Run The Real Roadblock 2Run The Real Roadblock 2

There's a big difference between using real-time applications and running a real-time business. An on-site survey of 85 business-technology executives attending the information Fall Conference in Tucson, Ariz., last month showed that just over a quarter of the respondents say they've already developed technology projects or process changes that will yield real-time business decision-making capabilities. What's the holdup? Integration--27% of respondents say linking front-office and back-office applications is their highest priority.

Companies are earmarking an average of 14% of their total IT budgets for integration and Web-services tools to support real-time business, according to the survey. Not surprisingly, vendors are trying to fill that need. IWay Software, an Information Builders company, last week said it has created customized iWay Intelligent Adapters--software components that connect to packaged applications, data, or middleware--that will be packaged with BEA Systems Inc.'s WebLogic Integration tools.

Many companies are still doing the difficult business of integration on their own. KeyCorp, a banking and financial-services company with $83 billion in total assets, has been working to get real-time application integration since 1996, when the company built proprietary middleware to tie its sales platform to back-end mainframe systems. Ever since, the company has been working to enable various functions to be performed in real time, something that's hardly done in an instant, says Michael Dunn, VP of enterprise architecture at KeyCorp.

The bank is in the early stages of upgrading its infrastructure to XML and Web services. And KeyCorp is taking advantage of an online delivery system it built to work around the fact that some customer-facing apps pull information from a data warehouse that's updated through batch processes overnight. The system serves as a virtual data warehouse for information collected throughout the day, so a customer looking for account information in the afternoon will see a transaction that took place that morning.

Motorola Inc. is also trying to build a real-time business, and integrating apps across Motorola's various business sectors is a priority, says Toby Redshaw, corporate VP of IT strategy, E-business, and business development at the communications and electronics company. But building a real-time business is more complicated than most companies anticipate. "There are huge tactical problems because it involves complicated data architecture and multiple people playing together to get things done, all in a time when IT budgets are tight," he says.

Motorola is building an enterprise architecture map, so IT staffers can see how often applications are being used, how they're related, and what it would take to integrate them to form a real-time environment.

Like KeyCorp, Motorola has been prioritizing which processes to move to real time and which can wait. Supply-chain systems were among the first to make the transition. "If something changes in the supply chain, you've got to be able to take action on data in real time," Redshaw says.

Next up for real-time treatment are the company's financial systems--but Redshaw isn't prepared to make that happen without a lot of thought: "Doing that without a complete plan is impossible."