META Group`s METAmorphosis conference recently held in Europe and the US has brought to light the importance of adaptive applications within an adaptive organisation. This is topic of high interest levels according to registrations received for METAmorphosis Africa 2004, scheduled for 4 to 6 May at Caesars Gauteng.
Ruediger Spies, vice-president international, application delivery strategies and enterprise application strategies for META Group, who will be speaking at METAmorphosis Africa 2004 this year, says: "During the next year, IT managers will discover how to promote the value of IT through applications and their underlying infrastructure. Conversely, business groups will begin to judge the entire IT organisation on how well enterprise applications perform when executing business strategies.
"Enterprise application vendors and IT organisations will shift from a traditional total cost of ownership perspective into one of total value of operations. This gives the established vendors a good basis to expand their footprint as a business backbone system and weave independent components (ERP, CRM, SCM, and data warehousing) together even more."
In a way similar to how end-users view IT through the lens of applications, the IT organisation needs to see the business through the window of the business applications (eg, ERP, CRM, SCM, DW/BI). Business requirements and business processes are changing constantly to keep up with changes in the business environment. Agility and adaptability are not an accident, but a requirement for applications. They are a result of a series of key requirements: applications should be component-based with an integrated but independent infrastructure layer. They need to have standards-based interfaces (eg, Web services), be extendable and scalable, and enable easy integration of business processes across applications, processes, and enterprises (inter-enterprise integration).
Application managers who do not understand how to manage the two interfaces they have (to end-users and infrastructure owners) and those not ready to leverage this for the growing needs of business processes integration will fall behind.
He concluded that users need to emphasis flexibility, extensibility and interoperability when selecting new enterprise applications to support adaptive organisations.
Forthcoming event
The adaptive organisation: Building value by remodelling for IT flexibility, METAmorphosis Africa 2004 Conference, META Group`s 15th Annual Forum for Meeting IT and Business Change will be presented in Johannesburg from 4 to 6 May. To remain competitive in today`s turbulent global marketplace, enterprises must be capable of making quick, effective adjustments. This requires learning how to evolve into an adaptive organisation, one that works to align IT capabilities, costs and goals with those of the business. METAmorphosis 2004 embodies META Group`s ongoing commitment to provide actionable research, personalised service and high-value guidance.
To register for this conference by telephone or request additional information, visit www.metagroupsa.co.za, email Linda.lourens@metagroup.com or call (011) 880-5644.
Share
Editorial contacts