PCSI says the future looks even brighter than the past, due to a host of new Microsoft intranet-based products that are attracting a great deal of interest and as much business as PCSI can handle. I'd say there are five times as many intranet applications operating behind the firewall as there are Internet applications. It's a very tight, integrated solution that provides a consistent interface across applications, common administration tools, an integrated directory, and a security model that enables users to log on only once to access all applications. Microsoft has added intuitive wizard interfaces to all products in order to reduce training costs. For example, Microsoft SQL Server database information can easily be replicated to a Microsoft Exchange Public Folder to allow messaging and groupware applications to use this information.
Users can also view key database information from their e-mail inboxes.
This allows PCSI to create interactive, database-driven Web sites containing automated product information or inventory status, which translates into less training, shorter development, and more billable hours. PCSI sees the intranet business evolving and Microsoft's products keeping pace. All products are part of Microsoft's BackOffice family of products, which are designed to work with Windows NT Server to provide excellent performance, scalability, extensibility, reliability, security, and interoperability. Ben Tandowski, president of PCSI, hastens to add that Microsoft's front-end products are also outstanding. People's mouths drop.