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From the very beginning of IT, there has been a dramatic year-over-year decrease in the cost of computer hardware even in the face of significant increases in computer hardware capacity and performance. Sadly, the same cannot be said about business information systems. Over the years, even in the face of increased computer software sophistication, the cost of business information system software has continuously increased.
Starting however, in the middle 1980s, there has been a steady growth in the ability to actually manufacture business information systems. Whitemarsh has been a continuous supporter and user of business information system generators. For example, the Whitemarsh Metabase System has 279 database tables. Under traditional business information system development techniques, the Metabase System should have cost $4.5 million. In fact, it has cost greater than four times less than that amount.
In another example, an association membership management system for an international standards organization had a database of about 90 database tables. The traditional cost for this system should have been $1.5 million. The actual invoices were for less than $300K.
The key strategy for a very dramatic cost savings is to have an environment within which business information systems are manufactured rather than created through highly-skilled, hand-crafting artisans.
Under this approach, well in excess of 90% of every business information system function can be generated through business information system generators.
In addition to generating correct-the-first time business information systems, this changed approach produces an ROI of 2.8.
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