When it comes to the terms, “Streamline Operations” or “Reduce Operating Expenses” and “Cut Labor Costs”, do you really have any idea what these terms actually mean? How much money does the company actually want to save? And how does workflow software help the company to achieve this seemingly insurmountable goal?

When it comes to workflow software, every company definitely has their own sets of procedures as well as methods that they implements when it comes to handling all sorts of day-to-day operations in and out of their companies such as the following: invoicing, time sheets, status reports, new account setup and you might as well include everything else that will be able to make your business tick. The term workflow in workflow software actually refers to the tasks, personnel, procedural steps, required information as well as the various tools that are needed for the steps that that the business has to take in order for it to become successful.

Every company has a unique and different process as compared with other companies in the business, this is why a lot of growing companies usually end up with a highly unorganized business process when it comes to email templates, spreadsheets, shared documents, paper forms and even trivial knowledge which the employees should know in order to be able to handle the day-to-day business.

Majority of the time under such chaos and disorganization often leads to various frustrations and problems for the small company, such every day hassles include: missing paper work, missed deadlines, lost as well as incorrect information as well as extending heavily on working hours in order to complete a certain task. This is what usually happens to unorganized offices and is often referred to as “red tape.” The bottom line is that when red tape starts getting on your customers nerves, it would soon be a downward spiral for your company as well.

So to your company’s rescue comes workflow software automation. But what exactly is workflow software? And how can it will be able to help you out in this company crisis? Workflow software is actually still relatively new to the corporate setting wherein it is a combination of a to-do list as well as project management tool, only set on a different scale.

When it comes to workflow software just think of having a simple to-do list at your hands wherein through the workflow software, that to-do list can now also be accessible by other employees from your company through the company network. This simple to-do list can actually, on its own, keep track of all the items that need to be addressed by everyone in the company. Also, through the workflow software, once certain tasks are completed by the assigned company employees, the workflow software will actually automatically send off other to-do tasks to the appropriate company employees.

The workflow software is actually smart enough to also pass whichever documents or data that is needed to be able to perform whichever tasks that it sends out to the employees. And lastly, if the workflow software’s features are not exciting enough then there are other great features that this automation software has in store for its users. The workflow software can also do some visual status tracking of the tasks at hand, due data monitoring (which ensures every member of your team that a deadline has been set and has to be especially met by the employees, business rules). The workflow software will always make sure that the employees continuously adhere to the company’s rules and regulations, e-mail and database capabilities.

It is incredibly important for a company to have a well sorted out database in order to prevent people from panicking once a certain file has mysteriously disappeared most especially during the time that their boss needs it. All these are jam-packed in the workflow software automation wherein it will certainly be able to help you and your company, and most especially the employees to have a simplified working environment which is highly geared towards being able to produce the best results at any given time. The workflow software will actually enable employees to be able do their job well since they would not be scrambling for lost files anymore as well as all sorts of other hassles that may erupt when you are in a highly disorganized company. It is also equally important that the employees are highly skilled but their skills will not be a match to the cluttered chaos that will be caused by disorganization.

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Java has come along a long way.  Many would agree with this.  I did not until the Java 1.5 “Tiger” hit me.  The tiger had several new features, and more importantly, it has new syntax.  Six major upgrades that the tiger presents are certainly the generics, enhanced for loop, autoboxing (unboxing), improvement on Typesafe enum, Static import and the metadata.  Of course there are many more, which can be found at java’s official site.  Out of these six, at least four would be used in my daily “programming” life.  From java 1.1 to 1.4, it seemed more like new frills were simply added.  It felt like earning more brownie points when you downloaded the newer version.  But should I start using 1.5 immediately, maybe not.

The developers and programmers (if you distinguish between them) are left with one great dilemma (me too).  It certainly is as to which version to use when preparing software in java.  This problem hides itself under the carpet when you are programming for a specific client with a specific system where you can get it upgrade on site, but when the app is going to be used by Mr. Williams from South Africa and Ms. Lee from Japan, you really have to give a thought as to whether your app is going to run on both the systems (that is why java was made in the first place, isn’t it?).  I’ve always had the latest version of the sdk, yet I would try and target compiling in a lower possible version, so that even those people would be able to use the apps, who were, well, frozen in time and didn’t go up the “version ladder”.  For e.g., ordinary applets, by me and my company, in most of the cases would be compiled in java 1.1, so that no user ends up waiting for an hour before the plugin for the latest version is downloaded and installed (get yourself a coffee if your yawning).  For e.g., once on a tour, I happened to visit some site in a cyber café, which said that I needed to install java plugin 1.4 to view the page correctly (apparently, cyber cafes don’t bother much about upgrading java), and when I did, it turned out to be a stupid advertisement (Ahhh! What agony!).  Of course, over a period of time, you expect the users to have gone to a level of higher java plugin courtesy other company’s applets, but just to be sure…

Well, so this “dilemma” is real and has to be looked after (you don’t stand a chance if you don’t).  Many a times in java forums, you’ll find beginners with the problem of “applet not initializing” and when the compiling is targeted for 1.1, it runs.  Preferably, developers should have the latest version (despite the huge bandwidth it’s going to cost you to download it) and they should try and keep their apps designed, if possible, for lower versions for a universal application.   Although, this might not necessarily be imposed for a long time, but certainly try and keep your apps designed by the java 1.4 specifications for a few weeks, till most of the users catch on with the tiger.  This should also give you sufficient time to upgrade your programming ability version also.  A recent survey about java’s versions had about 260 respondents out of which about 15% didn’t know that java had versions, 8% preferred java as the good old java (can’t believe it, me neither), 29% were happy, 32% wanted newer versions but wanted the syntax of older versions to remain and only the bugs being killed and the rest were too confused to have an opinion. 

On this note, its now entirely up to you to decide which is your cup of java.  I’ve just got a book to learn to tame the tiger and I’ll be using java 1.4 till I tame 1.5 good.  So, I think it’ll be around October, when I start using 1.5 hoping (with crossed fingers) that most of the users by then would be roaring with it.

I hope that this small article would help you make a decision about which version of java to use.

Shashank is the founder and administrator of the java apps rating site - thejavahub.com.  To know more about this venture with java, please visit his site at http://www.thejavahub.com