7 . 1 T HE VALUE OF INTEGRATED USE OF PC SOFTWARE PACKAGES
As ha s been noted s everal t ime s in the t e xt , it i s POS S I BLE t o imp lement a lmost any applicat i on with
almo st any of the " deve l opment t o o l " s o ftwar e package s ; the que st i on o f whi ch package ( s ) and s t r at e gy t o u s e i s det e rmined b y e fficiency , ease o f deve l opment et c .
The c oncept of "mix ing and mat ching" s o ftwar e
funct i ons b y the integrated u s e o f s o ftwar e packages i s att r act ive a s a means o f deve l op ing a comp l e x
app l i cat i o n with minimal programming e f fo rt , however it suffer s from s everal prob lems ;
F i rs t l y , the s o ftware packages are , with few e xcept ions , not real ly de s igned to be c l o s e l y i nt e g rated, and may requ i re some e ff o rt t o ensure i nt e grat ion of dat a ;
S econdly , the l ack o f sufficient memory capacit y , and the l ack o f sufficient ope rating s y st em
capab i l i t y may preclude the qu i ck swapping b etween p ackage u s age whi ch i s nece s s ary i f an app l i cat i on
i s t o give the appearance ( t o the u s e r ) o f b e ing we l l integrated .
Third l y , un l e s s deve l ope r s ' ve r s i o n s o f pack age s are ava i l ab l e , the c o st o f purchase o f mul t i p l e s ingl e l i cence packages i s a lways a d i s advant age . D eve l ope r s ' ver s ions are ava i l able for more and more p ro duct s , the except i on b e ing spreadshe et s ; t h i s i s unfortunate , s ince spreadsheet s are
p robably mo re l ik e l y than any other p ackage to form a cent ral e lement in an i ntegrat e d
app l i cat ion .
Whi l e the funct ional advant ages of the integr at e d use o f packages can be achieved with a w i de r ange o f comb i n at i o n s o f package s , i t i s l i k e ly t o b e d i fficu l t t o achieve g o o d int egrat i on o f operation un l e s s
cons i de rab l e p l anning e ffort has been put i n t o the s el e ct i on o f package s and funct ions at the out set o f the p r o je ct . Thi s principle part i cu l arly a f fe ct s c a s e s wher e a commi tment i s made t o o n e package , p r i o r t o the det a i l e d c o n s i de rat ion o f i s su e s o f int egrat i o n .
I n spite o f thes e di f ficu lt i e s , the f i n a l
prot o t ype has shown that good integrat i on o f funct i on s i s p o s s ib l e , and the experience gained has s hown
seve r a l ways in which st i l l furthe r value can b e gained from i ntegrat e d use o f s o ftware product s .
7 . 2 EVALUAT ION OF THE DEC I S I ON SUPPORT S Y S TEM FOR ENERGY COS T MANAGEMENT
7 . 2 . 1 Evaluat i on o f the dec i s ions regarding cho i ce o f s o ftware development st rat egy for ECME S .
a / The cho i ce o f integrat ion st rat egy i s di f f i cult to evaluate , s in ce it was heavi ly i n fluenced by the
commitment to the Symphony spreadsheet app l i cat i on whi ch exi s t e d at the out set o f this pro j ect . Had the a ims o f the p r o j ect been e st ab l i s hed before the
commitment was made to the Symphony spreadsheet , the eva luat i on p r e s ented in sect i on 4 . 3 . 3 . 2 sugge s t s that advant age s could have been gained by devel oping the appl i cat i on u s ing the VP range o f p roduct s (VP I n fo , VP P l anne r , and VP Expert ) o r , fo r a fu lly deve l oped
product fo r which a wide distribut i o n wa s envi s aged, the u s e o f a TurboPascal t o o lbox module approach .
b / T h e cho i ce o f the VP Exp e rt package h a s been
j u st i f i e d by the comparat ive ease of imp l ement at i on o f the dec i s i on support system .
7 . 2 . 2 Evaluat i on o f the funct ions and use fulne s s o f the dec i s i on support s ys t em fo r ECMES .
The f i n a l prot otype provides a use fu l t o o l for expl o ring me ans of reducing the Maxi mum Demand charge s incu r r e d by a n o rgan i s at i on, and the re s o lving o f many o f the b a s i c i s sues regarding the interact i o n o f
software package s wi l l fac i l itate the addit i on o f further funct i ons .
The o riginal aim o f i dent i fy ing to the ( non
expert ) u s e r the mo st pro fitable asp ect s o f the current consumpt i on p attern has not been ful ly rea l i sed,
although the feature s bu i l t into the " report ing "
sect i on o f the final prot otype ( s e e sect i o n 6 . 4 . 1 for det a i l s ) do g o s ome way t owards this aim .
As previ ous l y ment i oned, the experience gained with the s e p r ototypes has al l owed the direct i on for
8 REFERENCE S AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT S