Tech: Planning for the future

So we are mostly a .NET shop, all of our servers are Windows 2003 using IIS and all of my code is in C#.

What I am wanting to do, is to look out there and find out what is the best way of deciding how we should move forward with operations.  I can continue to build apps in C#, mostly because all of our stuff is written in it already.  The presentation is kind of clunky, but we’re in healthcare, we’re supposed to be behind everyone else.

What I am really looking for is advice on how to move forward with current technology without breaking the bank, having to relearn everything from scratch, and leverage what we already have and can make/change with little upset and not too much adjustment.

I am the developer, the dba, the report writer.  I am for the most part the business analyst in that I go to a lot of folx and try to discover what they NEED, rather than what they want.  We have a Project Manager/Analyst who is brilliant as well, but she’s working with other departments on different projects.

My main goal going forward is to move to a more BI(Business Intelligence) mode, try to leverage the huge amounts of data we are currently gathering and not utilizing to the fullest, use our third party data more effectively for analysis and checks and balances, and allow the company to move forward while at the same time, having a plan in place and moving effectively instead of just because.

If anyone has any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.  I’m the type of person who knows a little about a lot, and it’s making me a little crazy because I don’t have the resources to make the informed decisions I need to make.  What I can picture is something along these lines:

I’d like to leverage the data I have in my current db’s as well as third party data into a data warehouse so I can utilize cubes, Sql Server Analysis Services(SSAS), and pivot tables for projections and analysis.

I’d like to leverage the current apps to continue business, but at the same time find a way to create middle tier apps to serve up data so that I can…

Start moving into a Design based area and separate Design from Code/Business Logic.

I want to separate the design from the business logic, simply because I believe a robust middle tier will allow me to design multiple fronts.  We have quite a lot of regional people, and yet there are plenty of people in the facilities.  I’d like to be able to create an environment that would allow a user on a PC in a facility to be able to access the information they need using a webpage, and yet at the same time create a webservices that would allow people in the field to accomplish things on their blackberrys.

Perfect example – a user in the facility wants to see what requests have been approved.  They see one is still waiting, they call Mgr X in the field, “Oh wow, sorry, let me do it now”, Mgr X opens a page on her blackberry and clicks a few buttons and voila, the request is approved, the order is made, and the piece is on it’s way.

From what my limited understanding told me, I could do that by having some webservice that accomplished my business logic sitting in the middle with a Webpage for a PC user and some kind of microwebpage for a Blackberry user.

I have seen Adobe Flex utilized in several different cool applications and I’ve always been a fan of RIA’s seeing them as a way to encapsulate business applications and allow for different forms – Flex allows you to develop one program and compile it as a SWF for a website, or as an AIR application for the desktop.  I’m not sure if this is the way to go, but I would really like to find out because I like the technology.

I just don’t want to reinvent the wheel.

Any advice would be appreciated.