IBM on Wednesday released a free Web application development tool aimed at users in small businesses who lack the technical skills often needed to build applications.

The software-as-a-service tool available at this Web site can be used to create online forms for tasks such as taking lunch orders from employees or keeping track of costs associated with a renovation project.

Click to see: IBM’s free Web application development tool lets users create online forms with the drag-and-drop features shown on this page.

“We’re offering a very visually enhanced tool that allows business users with no technical skills” to build Web applications, says Cynthya Peranandam, an emerging technologies strategist for IBM’s alphaWorks Services. Employees who want to build applications to support business activities often have to ask the IT department for help, and may end up waiting a long time because IT departments tend to have long work backlogs, she says.

The IBM tool, called Development Engagement Service, is targeted at human resources, finance, sales and marketing departments.

It’s mainly for simple applications, such as an invitation system, but can also handle tasks that are more complicated, Peranandam says. One potential application would allow an onsite operations manager to keep track of renovation costs.

“If the user wants to collect price quotes from various contractors, she would normally update a spreadsheet every time new information is gathered,” IBM says in a press release. “Putting this information on the Web with IBM Development Engagement Service allows anyone to access the file and update it, collect price quotes, analyze the information or collect references.”

Development Engagement Service is an Asynchronous JavaScript + XML (AJAX)-based application with a drag-and-drop interface, allowing users to easily place the components they want into the online forms they are building, Peranandam says. For example, if a user is building an invitation system for a company party, he can build the form employees would fill out by dragging and dropping fields for names, numbers, addresses and times people are available.

Currently, the tool can build only single-form applications, but IBM plans to expand it so users can build programs requiring multiple forms, she says. Once users finish building an application, they click a button to send the request to a Java-based back-end that generates the application and returns a URL where it can be accessed. The applications users build are hosted by IBM.

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