The rule of business is that business rules

The days of IT telling business what it needs to fulfil its mandate to shareholders are long gone. As more executives and boards regain control of their organisations, the business world is seeing a new relationship develop between business and IT, in which each side is learning to play its part for the good of the organisation as a whole.

The new order applies equally to decisions on data warehousing, business applications and customer management solutions, every aspect of the business that relies on IT.

Real-time data delivery is a powerful concept that can fundamentally change enterprise data integration, but it is not always necessary or even desirable in real-world business.

Julian Field, MD, CenterField Software

Yet the relationship is not a game of Command and Conquer being played in corporate boardrooms, but rather a new evolution in the relationship between the two sides to create a symbiotic connection focused on taking the business forward. It is based on the old IT clich'e of creating business value.

With the new relationship come new communications that help each understand the other`s objectives, abilities and limitations. This enlightenment has made the process of working towards a common goal that much simpler because, politics aside, IT and business actually complement each other very well.

Instead of having an endless parade of vendors touting products as solutions for every corporate ill, joint decisions are now made that will enhance business processes and performance. The process has changed slightly; now the actual technology required to make it happen is chosen after the desired outcome has been defined.

For example, vendors and analysts are touting the real-time enterprise as the only way to survive in the future (much as the Internet was a couple of years ago). Joint decisions in the real world, however, are tossing about the choice between a real-time or right-time approach. Real-time data delivery is a powerful concept that can fundamentally change enterprise data integration, but it is not always necessary or even desirable in real-world business. It should only be encouraged if the company`s business processes and requirements indicate it is a necessity.

More realistic is right-time data, the goal being to get the right data to the right people at the right time; in other words, when they need it. Underpinning this argument, and perhaps more important than the real/right debate, is the question of data quality. As organisations and legislation continue to expand and overlap, more data is being created now than ever before and more laws are being promulgated regarding what needs to be done with that information. And that`s even before organisations have decided how to handle their growing stores of data.

Data quality is therefore becoming the Holy Grail of organisations` data integration. IT and business need to sit down and figure out what data is important and what is not; what to do with each category of data and where to store it.

This combined, focused approach is one of the primary reasons we are not seeing a rush to climb on new technical bandwagons. While IT has the vision to see the potential benefits of technology, business now has the IT experience to know it`s a long-term approach that will see results without plundering the corporate treasury. It is no longer necessary to be first.

One hangover from the glory days of mega IT projects is that everyone wants IT projects to succeed, yet nobody is willing to take the plunge and commit resources (and their names) to it. The solution our newly wedded partners have devised is to componentise projects and aim for quick returns: ensure results can be seen and measured in short intervals, giving IT the chance to prove its ideas work while business gets real value almost immediately.

Perhaps the slowdown in spending has not been the result of IT over-reaching itself, but a practical necessity as both sides reconsider where their efforts have brought their companies. The new regime no longer translates technology demands into business necessities, but articulates how business demands translate into necessary IT investments. And at the end of the day, the only winner is the business.