Building BedrockBuilding Bedrock

Successful performance management hinges on strong integration and information management.

April 19, 2004

3 Min Read

The area of integration management has seen many advances as a result of the competition between two vendors, Ascential Software and Informatica. This rivalry has set the agenda for the rest of the integration software market, which has begun to converge on application and data integration.

Vendors also are beginning to converge on EII. Because many of the larger vendors' efforts in this area are incomplete and too complicated to provide on-demand information access to disparate systems, line-of-business (LOB) executives are exploring new approaches to access operational systems. Many innovative vendors are seizing on this new interest by shifting their marketing away from IT and directly to these executives, who can more rapidly justify new information technologies. The innovations addressing LOB concerns by companies such as Avaki, Composite Software, and others signal a return to the fundamentals missing in the majority of the industry.

As these new suppliers force the larger vendors to rethink their integration-management strategies, companies still must deal with the resulting information-management challenges.

Unfortunately, database-management suppliers still aren't completely addressing information management (which is why I still call them databases and not information-management platforms). Although many of these vendors have sophisticated capabilities, they lack the simple methods to manage information across the enterprise. Those of you who spend time managing the logical and physical models in these DBMS stores know what I'm talking about.

In this environment, suppliers such as Teradata, which provides an overall collection of integration and information management capabilities, and Kalido, which is neutral to platform, integration, and performance management in the way it provides the basics of information life-cycle management, have found fertile ground for growth. Kalido developed a product that can rapidly reduce the amount of time IT needs to manage business requests for data model changes.

Kalido's strategic partnerships with Ascential Software and Business Objects is a great example of how an ecosystem of providers in integration, information, and performance management can team together to bring a sophisticated solution framework for business and IT.

These are just a few examples of where integration and information management are beginning to advance and offer new opportunities to your performance management initiative. I strongly advise that you look at the existing challenges facing your IT organization, including the challenges brought on by outsourcing initiatives, and then examine integration and information management more thoroughly. By simplifying your enterprise efforts and leveraging centers of excellence, you'll bring new competencies that can be leveraged throughout your business that will more easily drive performance management to be a reality in your enterprise.

MARK SMITH is the CEO and senior vice president of research at Ventana Research, an advisory services and research firm providing insight and education on best practices and technology in performance management.