Catalyst Resources and Backbase announced an alliance to provide an end-to-end design and development solution for rich Customer Engagement and Enterprise AJAX applications.

AJAX, already the technology of choice for rapid development and deployment of Rich Internet Applications, is being adopted at a rapid pace by small and medium size businesses as well as large enterprises. But companies face a number of hurtles as they try to make this RIA transition. While it is easy to add in a few flashy widgets to a webpage, it requires a different level of expertise to enhance user experience with measurable business value and develop code that is scalable, high performance, and easily maintained.

The end-to-end design and development solution from Catalyst Resources and Backbase provides this expertise. It is designed to help organizations make better business decisions, get their new projects to market faster and significantly reduce the investment required to bring internal resources up to speed.

For application modernization such as moving a client/server-based call center to the Web, Catalyst Resources will systematically define and design all aspects of a rich, unified application in terms of everything that the user experiences - what they see, what they do, what information they can access. For existing applications looking to enhance online ROI and improve customer retention, such as consumer banking, Catalyst Resources will assess an organizations current application, refine the UI architecture based on high-value scenarios, and develop a new visual design for key screens that includes user-validated AJAX functionality. 

Backbase applies their technical AJAX expertise and works iteratively with Catalyst Resources to engineer the application "blueprint" into working prototypes that meet accessibility standards, integrate critical data sources and optimize AJAX performance and scalability. Prototypes can be built using the managed framework of Backbase Enterprise AJAX Framework or other RIA solutions including Adobe AIR, Google Gadgets and YUI Widgets.  The prototypes can be rapidly extended to full production applications in phased, quick deployments for immediate ROI as well as long-term growth.

The result is a complete “design-to-development” solution that delivers an optimized user experience with maintainable and scalable RIA technology to solve real world business problems and offer the best return on investment.

"The Catalyst-Backbase solution solves a very real and pressing problem. Organizations recognize that to remain competitive, they must adopt rich internet functionality that radically improves the usability and ROI of online applications." said Paul Giurata, managing partner of Catalyst Resources. "The benefits of using RIAs are not however automatic and depend on designing for key interaction and data handling points and changing the development process to include continuous code integration build and testing."

Charlie Janes, general manager from Backbase adds "The comprehensive service offered by Backbase and Catalyst Resources means organizations can benefit from enhanced usability and effectiveness of their online enterprise applications, with reduced ramp up time and reduced uncertainty about impact, development and integration. Almost immediately they will begin capturing significant returns and lay the groundwork for sustained and profitable customer relationships in the future."

For more information on Backbase contact Michel Gerin, michel@backbase.com at Backbase.