Welcome to 2009. Some of you got some rest and others probably like myself had a lot to do for preparing for this year that has some of largest business and economic complications seen for many decades. I am not sure that 2008 was a year that many could say was as outstanding as one thought at the beginning of year. At some point in the year many organizations decided to delay or proceed slowly on their business and IT focused information and technology projects. IT organizations had to adjust with fewer resources and management sent immediate new to hold new projects as budget plans turned to ice as the business forecasts turned gloomy. Business did reform their efforts as they looked for methods to improve or develop their new business intelligence and performance management efforts but many could not invest at any level that they should to operate as effective as they would like.
Business found new classes of applications that can help them manage their specific line of business areas like sales, customer, HR, supply chain and others. These applications brought forward operational and performance activities into applications to support them in being more effective not just more efficient. These individuals and groups of applications continued to expand and establish into categories like sales performance management, customer performance management, workforce performance management but also expand further established ones like financial performance management and supply chain performance management. Each of these are building on the transactional history of other applications and categories like ERP, CRM and others that came out of the 80’s and 90’s. Just as promising is the help for the CIO who now sees using this approach can help their management and organization with IT Performance Management. Of course, not to leave out organizations who have started business or operational wide performance management transformations of how they use information to manage their organizations. Supporting business to be better in planning, achieving goals and managing metrics and key performance indicators in the context of their business focus will play out to be the top business item for 2009 as the complexities of the economy and environment need to be rationalized and prioritized more easily than through meetings and emails.
The need for Business Intelligence to become closer to the information management technologies of the enterprise was a large investment by many technology vendors as IT continues to advance BI into the enterprise. At the same time, BI had to improve in usability and context to support the business needs for performance management. Now as business finds the restrictions of personal productivity software from the 90’s limiting their ability to drive change, the need to make BI more interactive and flexible to adapt to how people work was a driving force in the new releases and roadmap of almost all BI technology providers. But make no mistake the need for BI has never come at a more important time in the economic and advancing generations of the workforce that are accustomed to interacting more routinely over the Internet and social forums.
Making information more interactive is important but requires analytics and even micro-analytics that are specialized and focused on specific sets of data is improving the value of applications. This step to making information more relevant and useful has advancing the use of modeling, workflow, rules, search and process technologies all are bringing new power to people for business and IT. In the world of information, the utilization of events into what is called complex event processing (CEP) supporting Operational Intelligence for faster information processing is also providing new alternatives to moving data from one database to another. The use of location for better geographic context is also providing the relevance needed for discovering important information that integrates content and data much faster and cheaper is now becoming well known as Location Intelligence. All of these and more are examples demonstrate how technology is advancing faster than many organizations have the budget or resources to fully leverage it.
Simultaneously the movement to information management has transitioned into smaller specific projects like database improvement for data warehousing or data integration to bite size MDM projects for customer, product and other areas that can reduce or avoid future costs. Of course managing larger volumes of data and making use of it advanced in 2008 with specialized database technologies like column and row oriented approaches along with specialized compression, processing and analytic techniques. These new databases are challenging the mainstreams RDBMS providers and are now easily available in the market and also into devices like appliances that simplify the software and hardware into one device and make installation and configuration easy.
Unfortunately the broader information architecture and processing improvements that most need did not get off the ground in any substantial manner. This was due to the changes in prioritization and reduction of investments into launching new IT projects. And all of this does not help the basic building blocks of what organizations must do to share and engage with information and metrics in a consistent and quality manner. Unfortunately this kept business as usual for organizations who continue to use spreadsheets and presentations along with email as the foundation for decision making. This situation has given new life to the discussion and implementation of data governance for business and IT that needs to be established to ensure the consistency, quality and proper use of information for business. If this does not happen then we will hold back the efficient enterprise wide collaboration and improvements to the basic business intelligence (BI) and performance management processes.
Technology also continued to advance at a rapid pace with new devices and infrastructure that are now empowering new applications and capabilities for business. The advancements in mobility like Apple iPhone surprised many, not me, with their gain in market share. This is not a device for personal use but also business combined into a single easy to use device. The simplicity of the design and use, along with the platform for adding applications has changed how many now think about deployment and updates. Towards the end of the year RIM launched their response with Storm that brings the Blackberry user into a rich interactive experience. Both of these are already transforming business and personal computing which will help improve productivity and responsive of workforces. On the deep technology side and advancing the interactive experience within the web browser and applications, Adobe has continued to challenge the conventional wisdom approach of just using Microsoft and .NET technologies. The embedding of Adobe Flash and Adobe Flex for bring Rich Internet Applications (RIA) to reality inside a range of applications and Business Intelligence was part of improving the usability and empowering new capabilities that was identified in research we did as the top two requirement for most of the line of business areas.
