Java heats up

Automotive Manufacturing & Production, July, 1997 by Martin Piszczalski

The biggest thorn in its side is Microsoft. The Java movement looks unstoppable, however. Manufacturers should expect to have both Microsoft and Java operating in their businesses. Planning for both gives the auto industry the best of both worlds: Microsoft's huge catalog of software and Java's low-cost, communications and networking capabilities.

Java is a software language that was created by Sun Microsystems expressly for the Internet. A collection of software development tools, it allows the rapid creation of software for the Web. This occurs, for instance, through highly reusable components (Java Beans) and tools to define the behavior of the software (JavaScript). In addition, Java applets transfer small programs over the Internet, automating the desktop machine.

To its detriment, Java has yet to prove itself in very large software projects, and its development environment isn't quite as mature as more established software languages. In some cases, the resulting software also executes more slowly than that generated from alternative languages.

Nevertheless, Java today is touching virtually every aspect of the automotive industry, including business software, dealer service bays, shop-floor control, and engineering:

* Ford Motor Co. in Latin America is rolling out Java applications to support concurrent engineering with its supplier. Linking Ford to its customers is also Java-based software running on Sun hardware.

* Chrysler Corp. is rolling out to its dealers a $70 million Java-based, service-bay system built on IBM hardware,

* QAD, with over 400 installations in the automotive industry, is aggressively developing a Java presentation layer for its entire suite of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software,

* Virtually every product data management (PDM) vendor, including Computervision and Structural Dynamics Research Corp. (SDRC), is adding Java to their highly popular packages.

* Ford Motor Co. is developing a Java application to automate the ordering of maintenance and repair supplies (MRO), and

* Saturn Electronics, a $180 million year, Auburn Hills, MI, auto supplier, is using Java to help develop its electro-mechanical products.

Java is hot because it enables exactly the types of group activities a manufacturer direly needs today: virtual design teams, closer links to its suppliers and more intimate relationships with its customers. Java is ideal for the intranets and extranets that provide the internal and external networks for today's businesses.

Furthermore, Java is widely believed to do so at lower costs than Microsoft/Intel (Wintel)-based personal computers. In addition, by running on any computer, it is truly "write once, run anywhere" software. Lastly, independent software vendors love it. These software developers are better able to control their destinies than if they operated entirely within the walls of Microsoft's architecture.

Java would be a no-brainer in every company's strategic plans if it weren't for one company - Microsoft. The Redmond, Washington, software giant treats any externally created software that might lessen its grip as a serious threat. Many Microsoft supporters, indeed, believe any software not invented by Microsoft is doomed. If the market enthusiastically accepts a non-Microsoft package, they argue Microsoft will quickly incorporate that functionality into Microsoft's own products. After doing so, the Redmond firm can then undercut any competitor in both price and depth of offering. Therefore, there is no reason to deal with software outside the Microsoft sphere, its supporters claim.

This author argues, however, that Java is extremely significant, too important to skip. Clearly the computer industry is capable of developing innovated products outside of Microsoft's walls. To capitalize on one of the most significant non-Microsoft markets, information technology (I.T.) buyers should therefore plan for both Wintel and Java-based products.

A major reason for Java's continued autonomy from any vendor is the wishes of a key group - independent software developers. Influential software houses such as SAP certainly like huge markets for their products. However, they also like to control their destinies.

Beyond a doubt, Microsoft has certainly created a vast pond for NT and its other products. However, Microsoft can "jump" into that pond whenever it wants. When it does, smaller fry are dead. Furthermore, no major software vendor is entirely comfortable with Microsoft. Other software companies know that the software giant must eventually eat into all the major software markets to maintain its growth, thereby leaving no software vendor secure.

On the user side, I.T. buyers need to recognize that enormous opportunities lie outside of Microsoft's sphere of dominance. Bill Gates, Microsoft's CEO, is, after all, human and does miss some extremely important opportunities. Certainly a big one was the Internet itself. Millions of users worldwide realized its significance far before Bill Gates did.