What is MCP and Why is it Important to My Business?

How Does MCP Help AI Application Development?

Technology is great! But it can be hard to keep up. Even if you have made a career in technology, the pace of change today is so rapid that, if you miss one issue of your favorite tech publication, you may risk falling behind.

Perhaps nothing has increased the pace of change in technology more than Artificial Intelligence (AI) and, because AI potential seems to be unconstrained, the need for expanded capabilities and foundations is constant.

One such development is Model Context Protocol (MCP). MCP is an open protocol that was created by Anthropic to simplify the process of interacting with Large Language Models (LLMs) and to standardize the way in which applications provide context to LLMs and help them interpret data.

It may help to think of MCP as a translator or a way to make connections. Much like a USB adapter can connect an external hard drive to your laptop, MCP can connect various tools and data sources to enable interaction, integration and context for use in AI.

While early stage AI struggled to connect disparate data sources, tools and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), the advent of Model Context Protocol (MCP) provides a bridge to external data and services to connect AI models using a standardized communication framework to allow for AI reasoning and processing. So, AI models like Azure OpenAI, GPT, Atlassian and others can fetch data, connect and interact with APIs and perform tasks, going well beyond the knowledge contained in the model to produce new, expanded outputs.

What is Model Context Protocol (MCP) and WHY Should I Care?

In the good old days of AI (just last year), your users might ask a complex question or a question that exceeded the information contained within an LLM training data set. That question could elicit an answer that made no sense or the system might simply frustrate the user by saying, ‘I don’t know.’ In order to solve that problem, you would have to provide data refinement to ensure that the LLM had context or you would have to add another tool or secondary source. That can be complex, time consuming and expensive.

In short, in order to succeed with your LLM, you were constrained by the amount of training data, and how well you could anticipate what your clients or users would ask or need. Sure, the information exists out there somewhere, but your LLM doesn’t include that data! You could use APIs but that process of application integration is complex and can be difficult to implement in a meaningful way, and you have to hard-code each connection! Using this technique to provide information to an LLM requires you to review documentation and data, identify the end point of the search, verify authentication, structure requests and then make sure it all works seamlessly so your users are not frustrated.

MCP allows you to create a bridge between apps and tools and establish automated workflows, using the power of LLMs to perform tasks and provide clear, concise information across all technology frameworks and platforms. MCP allows developers and content managers to establish what the LLM should know and provide that in a standard format that the LLM can understand. In essence, MCP acts as the go-between or the middleman, simplifying the relationship and connection between the LLM and APIs, tools and data repositories. Rather than your app reaching out to the API, it communicates with an MCP server. The MCP server will then translate that information and decide how to communicate with the API to satisfy the user request. It’s a translator!

Model Context Protocols (MCP) provide support for application developers using AI so they can more easily build apps and integrate information, ensuring that the app is flexible enough to support future integration of tools and data. Its open-source accessibility allows software developers and software vendors to leverage these tools to create business and consumer apps.

The team can create apps that are extensible at runtime and connect tools and APIs to an MCP server, to use the app immediately without extensive coding and deployment. The process is simple.

  • When a user enters a query, the Large Language Model (LLM) sends a request to the MCP server
  • The MCP server translates the request and decides where it should go (API, tool, etc.), and then sends it to the appropriate source
  • The response to the query is returned through the MCP server
  • The MCP server sends that response to the LLM
  • The user receives the response

It’s just that simple.

If you, your IT staff, your management team or your customers are asking about the potential of AI and LLMs, it is time to consider MCP and how it can support your needs. The incorporation of this approach can save development time and expense and alleviate rework and developer and user frustration.

If your business wishes to improve productivity, timelines, budgets and dependability of in-house applications, you will want to find a vendor and service provider who appropriately employs AI and LLMs to support its development model. If you are planning to engage an IT expert to augment your own software product or solution, it is wise to look for this capability when you interview prospective partners. Contact Us to find out how to integrate AI And LLM capabilities into your software project, website, analytics initiative or other project. Explore our free White Papers: ‘What Is AI And How Can It Help My Business,’ and ‘The Practical Use Of GenAI In BI And Analytics Tools.’

Don’t Add IT Resources, Add an IT Partner!

When Your IT Needs Outstrip Your Team, Look for a Partner!

If your business is anything like your competition, your IT team is overwhelmed with ongoing activities, with special projects, reporting, maintenance and other activities that seem to take up every minute of the day. If a business manager or an executive wishes to undertake an application development project to improve business productivity, or a consumer application development project to increase revenue, or a major technology infrastructure project to improve, and enhance performance, scalability, security or other factors within the organization, your IT team is likely too busy to accommodate the need.

Even if they CAN find time to execute these tasks, the projects may require specialized skills that your team does not possess. In that case, the enterprise will have to expand its IT facilities to accommodate the new team members they must recruit, hire and pay. And what is to become of these team members when the project is finished? Will the organization still need their services, or will the enterprise be forced to contract its team again, leaving it with expensive facilities space it does not need?