But clearly in this business environment, the leadership from executives and management to drive CIO and IT priorities will require renewed efforts to prioritize and determine what is most important to get done in 2009. We saw in 2008 many in business looking at their bill for technology and services wondering if they really understand what they have and what they are paying for. The necessity to be better prepared for what they need and become a more active player is critical for business to find the value of IT. It is clear that organizations will still need to purchase applications and information technology in many forms including cloud computing and software as a service to open source to advance their efforts. All of this will be necessary or the organization will fall behind in their industry or operate at higher costs over longer time periods.
I and the team at Ventana Research examined new research agendas for 2009 and have identified business and technology thematic topics that will be critical to all organizations. These topics will be critical for business and IT to be more educated and savvy on how to leverage them for their organizations. These are our assertions and not just predictions for success in this year and we remain optimistic that business can drive significant change in how they use information and technology to advance their processes and people who operate them along with management who need better tools for being effective in their decisions.
These topics come from examining the business and economic environment and from research Ventana Research conducted across thousands of organizations in 2008. The topics include areas that can help reduce costs and make improvements to the effectiveness of your efforts across your people and processes. Here are the top items for 2009 that I believe you should consider as you examine your efforts and as a courtesy have provided links to them in Wiki for a quick definition. Over the next several weeks new topics and discussions will come out every day through collaboration on our newly released business and social networking sites at LinkedIn and Facebook along with further in-depth research at www.ventanaresearch.com. This will help each of you take time to digest them one at a time and think about what you can do to help your efforts in these areas in a more concerted manner than just a new year’s resolution.
I and the Ventana Research team hope you enjoy these assertions and priorities for 2009 and that you can further your education and career to bring the best to your efforts individually and for where you work.
Let me know your thoughtsor come and collaborate with me on Facebook,LinkedInand Twitter.
Regards,
Mark Smith
CEO & EVP Research
Assertions and Priorities for 2009:
#1 Business and Social Collaboration and Networking (Details on Facebook & LinkedIn)
The importance of collaboration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration in organizations for supporting top down, bottom up and point to point interactions is critical for improving operations and performance. Supporting collaboration that goes beyond traditional email and instant messaging that is part of your processes and management is more important than the utility of itself...
#2 Cloud Computing for Business and IT (Details on Facebook & LinkedIn)
Cloud Computing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing has become part of the buzz and reality in 2008 as many organization who utilize applications, information and services operate somewhere other than inside of an organization IT department and data center. Building on top of the advances...
#3 Integrated Business Planning (Details on Facebook & LinkedIn)
The value of Integrated Business Planning http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_business_planning is the single most important lesson corporations should have learned from the economic downturn. Most were caught flat footed and struggled to adjust over the past two years as they were whipsawed by wild swings in commodity prices, energy costs, currency rates and ultimately a free fall in the economy...
#4 IT Spending Effectiveness (Details on Facebook & LinkedIn)
As companies look to reduce IT spending as one response to the economic slowdown, they risk throwing the baby out with the bathwater – cutting back or eliminating spending on initiatives that have strategic value for the company. Our benchmark research has found...
#5 Corporate Social Responsibility (Details on Facebook & LinkedIn)
A new business technology priority for 2009 will be what business is doing to act smarter about how they operate and conduct operations to be respectful to the environment, countries, people and other groups or entities. Building on many years of visibility on information about the impact of business over the decades is now a global discussion and an active dialogue with what is called corporate social responsibility (CSR) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_social_responsibility. Part of this dialogue is ...
#6 Open Source (Details on Facebook & LinkedIn)
The need to reduce costs in technology spending including the licensing and maintenance of software is on the top of the list for most organizations. As the pressure to avoid and reduce future costs of existing or new projects using technology, the option of Open Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source should be evaluated. Open Source which introduces a ...
#7 Business Mobility (Details on Facebook & LinkedIn)
The rapid pace of technology advancement in mobility of computing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_computing has changed the landscape for how business operates. With the convergence of personal digital assistants (PDA) and smart phones have introduced new mobility devices like Apple iPhone, Research In Motion (RIM) Blackberry Storm and the Palm Pre which use the communication carriers like ATT, T-Mobile and Verizon. These mobility devices bring new ...
