Not much investment in technology integration

Although most companies recognise the need to integrate their enterprise systems, many have limited plans to invest in integration technology in the future, according to the latest end-user survey from a European independent analyst firm PMP, reports Source Wire.

The majority of companies (57%) have one central group which co-ordinates all integration activity and enforces standards across the enterprise. A further 11% have a central body coordinating integration efforts within an individual department or unit. Spending on integration activities remains fairly depressed. Most companies (43%) spend less than 10% of their overall IT budget on the enterprise application integration (EAI) hardware, software, consultancy and support.

Thirty-nine percent say they have a large enterprise-wide integration programme currently in place or planned, compared to the 43% who say they handle integration on a case-by-case basis.

As a result, the survey identifies the need to get systems to work together more effectively as the key driver for an EAI project, cited by 87%. Creating end-to-end processes is another key goal (61%).

"Microsoft has made it clear that it doesn`t just intend to compete in the application development, database and business process integration (BPI) space, but intends to dominate firms like Oracle and IBM," says Info-Tech analyst Carmi levy, reports tekrati.com.

Microsoft recently launched its Visual 2005, SQL Server 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006.

Although Microsoft says each of these tools is, on its own, best of breed, Levy says the key benefit to IT lies in the degree to which they are integrated.

"BPI makes it feasible to put the power right into the hands of end-users, which frees IT up to deliver value elsewhere," says Levy.