Somewhat similarly, as a stopgap in '07 I built a Django (well really, Python and duct tape) Sarbanes-Oxley SOD system over a month or so.

I had to deal with well over a million records, but fundamentally it was a pretty simple ask, laying a 2d matrix of rules over user and permission records from 30 different systems. I even hooked it up to SAP and various AS400s through MQ, print queues and various other things.

It was a total stopgap move - so a whole bunch of vendors bid on the "real" system, one was selected, and now almost 3 years later and a few million dollars spent, and the "real" system still isn't working.

"Web 2.0" frameworks have a lot of applications in business, the ORM + presentation layer tools give you most of the groundwork you need, but as the article says, the key is in the polish and the business oriented design.