When Cascade upgraded its ERP systems a few years ago, the integration with PCS became a major problem. After using J2EE/CORBA for almost seven years, various versions of the language were used within the application, which took lots of resources to build the integration with the new ERP, said Hong.

Besides integration with the internal systems, Cascade also encountered problems using J2EE as it developed applications for its clients. One of the main revenue streams of Cascade is to develop applications and engineering systems for other telcos in the region, including China and Southeast Asia.

Hong said that a couple of years ago, when the company was developing a smaller scale PCS for a China Mobile regional operation, they realized the traditional J2EE platform would also bump into the same integration problem.

"We thought of developing our own platform to enable the integration, but through various testing and trials we realized the integration is not as good as using a different programming language," he said.

.Net to the rescue