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Dovetail Software Blogs: Services Consume Architecture
“Users want what they want, and even if they can’t specify it in advance, they know it when they experience it. These are IT’s customers. How to make them happy?
The easy answer is to feed them services to consume: network-derived datasets and communications functions pulled from inside or outside the firewall that allow the workers to get their jobs done faster, better, with less eyestrain or brainstrain.”
Business intelligence: The next frontier
“Learning from the user: Campbell says the next challenge for BI tools is learning from users. Today, BI spits out information without much input from users. In the future, that will change. He foresees BI systems incorporating user tags and commentary. “The next generation of BI will be more comfortable understanding unstructured data,” says Campbell. ‘Unstructured data will be as important as structured data.’”
SaaS Best Practices, Part 1: Implementation Checklist
“Then there are those companies that are completely embracing SaaS throughout the enterprise, using it to support more complex CRM processes. Examples might include real time integration of a SaaS application into an enterprise’s back-end or cross-departmental processes.
“For such firms, projections that Gartner released last year may be particularly dismal: Through 2010, 75 percent of complex CRM SaaS deployments will fail to meet enterprise expectations.
”’SaaS is a great option, but some of the implementations a few leading companies are attempting may be too much for the applications—at least at this point,' Kingstone said.”
Burton cautions architects on SaaS
”’The risk is in letting the speed of technological change override business prudence,’ he writes. ‘Just because an enterprise can quickly change system behavior doesn’t mean it should. A “simple, quick change” can wreak havoc if the company doesn’t think it through—if, in the rush to make the change, the enterprise doesn’t consult the affected divisions or check the appropriate regulations. A more apt—and less dramatic—precept would be, “fast is better than slow, as long as implementation speed doesn’t outrun the business need.”’”
How to design and bullet-proof a master data management program, featuring Evan Levy
“Early adopters of master data management (MDM) have reported significant implementation challenges, but say the ultimate results are worth it—making organizations more profitable, productive and competitive. But before mastering master data management, companies often have to overcome many technical and organizational barriers. There are tough questions like “Who owns the data?” and architectural decisions affecting existing applications and infrastructures.”
Four corporate performance management best practices, from end-users and experts
””The issues we encountered were typical,” Smith said, “like not getting good requirements and business [users] expecting changes to be incorporated into the models but not giving us information until late in the process when we were halfway through development.”
“The solution, he found, is staying “100% engaged” with the business departments driving the project. This can be challenging, he acknowledged, especially at smaller companies where employees are juggling many priorities. But it’s critical that IT departments don’t try to develop CPM applications “in a silo,” he said. IT can help business users execute on their vision, but businesspeople need to take full ownership of the project. “
CRM will disappoint without an honest self-assessment
“History has taught that the “big bang” approach to CRM, massive implementations of technology deployed across sales, service and marketing all at once, has proven to be a failure. Instead, organizations looked to smaller, tactical deployments and are now deploying CRM tactically with an eye to long-term goals. Yet that approach has required organizations to be adept at assessing their own business, either when launching a new CRM initiative or trying to jump-start an existing one.”
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