[snip] I have just had a discussion in which it was said that PHP cannot be used to develop a *true* enterprise system. In light of this, I would be very interested to hear you comments/opinions/arguments on:
1. What would you consider to be a true enterprise system? [/snip] Here is one definition -- "Enterprise System is an industry term for the broad set of activities supported by multi-module application software that helps a manufacturer or other business manage the important parts of its business, including product planning, parts purchasing, maintaining inventories, interacting with suppliers, providing customer service, and tracking orders. ERP can also include application modules for the finance and human resources aspects of a business. Typically, a system uses or is integrated with a relational database system. The deployment of an enterprise system can involve considerable business process analysis, employee retraining, and new work procedures. " Here I receive 100's of 1000's of business call records a day. PHP is used to -- retrieve the records -- parse the records -- import the records into the database -- select the proper records to be rated -- prepare the records for the billing system (a legacy application) -- shipping the prepared records to the billing system -- report on the records -- archive the records We also use PHP for (not limited to this list); -- contract matrix -- collections -- content management systems -- project tracking and collaboration -- sales enhancement tools As each day goes by we are using PHP to replace and improve upon current business processes one module at a time. Because of PHP's flexibility and power we are able to do this very easily. The above is an example of what we do as an enterprise, and we have many other modules handling many other tasks. We have the need to track millions of call records per month and handle them accurately and efficiently. [snip] 2.Is his statement correct? If so, what features does PHP lack which make this so? [/snip] I believe his statement to be incorrect, but I would need to know what he means by "true" enterprise system in order to refute his argument. My bet is that he does not have any facts to support what appears to be an off-the-cuff statement. There are many presentations being made this year at the International PHP Conference and PHPCON2002 concerning the use of PHP to develop enterprise systems. PHP has so many built in functions, and then there are the extensions and classes (most of which are available for free) that perform many tasks that not even Visual Basic can do out-of-the-box. While PHP lacks some Object Oriented Programming features we have come to know and love it still has very robust OOP features and more are coming. Again, I would need to know his arguement(s). [snip] 3.If this is not true, what arguments can I use to refute this? [/snip] D. All of the above. HTH! Jay ***************************************************** * Texas PHP Developers Conf Spring 2003 * * T Bar M Resort & Conference Center * * New Braunfels, Texas * * Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] * * * * Want to present a paper or workshop? Contact now! * ***************************************************** -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
