Business technology optimisation (BTO) has become the strategic agenda for the corporate CIO in 2006, and this, coupled with the global focus on service-oriented architecture (SOA), has led to the enterprise adjusting its business strategies to reflect this.
This is what James Stevenson, vice-president and MD of Mercury UK, Middle East and Africa, told delegates at the opening of the Mercury User Group of SA (MUGSA) conference on Monday.
"Mercury moved into the SOA at the beginning of this year with our acquisition of Systinet, the leading repository of SOA technology in the marketplace, and within nine months, we had announced a complete applications lifecycle for SOA," he says.
"Mercury`s BTO strategy for SOA is to optimise SOA governance, quality and management in order to reduce SOA business risk. We aim to adopt a flexible and incremental approach to implementing SOA initiatives, in order to conform to business priorities, budgets and the business`s tolerance for risk."
He says that a critical part of the company`s African strategy was to appoint EOH as its local partner some 18 months ago. This organisation is embedded in the local environment and should give Mercury a far greater reach in the sub-Saharan market, as EOH knows the market requirements and can therefore extend Mercury`s value proposition in this region.
According to Lenore Kerrigan, Mercury Alliance Director for sub-Saharan Africa, good IT outcomes do not necessarily mean good business outcomes, so it is critical that IT understands what the business requires.
"This is why BTO is so high on the agenda today, because IT was somewhat neglected before, as there was no focus on ensuring the existence of an end-to-end solution to manage IT, ensure that it works effectively and that it meets the demands of the business, " she says.
"BTO is all about delivering on business outcomes. These outcomes include: growing market share; cutting costs; increasing customer satisfaction; increasing productivity; boosting competitiveness; and ensuring corporate compliance."
She points out there is a pressing need to optimise services, applications, operations and infrastructure, and to break out of the concept of working in silos and that BTO will help to break down the silo walls and make the business work in an end-to-end, horizontal fashion instead.
Stevenson points out that on 25 July, it was announced that HP would acquire Mercury for $4.5 billion, and that the legal close to the deal should occur shortly.
"The value of this deal is immense to both organisations, as the products set and portfolio that HP has and the one that Mercury owns show very little overlap, so it will mean a really extended product range," he says.
In a video telecast, HP`s CEO, Mark Herd, claimed that there are three core things that HP looks at when considering an acquisition, namely does this strategy make sense?; do the numbers make sense?; and can the acquisition be made to perform?
"The question is why, in the context of HP`s software strategy and capabilities, we chose to purchase Mercury, since $4.5 billion is a pretty big cheque to sign, after all. Ultimately we bought it to grow our business further, and what is most important to us in this acquisition are the people," he says.
"Although the idea behind the acquisition began with the great technology Mercury has, which we felt could help us to fill in the gaps in our own product range, with the aim of combining two market leading businesses, in order to create the most powerful management software company in the world, we realise that such an entity is worthless without the people behind it."
He says between the people and the technology that the two organisations bring to the party, this deal has the potential to be a truly game-changing transaction, both for HP and for the market in general.
"Our aim is to provide end-to-end IT management for the entire lifecycle, to help our customers to reduce their IT costs and speed up the delivery of new software while leading and accelerating the transformation to SOA."
"HP promises absolute focus and commitment to the Mercury products and services and we plan to continually invest in them and develop them. We will do everything in our power to align the assets and people of HP with the assets and people of Mercury, in order to create the most powerful, incredible software organisation in the world," he concludes.
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