Such are the challenges of a small or medium sized business owner. The fact is that your vision, your dream may be compromised by the inability to staff your projects. And that isn’t the only risk. If your business is expanding or must meet competitive response, it may be at risk of falling short if it cannot staff those crucial projects.

Not Enough IT Resources or Skills? Don’t Despair! The Right Partner Has What You Need

There is an answer to these challenges and, as with so many other things in life, the answer lies in building a team, in trusting the support of a partner to help you get the job done! According to recent studies 92% of the Global 2000 companies use IT outsourcing.

‘With a well-rounded IT partner team that possesses the skills and experience, offers affordable licensing and technical and soft leadership skills, you can take your business to the next level!’

With the right IT expert partner, your business can address all of the issues described above.

  • Addressing Immediate Needs
  • Building for the Future
  • Supporting Ongoing Needs

Here are just a few examples of the services your business can engage:

Digital Transformation (Dx) – If your enterprise is struggling to update and upgrade its technology landscape to integrate, streamline and improve the flow of data and information and to improve the business user experience (Ux) to enhance productivity, align goals and encourage collaboration, your project will require comprehensive skills and focused attention. You must assess your current environment, identify requirements and create a roadmap and roll-out plan, and then staff that project. You will need services, solutions, and a team approach to innovate, create, and support cutting-edge technology, and the skills and experience to execute that vision.

Build Your Software Team – This crucial set of services can expand your own IT team with new skills and solid experience to provide the services you need on an ongoing basis or for a special project. These resources are dedicated to your enterprise and available as and when you need them with no delays. The partner team acts as an extension of your team, providing advice and output and working closely with your organization to satisfy your needs.

Minimum Viable Products (MVP) – If you have a new product idea, you run the risk of spending a lot of time and effort developing a product that falls short of customer expectations or a product that stretches far beyond the needs of the market and is too costly for customers to buy. Working with a skilled partner, you can assess needs and create a product with essential features to determine market potential and get crucial customer feedback to incorporate into the final product.

Software Product Development – Turn your vision into a reality, gain market share and address competitive issues with the right technology, the right features and the right architecture for future growth. Choose an IT partner that understand the difference between Application Development and Product Development and can provide a full suite of services to ensure appropriate security and protect intellectual property, etc.

Software Application Development – Whether you are developing a business application, a mobile application, or enhancing an existing application, you must choose the right technologies and frameworks, carefully integrate data and deploy within your organization or among suppliers and partners with careful planning and comprehensive scheduling and services. The technology market is changing rapidly and an expert IT partner can help you choose technologies from artificial intelligence (AI) to cloud-based data storage, integration of disparate data systems and user-friendly interface design to customer relationship management (CRM) and applications for financial management, media, travel, hospitality, production, supply chain management (SCM) etc., the right IT partner makes all the difference.

Data Engineering, ETL & Data Warehousing – Create and/or manage data warehouses, data hubs, data marts and more with services to help you organize manage, monitor and analyze data from internal and external sources.

Business Intelligence (BI), Augmented Analytics, Predictive Analytics and AI – Whether you wish to upgrade your BI tools or implement analytics for the first time, you will need the right services to integrate data for smart data visualization, self-serve data preparation and predictive analytics and to leverage artificial intelligence (AI), and low-code, no-code foundations to quickly and easily analyze and leverage new features in a flexible environment that is suitable for all your team members so you can transition business users into Citizen Data Scientists.

‘There is an answer to your IT staffing and technology challenges and, as with so many other things in life, the answer lies in building a team, in trusting the support of a partner to help you get the job done! With the right IT expert partner, your business can address your issues in a timely, affordable fashion.’

These are just a few examples of the suite of services you can expect from the right IT partner. Look for a partner with proven experience and references, one with proven references and services that include Quality and Testing, Infrastructure Management, social media integration, cutting-edge AI skills and other advanced and traditional skills. With a well-rounded team of skills and experience, affordable licensing and technical and soft leadership skills, the right IT partner can take your business to the next level!

Discover our Software Application And Maintenance Services, Software Application Development Services and ongoing technology support. Build Your Software Team using our resources, skills and experience. Explore the benefits of expert services with our free Articles and White Papers: ‘Minimum Viable Products Enable Swift Start-Up And Product Insight,’ and ‘Preparing Your Business For Digital Transformation And Data Literacy.’

Case Study: Elegant MicroWeb Case Study – Nepal Ambulance Dispatch & Tracking App for U.S. Client

This U.S. Client is spearheading a charitable initiative in Nepal to enhance emergency response services. The project will revolutionize ambulance dispatch operations by integrating real-time tracking, optimizing ambulance assignments, and streamlining communication among dispatchers, ambulance drivers, and patients. By leveraging an advanced solution, the initiative seeks to improve response times, ensure efficient resource allocation, and ultimately save more lives during critical emergencies.

