Desktop Applications

What Are The Benefits?

• Speed – a desktop application will run faster than a similar web-based application. This is mainly due to getting direct access to all the core features of your computer, whereas a web-based application has to run in a web browser. For real-time or business critical applications, you want your code to run as quickly and smoothly as possible.
• Reliability – desktop applications will run the same on every desktop. Web-based applications depend on which version of which web browser you are using. A desktop application can also handle exceptional circumstances with much more grace than a web application.
• Consistent User Interface – many people know that some websites look strange when not full screen or look slightly different depending on which browser you are using. A desktop application removes these limitations by having the user see what you want them to see in the same way and the same place every time.
• Always Available – for people who are often out of the office, fully featured web applications (like CRM systems) delivered by a web browser can become almost useless when they reach areas with poor reception or slow internet speeds. A rich-client can ensure more efficient use of a slow network connection, or make use of a local copy of your data when no network connection is available. That also lets you keep working when the office internet goes on the blink!
• Peripherals – desktop applications can take better advantage of a computer’s ports and add-in cards than web browsers can. As such, it is quite easy to have your desktop application talk to anything from thermometers to conveyor belts where you would be struggling to achieve that in most browsers.
• Compatibility – sometimes software has to be run on a machine that just cannot be upgraded for one reason or another. Often these machines are so old or customised that a modern web browser would not even run without extensive tuning. Desktop applications can be built to target systems of any age or specifications allowing you to get even more life out of your original investment.
• Security – desktop applications can process and manage information locally. Web-based applications have to talk their servers, and so will send your data over the network (and often the internet). A rich client will allow you much greater control over the security of your data.