Organisations failing to optimise enterprise apps

Companies need to maximise the value of enterprise apps deployments

Many organisations are still failing to maximise the value of large-scale enterprise application implementations, according to a new report by Butler Group released today.

The analyst firm's Evolving Enterprise Applications (PDF) report argues that large projects in areas such as enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and supply chain management are not well utilised because of the software's scope and complexity, the cost and difficulty of changing the systems, and the difficulty of knowing how to extract the most value.

Report author Angela Eager argued that companies need to focus on three key areas to address these challenges, the first being to maximise value.

This can be done by looking at extending the applications with additional functionality such as collaboration tools, or by modernising them by switching to a hosted infrastructure, or better aligning IT applications and business strategy.

"Organisations are still struggling to find a common language between IT and the business. IT is good at understanding functionality but not business processes, and business managers know what they need the app to do in their processes but not its functionality," said Eager.

"There needs to be a change in perception and a willingness to look beyond traditional boundaries and, as we move towards processes and service-oriented architecture [SOA], this will help."

Eager also advised firms to also look at maintenance management, and consolidating applications at an architecture and functionality level, along with investing in architectural change to improve agility, such as moving towards an SOA.