Building a Web 2.0 enterprise

By Alex Kayle, Senior portals journalist

Johannesburg, 10 Sept 2009

Businesses are still struggling with the same challenges they faced during the first implementations of data warehousing 21 years ago.

This is according to Barry Devlin, founder and principal of 9Sight Consulting, speaking at the ITWeb Data Warehousing conference in Midrand, yesterday. “If you don't learn from the past, you're destined to repeat history. Making the transition into the real-time area is going to be vital for business. Business-integrated insight unites the three prior types of IT systems, namely people, process and information, in a single coherent model.”

Devlin said there have been huge advancements in technology in the past five years, such as Web 2.0.

“We are at a turning point where we need to look at a new architecture for data warehousing. Today, business success requires comprehensive integration and flexibility, but at minimal cost. It's no longer possible to say we will change things next week or next month, we have to be able to close the loop of strategy to execution.”

According to Devlin, operational applications, collaborative applications, processes, and instant messaging are all going to have to be collapsed into a single infrastructure. He added that businesses need to bring innovation into their business intelligence strategies to drive flexibility and adapt to change.

Thinking out the box

Devlin stressed that companies need to start thinking about data warehousing in a different way, adding that the source of intelligence is people and not IT.

“The data warehouse has changed from a monolithic entity into a dynamic construction. Where Web 1.0 was about connecting computers and making technology better for computers, Web 2.0 is about connecting people and making technology better for people. The services enable people to interact with one another in a new way over the Internet.”

Devlin pointed to Amazon.com and how social networking drove the success of the online retail giant. He added that enterprises need to seriously consider integrating the same social networking methodologies into IT systems. “Enterprise 2.0 is about moving from Web2.0 technologies and moving it into the enterprise where there's more business value.

“Enterprise 2.0 is directed towards business goals and empowering people in a business context by adding control, security and reliability. What you actually start to create is an enterprise community which enhances collaboration within the business arena to build adaptive workflows and improve strategic business intelligence,” he concluded.