It's Back to the Whiteboard to Rethink IT Systems: Gartner to Forecast at Symposium
SYDNEY, Oct 7, 2003 — A new way to deliver IT that will have a dramatic impact on business management and corporate performance over the next 10 years will be revealed at Gartner's Symposium/ITxpo next month.
Gartner (NYSE: IT and ITB), the world's leading IT research company, will unveil Business Process Fusion (BPF) - its view of the future for business applications - in the centrepiece presentation at Symposium.
Leading analyst Simon Hayward will explain how large organisations must adapt to meet the business and technology challenges of the next decade.
Business Process Fusion recognises the trend to integrate distinct IT processes into one system to take the quality of management decision-making to a new level.
"There is a resurgence in people's thinking about business processes," Mr Hayward said. "IT departments are going back and reconsidering in great detail how they can architect systems to meet the demands of new business processes."
Three key factors were driving this rethink:
A new generation of packaged business applications
Emergence of real-time infrastructure providing greater flexibility in use of computing resources; and
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)
Mr Hayward predicted Business Process Fusion would be a key driver for IT investment in most Global 2000 companies by 2007.
"You have to go a step further," Mr Hayward said. "The aim must be to improve business performance that goes beyond passing data between large software applications.
"A new process must be engineered to increase the speed and flow of information but also allow senior management to plan and optimise strategies based on current and accurate data from everywhere in an organisation."
Mr Hayward said Business Process Fusion was the foundation strategy for any organisation working towards the goal of becoming a "real-time enterprise" - the theme of Gartner's Symposium last year.
"The next level for CIOs is to deliver technology that gives business management true control of their organisation," he said.
"This is vital because, in almost every industry sector, someone is trying to change the rules of the game. Dell Inc. is a good example in IT because of its powerful supply chain and sales models, and its ability to adapt these to new opportunities.
"Not every management team is a revolutionary, but each one needs the flexibility and access to real-time data to be able to react to change."
Mr Hayward stressed Business Process Fusion was a business rather than a technology strategy. "I'd put it in the same category as knowledge management or customer relationship management - these are business initiatives underpinned by technology," he said.
Several vendors were moving down the path of Business Process Fusion, said Mr Hayward, who singled out SAP's NetWeaver platform and xApps strategy as one to watch.
Full details of Gartner's new Business Process Fusion model will be revealed by Mr Hayward and other analysts at the 11th Symposium/ITxpo at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour, Sydney, from November 11-14.
Interview opportunities with Mr Hayward and other Gartner analysts are available in the lead-up to Symposium.
Symposium will also feature presentations on:
Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2004;
Future of Windows in the Enterprise;
Enterprise Risk Management for Financial Services;
Return on IT Investment in Government;
Converging Wireless Technologies for the Enterprise;
New Technologies and What It Means for Security;
Emerging Technologies: Radar Screen for 2005-2014;
Plus much more
To organise an interview on Business Process Fusion, please contact Jo Lobban on 61 2 9459 4692 or email
About Gartner:
Gartner, Inc. is the leading provider of
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