Business leaders must view IT in an entirely different way if they are to harness the real potential of their digital progeny, says Richard Firth, CEO of MIP Holdings.
Five years ago it was a nightmare to try and integrate disparate IT systems. Technology was not up to scratch, and few plugs existed that would connect older and newer technologies, as well as those separated by function across the organisation. Today the picture has changed. Applications are more open than ever before, with a plethora of plugs and means of connecting.
Quickly fading is the notion that a single database and application architecture is a prerequisite to a successful organisation-wide system. The single, strategically important system is being replaced by a medley of focused components automating the business processes, from one end of the organisation to the other. Each is strategically important to its particular business function and is as important to the business as the function it serves, such as retail sales, manufacturing and call centres.
Nobody in their right mind would suggest today that somewhere out there, in the great IT ether, is a single program, a save-all application, that will satisfy every particular need of each and every single one of these business units and divisions, particularly considering the sheer number of different business functions that must be serviced.
In addition, entrepreneurs are proving to be a bugbear for IT architects clinging to old methodologies. Some of these entrepreneurs are creating class-leading niche applications. The problem is that they don`t come bundled with the rest of a big-name ERP software package. IT architects need to think out of the box to embrace the philosophy that a series of niche, packaged applications from a variety of vendors can be strung together to create a unique and purpose-built, single enterprise system.
This new approach is enabled by the enterprise service bus (ESB), and it can resolve all of the above issues. By combining rigidity of backbone with flexibility of approach, it removes all of IT`s business inhibitors and starts the long process of making IT a business liberator. This also effectively lets business leaders have more say over which applications make it into the stable. No longer will IT need to veto executive decisions due to integration issues.
In a nod to the software-as-a-service model, gaining traction in global markets, entrepreneurs are more willing to stand behind their niche creations than the monolithic ERP vendors appear to be. The proof is in the risk-based billing model they`ll enter into, mapping growth with benefit and invoicing proportionately. If the big ERP vendors were prepared to put your money where their mouths are, they would do this, but they simply cannot guarantee the financial benefit of using their software, which is all your business boils down to.
Since these large ERP vendors couldn`t give a hoot about software as a service and are quite happy to propagate a pre-IT-historic billing model, apparently based on the "pay up or leave" principle, entrepreneurs with niche packages are gaining traction under the ESB model.
It is also the reason that developing a powerful bus, or corporate transactional backbone, is the future of IT architecture.
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