Computer systems power businesses. A common question and issue faced by many businesses is how best to invest in their computer applications. Of course, you want to invest as little as possible for the biggest bang possible.
While the most flexible solution is to write and own your own system – so it works exactly how you want it to – that approach may not be the most effective use of technology for your enterprise. Owning the code means that you pay for all the bugs and all the fixes and all the upgrades to that software. The same could be said for where your applications are hosted – on premise or at a hosting provider. Do you need to own your server hardware and Internet bandwidth? There are pros/cons and tradeoffs of any approach.
Packaged applications (either on-demand or on-premise) today, are being made available in a more modular fashion on all available operating systems and platforms. And with the advent of Web Services, the platform question doesn’t need to be a driver of your selection (for example, you don't have to have everything written in .NET or in the same language). It’s possible to more easily integrate disparate systems and put together a “composite application” that will provide business benefit more easily than at any time in the past.
The issue is that we (technologists) hype different technologies, like Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), and get enamored with the technology, and forget that without effective implementations, that technology will never produce anything of value. Hence the recent post “SOA enters the trough of disillusionment” – you bet – because it’s not about the technology.
We forget that the technology itself will never provide the “silver bullet” that companies have been hoping will arrive, for as long as I can remember. The true silver bullet is the work that is done to intelligently leverage available technologies into the applications that benefit the business, and deliver the intended results. It's all in how you use the technology.
What’s still needed is the strategy and the overall blueprint of an organization and how it can utilize technology from the available options – how much custom code is necessary? Where should an organization invest to get the best leverage for their business? And this sort of strategy requires thought – but doesn’t need to take forever, which is another concern of most business people – analysis paralysis.
The bottom line is that effective applications are delivered when the IT projects and processes are managed thoughtfully – when business users are getting what they need, and being more efficient and effective in accomplishing their strategies.
Why the success of the on-demand vendors like Sales Force dot com? Because they deliver what is of value to the business in recording and utilizing the information they need – quickly and effortlessly. They have implemented technology effectively, delivering results to the business units using their “software as a service” model.
I’ll leave you with the post from Mitch Betts blog post at Computerworld:
- to me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions.
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