2001's 12 Eye-Openers

ERP Comeback. E-procurement, portals, collaborative commerce, and supply-chain projects fueled renewed interest in new offerings and revamped tools from established ERP vendors, while other ERP stalwarts moved into CRM.

New Economy Postmortem. Dot-economy evangelist Don Tapscott and Harvard University business strategist Michael Porter disagreed quite publicly in 2001 on the implications of the dot-com demise with Porter downplaying the Internet's importance. The debate continues on many fronts.

Invisible Data Mining Giant. Economic, political, and technological milestones in 2001 created a compelling case for all organizations, be they business or government, to engage in better data mining and BI practices.

Dollars for Linux. IBM invested millions in Linux technology and research in 2001, mainly to keep Microsoft and Sun Microsystems on edge, but also to reap the benefits of working with open-source code. Other companies swiftly followed suit.

Lumbering On. Computer Associates (CA) struggled in 2001 with an antitrust case, a hostile Texan takeover bid, and escalating complaints about poor customer service and mediocre products. CEO Sanjay Kumar hopes to turn CA around with new technology and pricing.

Behind the .Net Veil. In 2001, Microsoft introduced its .Net Web services initiative under the aegis of "shared source." However, .Net's proprietary, Windows-centric technologies may make it another attempt to jinx the Linux crowd.

Business Inflexibility. Startups who set up shop in record "Internet time" scrambled to retool their business models in 2001's declining economy. Many didn't make it, leaving behind their "old economy" rivals — still slouching toward the promise of e-commerce.

Information Integration Failure. The September 11th tragedies that took America completely by surprise highlighted the critical need for faster and better coordination among business, transportation, energy, healthcare, intelligence, communications, and law enforcement groups, to name a few.

Microsoft's OLAP-XML Traction. Microsoft and Hyperion made OLAP data analysis waves by jointly releasing the XML for Analysis specification, which could compete with the Java for OLAP standard promoted by Hyperion, IBM, Oracle, and Sun.

Siebel Goes Analytic. Siebel Systems Inc. took on BI and analytics in a big way through its acquisition of nQuire Software Inc. in late 2001. Siebel is adding nQuire Server to its new thin-client Siebel 7 platform.

National ID Cards. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison reignited the national ID card controversy by urging U.S. officials to require citizens to carry ID cards. Oracle and the rest of Silicon Valley would certainly benefit from such a major federal IT project.

Smart Devices. The advent of smart shelves, smart cards, and smart products opened up a world of BI possibilities for collecting customer information, managing supply chains, manufacturing, and logistics; but "smart" privacy protection has yet to be sorted out.

— Claudia Willen

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