Looking Towards the Future of Development
How far has 15 years of development brought TOPdesk software? How is TOPdesk involved in developing software geared towards the future? We spoke to Roel Spilker, one of the senior software developers at TOPdesk, to find out. His job is to research the technical possibilities of TOPdesk and keep up to date with market trends. He and his colleagues are responsible for planning the next steps in the development of TOPdesk software.
Roel: “To answer your first question: after 15 years of software development, we have landed in the fourth generation of TOPdesk software – an extensive web application with a very advanced and user-friendly interface.”
The development of the TOPdesk web interface
Since 1999, a web interface has been available for the windows applications of TOPdesk Operational 2, TOPdesk Professional 3 and lite. During this period, internet use in the business world increased rapidly, turning the ease of a self service desk into a desirable step in the direction of attaining better service management. In 2005, TOPdesk Enterprise 4, the first TOPdesk version to be entirely web-based, was released on the market. The product was released as our flagship, for those clients who wished to work with an MS SQL or Oracle database and in particular need to be able to support a large numbers of callers.
Roel: “In 1999, the step towards an entirely web-based application was still a very distant dream for TOPdesk; however, we certainly had the future in mind when developing the software. There were many extra requirements, ideas and dreams for the development of the next generation of software, the web-based application TOPdesk 4. User-friendliness, however, has always remained a top priority. We want everyone to be able to work with TOPdesk software, without having to install additional programmes or be confronted with unnecessary costs. That’s what we mean by ‘service management simplified’. The development of TOPdesk 4 then also involved a significant investment in time for research and development. Many functionalities that are typical of a traditional windows environment were not available in a standard web application for a long time.
However, we did not want that to be an excuse for a poor interface. We have therefore paid a lot of attention to the design of the interface. And although we are continually working on the improvement of the interface – and from a technical point of view there is still a lot more possible – we are very satisfied with the result.”
Roel: “Alongside user-friendliness, the idea of the standard application is of great importance for our development strategy. We believe that the same problems are evident in many business processes and that by developing one good application numerous companies can optimize their service processes. This in turn makes TOPdesk software a very affordable or possibly even cheap application. We can guarantee our clients that the software is stable and functions as it should. Finally, we can release updates on a regular basis meaning that our clients will always have the newest functionalities and technical improvements.”
TOPdesk and Mango
For several years now, TOPdesk’s development team has been working on its own framework, Mango, in which to build TOPdesk software. Roel: “We made this decision with the future in mind – it didn’t simply appear out of the blue. We were involved with a number of problems and had many ambitions, which could not be resolved or achieved with the working procedures that we had at the time. Web browsers were the main problem as every browser interprets and displays HTML differently. What is considered necessary code in one browser cannot be read in another.
Nowadays, everything can be programmed; however, this has two very significant disadvantages. First, developers need to spend a large amount of time learning the ‘dialects’ of browsers, which also slows down the development of the software. The second disadvantage extends from this because the chance that a developer makes an error in the code with these various dialects is much greater than when he or she can focus entirely on one programming language.”
These factors combined were the reason why we decided to begin developing Mango four years ago. After a long period, during which we had to develop the framework ourselves, we’ve reached the point where we can create new and existing cards in Mango. Mango not only eliminates the disadvantages for our developers, but helps us to deliver solid and reliable software to the client. Our developers programme all cards in Mango in the same way. In small and quick steps, we deliver modules and functionalities so that the client can directly profit from the improvements and will receive a much more dynamic application. One significant improvement is, for example, the ability to validate fields in cards in less time. In the past, the user had to save the card in order to check whether all fields had been filled in correctly. When entering data in a Mango card you can immediately see which data are still missing or are incorrect, without having to first save the card. This enables people to work much faster.
Web browsers and web applications
The development department is keeping close track of the newest developments in the world of web browsers and web applications. Roel: “Increasingly, frameworks are being introduced, which enable us to incorporate deluxe functions in browsers such as Flash, Flex, Air, Google web toolkit and Google Gears. These allow you to submit more than just links and forms; you can adjust tabs, right-click menus and pages by entering different values. Such developments in the area of web applications are also often referred to as Rich Internet Applications (RIA). TOPdesk Enterprise has been able to do this for years now, but not until recently was it known as RIA.”
Another trend is Prism, which is a spin-off of Firefox. Roel: “Prism enables you to use a web application when not online. The recently released Google browser, Chrome, works along the same lines. As a result the application that you use within these browsers resembles more closely a windows application than a web application, whereby users don’t become confused by the possibilities and impracticalities of web browsers. Nowadays, much more is possible within web applications than a few years ago. Many users do not expect, for example, that useful right-click menus are available and will therefore not use them intuitively. This is a real shame and goes at the expense of the user-friendliness of an application. It is interesting for us to experiment with these sorts of tools because we can then capitalize on the intuitive expectations of the user.”
The future
The most important objective for TOPdesk is to improve the support of service processes for organizations increasingly with our software. Mango has now laid the foundations on which we will continue to build our software. The challenge of software development in the Netherlands is not always in the technology itself but also in finding suitable developers. Roel: “We are very careful when selecting new colleagues. The inflow of new developers is limited; however, that is most likely not the result of the work atmosphere. A survey of companies in the Netherlands in 2007 by Intermediair Magazine revealed that TOPdesk is an excellent employer, and we even achieved the highest score for the category: enjoyment at work.” However, many other Dutch organizations also seem to be having trouble finding suitable developers. Roel: “Although we are primarily involved in expanding our team in Delft, we are also looking towards developers from other countries. The internationalization of TOPdesk is enabling us to set up development teams abroad. On the German market, for example, an increasing number of qualified developers are looking for a job. In our German office in Kaiserslautern, a development team of eight has been hard at work for the last year. The expansion of the development team is certainly helping us to attain results. Alongside this, we are also looking towards Central Europe.”
So, what else can we expect from the technology in the future? Roel: “In the coming years there will be more than enough opportunities to make the web applications even more advanced and we will try to take full advantage of these. However, there may come a time when web browsers are no longer adequate for the requirements that are set for applications. If and when that time comes, we will, thanks to Mango, be able to develop cards for either native windows or traditional non web applications.”
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