Top client/server application vendors are preparing to release Internet-ready application packages as the first batch of network computers lands in corporate offices.

That means information systems managers can load the complex software on centralized servers and let end users access modules on an as-needed basis via World Wide Web browsers.

Market leader SAP AG in Wayne, Pa., plans to release Web-enabled versions of its R/3 application package with Version 4.0, which is due out in late summer. No. 2 player Oracle Corp. in Redwood Shores, Calif., will port all 30 of its software modules to the Internet by June with Release 10.7.

Meanwhile, smaller vendors such as Denver-based J.D. Edwards & Co. and Atlanta-based American Software USA, Inc. are building Web-ready modules. Minneapolis-based Lawson Software, Inc. did the same last year.

Dunlop Tire Corp. plans to exploit the Web-ready software trend and buy 700 Network Computers from Oracle or Sun Microsystems, Inc. The Buffalo, N.Y., tire maker will test Oracle 10.7 on the Network Computers this summer to make sure functionality is maintained in thethin-client environment.

``We have some users with $4,000 or $5,000 pieces of equipment on their desk that only go into one application a day,'' said Gary Payne, Dunlop's systems development group leader. ``They go in, do their work and get off. Those people are our initial focal point.''

Payne said the Network Computer should make upgrading and deploying software packages a snap compared with the current method of individually installing them on a multitude of PCs.

But the Web-based applications aren't just for network devices. Scott Lundstrom, analyst at Advanced Manufacturing Research, Inc. in Boston, said many companies especially those with independent distributors and remote offices can also benefit.

``Financial modules are where many users get the benefit out of this,'' Lundstrom said. ``They can make this [real-time financial] data available to distributors, customers and sales representatives quickly.''

Beer maker Heineken USA, Inc. doesn't have any network computer aspirations yet, but it is taking advantage of Web-based applications to give its 450 independent distributors access to order information.

Heineken's distributors use Netscape Communications Corp. browsers to enter and track orders with Heineken USA headquarters in White Plains, N.Y.

The distributors access demand-chain planning software from American Software, which captures the order and makes the information immediately available to Heineken officials.

Heineken expects the system to cut lead time on deliveries from 12 weeks to four.

The system also lets Heineken turn its district managers into regional salespeople instead of order-takers, said Tom Bongiovanni, Heinekens systems manager.

Source: Computerworld