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3 reasons to use HTML5 for your reporting tools

It has become increasingly important that reporting tools offer dynamic functionality baked in. In the past, it may have been sufficient to develop an application and then augment it with add-ons and other features to provide extra or enhanced capabilities. Over time, however, these environments can get complex to manage, and the need for updates and revisions to assure full functionality can grow cumbersome. It can even induce less tech-savvy end users to avoid using a specific feature if it is outdated or otherwise incompatible for fear of upsetting the platform or erasing their preferences. As the end user occupies a larger role in software utilization, it is critical that all apps and reporting tools have built-in features. HTML5 offers this capability, which can provide a host of other advantages. Here are three reasons to use HTML5 for your next software development project:

1. Integrate and play back media seamlessly
One of the long-standing issues with HTML4 is that it requires a plug-in such as Flash or Silverlight to ensure that videos and other media can play correctly. In today's reporting tools, videos, pictures and animations can serve as powerful visual aids to accompany information, clarify a project objective or simply add a little engaging flair, something C-suite executives and other employees generally appreciate. The ease of integrating video is one of the reasons that video sharing website Vimeo recently migrated its video content to HTML5, according to PCWorld. Vimeo representatives stated that the switch improves play back time, video embedding and mobile viewing.

2. Drastically decrease time-to-development
HTML5 can make coding easier. In the past, a developer had to create individual reporting tools or apps for the operating system on which they would be used. As mobile technology and bring-your-own-device programs increase in popularity, this can mean a slew of different OSes will be using the same app. Creating an interoperable ecosystem on such disparate devices can be challenging, wrote App Developer Magazine contributor Dmitry Sergeev. With HTML5, the developer writes one code that can then be used on any device with a modern browser. This can substantially reduce time-to-deployment and get highly functional tools in the hands of end users much faster.

3. Design for the future
As the seemingly never-ending cycle of plug-in updates suggests, simply maintaining a software environment can be difficult enough. However, taking a reactive stance all the time can end up curbing innovation and productivity potential in the long run. Many organizations may also become bogged down by the weight of their current reporting tools and application environments, believing that in order to attain the next level of software development and utilization they have to shed their current system completely.

With HTML5, this does not have to be the case. Programmers can use HTML5 with legacy applications as well as new ones, editing current programs to make them compatible with new devices, browsers and software. This helps preserve continuity in the current app environment and provides a much more comfortable transition for end users asked to begin working with new programs. It helps organizations create app environments that can be easily adapted or scaled in response to emerging trends and methods.

MESCIUS inc.

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