Rising to the challenge of modern systems

With new technologies springing up at a prodigious rate, IT managers are under pressure. Modernisation can pose a massive problem for business IT. How can companies keep on top of new developments while ensuring their existing infrastructure operates smoothly?

IT can seem like an uphill struggle at times – feeling more like you are a hamster on a wheel which turns faster the harder you run. The more capabilities your team has, the more your users come to expect.

Conducting business operations manually in the modern market is unthinkable – so why the constant complaints about IT being expensive and slow to change?

Do users not remember the time before email, order systems, Internet and automation?

It is unthinkable to revert to pre-IT ways. Perhaps business users are too influenced by technology in the home. There, if you want the latest gizmo, you can simply buy it and replace the old one. Sadly, in business, it’s not so simple.

The main problem for businesses is that after years of buying and developing multiple systems, they have a complex mix of applications connected by spaghetti-like integration.

These applications are often reliable but lack flexibility to keep up with changing business demands. Consequently, business is held back not by the technology but by the effort required to make risk-free changes.

Ultimately, business processes break down. Customer service weakens, costs rise faster than revenues and innovation is strangled.

The manufacturing industry faced similarly disjointed applications nearly a century ago. Henry Ford created the first integrated production line where granular and repeatable tasks cut car production time to two hours from 14.

The components were the same but the processes different. Manufacturing continues to lead the way, with its Six Sigma and Lean principles becoming common in other industries.

This is putting even greater strain on IT managers. So far, IT companies have responded to such modernisation demands mainly by supplying new software, of course.

Business Process Management Systems (BPMS) abound and are heavily marketed around the principles of Six Sigma and the promise of infinitely flexible, drag-and-drop business change.

But results from BPMS can be mixed and many failures lurk behind the success stories.

While excellent in theory, without the knowledge and rules that have been embedded in systems built over decades, new management systems are liable to fail to deliver.

The key to success lies in modernisation through opening up existing systems and ensuring that BPMS technology can cope with existing infrastructures.

That is what is driving the rapid growth in the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) market right now.

BPMS can add to system complexity unless tightly coupled with existing technology. Vendors are realising this, hence the consolidation of BPMS and SOA companies. Those that can’t do both will struggle to survive.

Jim Close is senior vice-president and UK country manager at Software AG