellent Project Management Tool, where the development team, the client, the management and anybody authorized interact with each other. We have all the information regarding our projects at the fingertips, irrespective of where you are. The Client can place a query, a suggestion; report a bug by posting a message in the Workbench. And we assure he/she gets a reply, without fail. We are continuously working towards the enrichment of Project Workbench to make it more convenient and useful to the users through this cutting-edge technology.

ZOPE

Zope, the other sphere where Ontrack is trying to make a mark, is a high-performance object-oriented platform for building dynamic web applications. Zope is a leading open source application server for developing custom applications.

Zopeindia, founded in April 2002, is the Zope community's web site for audiences spanning zope users, developers and companies in India. Our Vision Statement for the zopeindia website revolves around building a better world by sharing information, encouraging and strengthening connections, and raising awareness of the web-based technologies related to Zope and Python. As a beginning, we had facilities only for registration. Gradually a discussion forum for hosting multiple discussions on Zope was developed. Now the site is much more mature with a new look and feel and miscellaneous features equipped to serve the growing zope community. We provide important information and access to crucial zope and python related resources for the existing communities, friends of community.

SAP

In SAP, there are 7 areas in which we are currently providing our services.
	SAP System Administration - SAP BASIS Module Consultancy.
	SAP Configuration - SAP FI (Finance), CO (Controlling), SD (Sales and Distribution), MM (Material Management), TR (Treasury) consultancy.
	SAP Development - SAP ABAP Module Consultancy.
	SAP Web Interface using BAPI, RFC and IDoc Interface Development. (MABS uses only BAPI and RFC Interfaces).
	SAP End-user Training for SD and MM Modules.
	Migration of Master Data and Open Items from Legacy systems to SAP.
	Post Go-Live support and Troubleshooting.

Zopeindia is also our showcase for our zope and python capabilities. Come, explore our site at http://www.zopeindia.com

Imode

Imode technology is one of our core areas of concentration. It is one of the world's most successful services offering wireless web browsing and e-mail from mobile phones. While mobile phones were used, until recently, primarily for making and receiving voice calls, i-mode phones allow users use of their handsets to access various information services and communicate via email. At Ontrack, the first step is making the simulating websites, iMode compatible. Intense research is in progress to provide better solutions through iMode-enabled services.

CTI

CTI technology, implemented by linking phones to applications on client server platforms, and to applications running on the web, is another area of focus. Prototypes for applications that can be accessed through multiple platforms are under development.

Once developed the applications are to be tested in overseas markets, geographically and demographically diverse. The applications would eventually run on web servers and would be accessible to the IT community through multiple linking modes.