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 Winter 2008/2009
Overview
This issue of Technology Forecast explores the future of enterprise applications and their role in creating a foundation for agility in an era of accelerating change. We offer a three layer framework and rationale for extending the capabilities of enterprise applications further into management of the business to bridge the gap between strategy and operations. In the three layer framework, operational applications focus on efficiencies and enforcing standards in process and structured data. The business management applications focus on flexibility and offer analysis, modeling, collaboration, and decision support for evolving strategy and policy. The interaction between the two types of applications is enabled by an information mediation layer that reconciles semantic differences and creates an operational connection between the two. All together they will balance standardization with flexibility and will deliver significant competitive advantage in the pursuit of higher performance, agile strategies, and agile behavior.
Crossing the big divide between strategy and operations
The gap between strategy and operations is a significant barrier to the pursuit of agility. This article examines a quandary for management: every investment in standardizing for efficient operations comes at the cost of adaptability in the face of change. Enterprise applications are the backbone of standardization and efficiency, and as a result they're not particularly designed for flexibility. We suggest how an information mediation layer will be key to operationalizing agility by creating an enduring and responsive connection between strategy and operations so that changes in one are reflected in the other.
Rise of business management applications
A new generation of applications focused on closing the strategy-operations gap are emerging. We forecast these business management applications will define one part of an emerging three-layer framework that integrates operational and emerging applications via an information mediation layer of structured and unstructured information. The article explains how the emerging capabilities of these applications are crucial to closing the gap between strategy and operations in pursuit of agility.
Closing the strategy-operations gap: two examples
Two examples show the agility-oriented three-layer application environment in use and how emerging characteristics of business management applications enable agility in accounting fraud detection and information lifecycle management in an era of extreme collaboration. Each example highlights the advanced capabilities the specific application demonstrates that are representative of business management applications.
Get your copy here
Read more by downloading our Technology forecast - Winter 2008/2009 (pdf file, 1.1MB) for your reference.
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