Like so many other business software applications, calibration management software has evolved from very simple beginnings as a digital index card system that reminded operators when their instrument and tool calibration were due. During the past two decades, these systems have evolved and matured and are more comprehensive, analytical, scalable and secure than we have ever seen before.
Desktop application software refers to traditional application software that resides on a desktop or laptop computer. Microsoft Office is a familiar example.
The software is stored on the local hard drive and the data files are stored either locally or on a shared network drive. All of the processing takes place on the local computer. This type of system continues to make up the majority of commercially available calibration management systems and software in general. Not much has fundamentally changed other than user interfaces have vastly improved and the number of features has exponentially increased. Raw computing power, memory and storage have reached new levels of performance and have helped to offset most of the issues caused by huge software feature sets, large multi-user databases and data analysis routines.
This class of software continues to dominate not only in calibration management systems, but also in virtually all business application software. There are, however, other important options that are changing the way many companies use and purchase software. In fact, many software industry experts see these other options as becoming the norm during the next few years.