The recent announcement of US technology publication, Intelligent Enterprise`s annual editorial selection of the 12 Most Influential Companies in IT, saw relative newcomers Siebel and MicroStrategy amongst the top echelons. Both companies are locally represented by SPL, a member of the Dimension Data Group.
Intelligent Enterprise was launched last year by Miller Freeman the world`s largest trade show producer and leading publisher of technical and industry-specific magazines and focuses on the integration and management of business-critical applications and corporate information infrastructures.
The list of top-level names, including number one, SAP, as well as Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and Sun Microsystems, saw Siebel come in at number six and MicroStrategy at number 10.
The study cites Siebel Systems as leader in sales force automation, with its long-term sights set on becoming the dominant player in the front-office enterprise relationship management (ERM) sector.
MicroStrategy is described as going beyond cost-effective data access and analysis to achieve business objectives unattainable without advanced decision support.
Intelligent Enterprise`s David Stodder maintains the choice of companies offers testament to the importance of application integration. "To become the intelligent enterprise, organisations need a hub a platform around which the universe of technology comes into focus."
Describing the industry as being in the middle of the biggest platform war ever seen, Stodder asks: "Should it be the database, the operating system to federated knowledge management architecture? The front office suite or the ERP supply chain? Should the scaleable enterprise begin with a microchip and extend to the server, or should it rely on a freewheeling cross-platform, plug-and-play model?"
Stodder maintains the companies among the chosen dozen are the most influential companies in IT, and, taken together, are poised to lead in 1999.
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