#8 Risk Management (Details on Facebook & LinkedIn)
Risk seems to be on everyone’s mind these days – for a good reason. The term “Enterprise Risk Management” per Wiki covers the diverse sets of risks organizations face that can affect profitability, effectiveness and reputation (to name just three). “Risk” usually means different things to different people in a company. People look at risks narrowly and to the extent they...
#9 Customer Performance Management (Details on Facebook & LinkedIn)
The recent change in the economic situation means it is even more important for companies to focus on the management and performance of your customers by investing effectively into customer management http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_management processes and technologies. The competition to attract and retain customers has increased...
#10 Fix Your Spreadsheet Problem (Details on Facebook & LinkedIn)
Spreadsheets http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spreadsheet: you can’t live with ‘em and you can’t live without ‘em. Almost nothing has improved productivity over the past three decades as the desktop spreadsheet (especially in finance). For this reason, and because there are large numbers of people trained to use them, spreadsheets have become the tool of choice for all sorts of analysis, reporting, prototyping and data storage. However, our benchmark research shows spreadsheets are now being seriously misused in ways that ....
#11 Information Management (Details on Facebook & LinkedIn)
Information Management http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_management: The topic itself can garner a heated conversation as many organizations know they do not have a dedicated business and IT management focus on information. Or in some organizations business is not engaged as leading the importance of this focus and leave it to IT to determine what is needed. If organizations do not see and treat information as an asset that can provide value to business efforts then they will gain the full performance and ...
#12 Talent and Workforce Performance Management (Details on Facebook & LinkedIn)
In this day and age it should be obvious that organizations are comprised of people and teams that work together to perform their daily activities and contribution to business processes. For your workforces are adapting to these difficult economic times and for most operating with reduced staff and under tighter constraints than ever before is no easy task. But how organizations invest into their people to ensure they can achieve their best is not always a ...
#13 New Technology for Infusing Business Intelligence (Details on Facebook & LinkedIn)
It is no surprise that we wish that everyone in our organization had the technology to make them operate at highest levels of intelligence. Well that might mean that they are not human but computers but it is no surprise that having the right tools for providing information and analytics is essential for every individual. What type of intelligence am I speaking about? Well the type that uses...
#14 Effective Financial Performance Management (Details on Facebook & LinkedIn) Financial Performance Management (FPM) is a collection of processes that help ensure that the finance department of a corporation achieves optimal efficiency while maximizing the effectiveness and performance of the entire organization. FPM addresses the often overlapping issues that affect how well finance departments bolster the...
#15 Managing Sales and Revenue Performance (Details on Facebook & LinkedIn)
The imperative to manage sales effectively is critical as it is the revenue generating elements of almost every organization. But for most organizations utilizing applications that help manage sales performance are still just beginning to come onto the radar screen for sales, operations and finance management. Why do so many organizations not have the...
#16 Using Market Information for Making Intelligent Decisions (Details on Facebook & LinkedIn)
The priority to improve decision making in every organization is a topic to be taken more seriously. But it is not just that you are doing to equip your people with the right tools and not just spreadsheets to work in a collaborative manner across the enterprise or improving your processes. It is the full range of information that is necessary to understand the situation to optimize business decisions. The need for external information to drive market intelligence to you decision makers could make the difference between...
#17 Making IT Deliver and Be Accountable for Business Value (Details on Facebook & LinkedIn)
“Governance,” when it comes to information technology, focuses heavily on restricting capital spending but usually fails to understand and optimize the value of the existing portfolio of IT capabilities and assets. Companies can measure the total cost of their IT spending but they have an imperfect understanding of what drives those costs. Equally important, they have a limited understanding of the benefits they are deriving from their IT portfolio. Organizations that have minimum service level agreements may think they are user-centric when they’re not.
priority to improve decision making in every organization is a topic to be taken more...
#18 Optimizing Your Service & Supply Chain with Information and Technology (Details on Facebook & LinkedIn)
The bulk of the economic value of organizations is processed through business and consumer supply chains of product and services across manufacturing and services industries. No matter if your business is in retail, healthcare, banking, real estate, manufacturing, insurance, communications or others there are significant gaps in the point to point process across your businesses operations. But how do you know how efficient your supply chains operate and the effectiveness of them and where investments need...
#19 Most Valuable Business Process – Performance Management (Details on Facebook & LinkedIn)
No matter what industry, what sized company or if you are in a specific business or IT group the importance of managing to specific performance expectations and goals should be well understood by now. I unfortunately have seen that organizations do not take the basic tenants of performance management seriously. Is it that organizations do not care about the results of their investments or are just lazy and do not want to make it a priority?
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Regards,
Research Team at Ventana Research
