At the moment we are working on a browser based application for Helpdesk and general Operator functionality support.

As fond as I am of cool web based stuff, facing problems during the development of this application makes me wonder whether the current idea is the correct one.

We meet the kind of problems which would not be hard to tackle with a simple desktop application, and looking at the goal of the software, it should be a desktop application. Users connecting to a company database from a company office, staying behind a company firewall, working on customer data, and so on. Nothing that would require the use of a web based application.

What requirements make this solution neccessary?

Surprise: the users don’t want to change between application for working and surfing the web.

What I don’t get, is that why making websurfing during work-hours easy is a valid business requirement

Or is it simply the usual, “oh, it’s soooo cool, let’s have a web based application for everything”?