Smart MoveIn the next year, analytic functionality will become the primary indicator of packaged enterprise application value
By Sharon Ward Continued from Page 1 If the application only went this far, it would be a useful tool, not a "must-have." But, by using forecasts and budgets to generate business plans, including bottom-line projections, Adaytum also provides a simulation tool that lets users quickly and easily examine the effects of headcount adjustments, product mix changes, and much more. It does so from the users' desktop, without requiring IT intervention or especially techno-savvy users. Expect to see more applications such as Adaytum that go the extra mile in solving specific business problems. Integrated analytics. SAP, Oracle, and PeopleSoft, among others, have realized the value of preintegrating analytics with their applications. By leveraging powerful analytic engines, these vendors have eliminated the need to construct data marts or for end users to understand the data model in detail. By concentrating on making the user interface simple, these applications help typical end users answer complex questions without leaving their familiar operational applications. (See the sidebar, "How Do They Measure Up?") Fearless PredictionsExpect to see analytics become the next great battlefield in enterprise applications. Enterprise vendors have been blurring the lines of functional applications for the last several years; it's increasingly difficult to characterize an application as pure ERP, SCM, or CRM because each now encompasses more and more functionality once clearly defined as the province of one of the other application types. As major enterprise vendors again reach functional parity and begin to approach the functional richness of point solutions, the analytic capabilities of the applications will become a major differentiator. For the immediate future, the edge seems to be going to vendors that provide integrated analytic applications along with their business process-oriented applications. Any enterprise application suite worth its salt will include robust analytic applications. Economic conditions are forcing companies to push responsibility for decisions down the organization and force these decisions to be made rapidly yet carefully. Users will demand better and faster access to information across applications, and they will not settle for simple report writers. Nor will organizational realities allow them to wait for IT to service their information needs. The anything-goes Internet era is gone, and companies are weighing every penny. Nonetheless, enterprises will continue to invest in analytic tools. When packaged applications come with "out of the box" analytics, it makes sense to use them. Vendors are also developing key performance indicators (KPIs) that can be immediately accessed by users through role-based portals. Metrics will become more important than ever. The companies that survive in this extremely competitive climate will be those able to develop the most efficient supply chains while offering the best customer service. Time lost will be everyone's enemy, and seconds shaved off decisions may mean the difference between profit and loss. Users will demand an efficient way to measure the health of the processes under their control and simulate the results of process changes on those metrics. Embedded analytic tools may be the fastest and easiest way to achieve this goal. Conversely, some business processes may span several software applications. For example, marketing campaigns might be stored in SAP's CRM solution, sales orders stored in PeopleSoft, and supply chain information in Oracle's eBusiness Suite. In such instances, a powerful, general-purpose analytic tool may have the best cross-platform integration capabilities. In either case, tools will come prepackaged with integration APIs along with their KPIs to make either scenario as simple as possible. There will also be more emphasis on information stored outside the enterprise. SAP Portals' partnership with Yahoo struck many as somewhat redundant; however, the real power of this partnership derives from Yahoo's expertise in aggregating information from external sources. Users of SAP portals will be able to access stock market, credit, commodity, news, or currency information from within a single viewpoint. What is the benefit to an enterprise? Well, a tornado in the Midwest may affect the price of corn. If the price of corn can make or break a quarter's profitability, users need to be on top of anything that might affect it, even if that information originates externally. Similarly, changes in a key customer's stock valuation may signal a likelihood of cancelled orders. Examples can be made for the value of external information in any industry. To date, most enterprise and analytic applications ignore external information. However, that attitude will change rapidly as organizations begin to recognize the power available to them by integrating this information with their internal business process data. You can also expect the user interface to get more and more straightforward. Users will not be required to know much, if anything, about the structure or location of the underlying data in order to answer questions. Interfaces similar to SAP Portals' Drag&Relate or Oracle's portlets will take the complexity out of asking questions. And that can only be good for users. Sharon Ward [sward@hurwitz.com] is vice president of enterprise applications at Hurwitz Group, an analyst, research, and consulting firm. Ward covers a range of technology areas, including ERP; customer relationship, supply chain, and product life-cycle management; and procurement and strategic sourcing. HOW DO THEY MEASURE UP?ORACLE: PORTLET PRIDE SIEBEL SYSTEMS: SALES SUPPORT ON STEROIDS In October 2001, Siebel acquired nQuire, an analytics vendor known for the power and usability of its "zero footprint" analytics solution. With the release of Siebel 7.0, NQuire became a key component of Siebel Analytics. PEOPLESOFT: NO "NOT INVENTED HERE" SYNDROME PeopleSoft provides role-based portals, similar to user workbenches, which present performance information and key metrics to users in one place, in a format stunning in its visual simplicity. PeopleSoft also understands that despite the breadth of its applications, a great deal of information that may affect a decision is not stored in its own database and shouldn't be. Examples might be a customer's Dun & Bradstreet rating, commodity trading prices, or stock market information. PeopleSoft provides a simple linking ability to allow users easy access to this type of information while making decisions. SAP PORTALS: DRAGGING AND RELATING SAP Portals holds the patent on its Drag&Relate technology, but the concept has proven so useful and simple that many application vendors, including SAP competitor Baan, OEM the technology for its own applications. Expect to see this simple interface, or one like it, take hold in analytic applications targeting business users rather than IT or technical ones. RESOURCESAdaytum: www.adaytum.com Oracle E-Business Suite page: www.oracle.com/applications PeopleSoft applications page: www.peoplesoft.com/corp/en/products/line/index.asp SAP Portals: www.sapportals.com Siebel Analytics page: www.siebel.com/products/analytics/index.shtm Related Articles at IntelligentEnterprise.com: "Analytics on Demand: The Zero Latency Enterprise," Oct. 4, 2001 "Information Impact: Business Analytics Renewed,"
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