Case Study: Elegant MicroWeb Case Study – Solution for USA Cell and Gene Therapy Logistics Courier Cloud

The Client developed a specialized niche platform designed to streamline logistics for the cell and gene therapy (CGT) sector. Its innovative, expert solution offers a centralized, seamless interface that allows users to book, manage, and track shipments with multiple specialty couriers, including World Courier, Marken, and QuickStat.

Look For a Software Development Partner That Uses AI and LLMs

AI and LLMs Support Developer and DevOps Productivity

A recent Copilot study revealed an interesting fact about the use of AI and Large Language Models (LLM) in the software development process. The study included developers from Microsoft, Accenture, and a Fortune 100 electronics firm and reported a 26% boost in productivity, increasing output from the usual eight hour workday to what amounts to ten hours of traditional output. This improved output increased even more for less experienced developers.

By leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Models (LLM), the DevOPS organization can greatly improve output, code quality, developer productivity and consistency. As businesses embrace the collaborative and team-oriented concepts of DevOps, the use of AI and LLMs can be utilized across the organization, and forward-thinking organizations are looking at the set of practices in DevOps (software development IT operations) to automate processes and accelerate the software development lifecycle.

Where software vendors employ these techniques, clients, customers and end-users can benefit from this approach. The development team can work more quickly and efficiently to satisfy requirements, design, develop and test and deploy, so business projects can be completed more rapidly and dependably.

If a business is considering a vendor or a software product for implementation within the walls of the enterprise, it is worth asking the prospective vendor and service provider how they are currently using cutting-edge technology to improve their development process and lifecycle.

Elements and Aspects of AI in Software Development

The Use of AI and Large Language Models (LLM) Improves the Development Process

Prompt Engineering uses natural language interfaces to study interactions with and the programing of LLM computation systems to enable complex problem solving, looking for patterns and focusing on reusable solutions. Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), Code-as-Data and CodeQL LLMs support developers by exploring the code, studying requirements and documentation and analyzing infrastructure to find issues and inconsistencies.

Automated Code Generation allows the development team to optimize testing and deployment. Developers can use AI code review tools like Codiga and testing tools like DiffBlue Cover to review and analyze code and find issues, and AI-based code generators like GitHub and Copilot.

Generative AI (GenAI) leverages LLMs to streamline the steps in the development process, including analysis of requirements, coding and testing.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) enables code generation with machine learning and produces suggestions to develop or complete code, thereby reducing the occurrence of human error and allowing developers to focus on other, more complex aspects of code and development.

Testing and Debugging can be automated to detect and address bugs, inefficiencies and vulnerabilities in the code. These tools can be used to generate unit tests, create test cases and increase the effectiveness of the testing phase to improve overall quality.

Translation Tools enable translation of other programming languages for projects where the team must migrate code to other programming languages. The process uses large language models to complete the translation, leaving developers free to focus on architecture.

Documentation Support includes development of documents for code comments, regulatory requirements etc. Prompt Engineering generates summaries and answers questions and provides examples so developers who review the code for later upgrades have appropriate documentation to support the software evolution.

Project Management for all of DevOps is supported by automated routines and integration of information and documentation throughout the process, monitoring system performance, analyzing test results and optimizing implementation. The ongoing analysis of test planning, data migration, compliance documentation and architecture supports the entire DevOps team.

If your business wishes to improve productivity, timelines, budgets and dependability of in-house applications, you will want to find a vendor and service provider who appropriately employs AI and LLMs to support its development model. If you are planning to engage an IT expert to augment your own software product or solution, it is wise to look for this capability when you interview prospective partners. Contact Us to find out how to integrate AI and LLM capabilities into your software project, website, analytics initiative or other project. Explore our free White Papers: ‘What Is AI And How Can It Help My Business,’ and ‘The Practical Use Of GenAI In BI And Analytics Tools.’

Case Study: Elegant MicroWeb Case Study – Offshore Support for Investor, Borrower and Loan Asset Mortgage Management Platform

The Client is a full-service financial firm specializing in mortgage solutions, investment opportunities, and loan servicing. The company provides a robust platform for investors, borrowers, and loan applicants, offering tailored financial products and streamlined processes to enhance accessibility and efficiency. With a strong focus on compliance, risk management, and customer-centric services, it provides solutions for its clients to easily navigate the complexities of mortgage financing while ensuring a seamless experience.

Case Study: Elegant MicroWeb Case Study – Vendor Onboarding Workflow & Approval App for India Refinery

The Client is a renowned refinery and industries business in India with a global business. It produces soy bean, refined rice bran, coconut and other related edible oils, as well as personal care oils, bio-diesel and speciality fats. The Client provides cost-effective solutions through augmented productivity, innovation and economies of scale and is committed to cutting-edge technology and processing to achieve its vision and a competitive advantage.