Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Beyond Management Tools
Beyond Management Tools
Beyond Management Tools
JANUARY 2000
2 I N T E RV I E W S
• IT is busy with the basics.
• Managing dynamic trade isn’t on the radar.
Headquarters
7 A N A LY S I S
Forrester Research, Inc.
• Today’s management tools will fall short of requirements
400 Technology Square for managing dynamic trade.
Cambridge, MA 02139 USA • Transaction management services will eclipse today’s
management tools by 2005.
617 / 497-7090
1075 AW Amsterdam
Netherlands 17 R E L AT E D M AT E R I A L
+31 (0)20 305 43 00
Copyright © 2000, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Forrester and Technographics are registered trademarks of Forrester
Research, Inc. eResearch is a trademark of Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies.
Forrester clients may make one attributed copy or slide of each table contained herein. Additional reproduction is strictly prohibited.
For additional reproduction rights and usage information, go to www.forrester.com. Information is based on best available resources.
Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change.
Beyond Management Tools
INTERVIEWS
2
I N T E RV I E W S
“The biggest operations headache right now is just trying to get a handle
on network management. The tools we are using are not sufficient. We are
concentrating on analyzing traffic and packet routing right now using NT
server utilities. It’s a real mess.” (Food company)
Operational processes
22%
Other
6%
N/A
Don‘t know 6%
2%
Yes
32%
No
60%
2-2 “If you had to manage more service vendors, would that change the way you
resolve problems?”
Don‘t know
6%
No Yes
32% 62%
Extranet 44%
Apps development 4%
Installation 4%
All of IT 4%
Other 10%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
“If we had more service providers we’d have to manage operations differently. 5
I think we’d have to develop a separate business unit to manage subcontractors.
I don’t think we’d invest in any other tools -- it would be up to the subcontractors
to provide us with status and access to reports.” (Petroleum refining company)
“I think all of the tools are going to become more Web-enabled, especially in
commerce transactions. In the future, we will have more insight into providers’
processes, will be able to get better accuracy of billing, and will do this all through
the Web.” (Manufacturing company)
“If we had three vendors providing related services, we’d need a new manager to
understand who was responsible for what and to solve problems reliably. Say we
had an external eCommerce site we communicated with over our normal AT&T
extranet and our bank wasn’t receiving payments -- I’m not sure that we’d have
the skills to troubleshoot the problem.” (Chemicals company)
“We are talking about integrating accounts payable, accounts receivable, and
payroll into operations management, but we would only really be in charge of
the connections to the back-end systems. In the future, I think there really needs
to be a better commitment to standards. People will soon be using Web and
XML-based tools, which will make it a whole lot easier to analyze data.”
(Forrest products company)
6 Figure 3 Non-IT Service Providers Are Under The Radar For Users
“Have you ever considered integrating non-IT subcontractors into your coordinated
operations management?”
Don‘t know
2%
Yes
24%
No
74%
CONCLUSIONS
Based on our interviews with Global 2,500 firms, Forrester concludes that:
• Firms expect they will be able to manage external service providers. Despite
little assistance from today’s management tools, our interviewees believe they
can handle more service providers.
A N A LY S I S 7
• Experiment. Until 2001, companies will focus their energies on adapting existing
business practices to the early eCommerce environment of the Internet.
• Deconstruct. Between 2001 and 2004, firms will re-evaluate the ways they
run their businesses and slice and dice their business processes into configurable
elements.
• Reinvent. After 2004, leading corporations will have more agile and flexible
business operations built around an Internet core. Those processes will operate
in real time, be externally focused, sport transparent partner relationships, and
employ service providers for many business functions.
• Change will accelerate. As dynamic trade allows firms to run faster, change
business direction on a dime, and interconnect easily with third parties, today’s
“Internet time” will feel like the 1800s. By 2005, deals and transactions that used
to take months to negotiate will happen in hours.
Reinvent
Transforming for the
Internet economy
Dynamic Deconstruct
trade Preparing for the
voyage interconnected world
Experiment
Adapting existing
business to the Net
10 suppliers, it will want to trace accountability for the problem back to the wiring
supplier that didn’t meet Ford’s environmental spec.
• Competitors and a need for speed will force adoption. Early adopters of
dynamic trade will not only still be in business -- they will also flourish. In spite
of corporate fears that these transaction services are too new, when competitors
that use them start grabbing market share, executives will jump on the
management services bandwagon to avoid being left in the dust.
12 • Fears of litigation will not materialize. Some firms will fear unexpected legal
risk and resist using repositories. But eMarketplaces’, ASPs’, and ISPs’ litigation
issues closely parallel those of transaction management services, and the legal
world will have had five years to work out any kinks.
• Proven security processes and auditing will establish trust. Repositories will
employ stable security processes like VeriSign’s certified practices and deploy
security systems like Hewlett-Packard’s VirtualVault to convince corporate buyers
of their trustworthiness. Smart repository startups will engage a Big Five auditor
like PricewaterhouseCoopers to certify their operation while they build a proven
track record.
• Map system failures to business impact. New management tools must connect
changes in infrastructure status to events that a COO or VP of eCommerce
cares about. If the T1 connection to credit card processor CyberSource fails,
management tools must be able to flag the event as: “We can’t process orders
on the Web site!”
• Tools that measure Internet flows. Keynote has created a global network of
monitoring stations to measure and analyze Internet performance data from the
end user perspective. Tools like HP’s OpenView will tap into Keynote’s
information as well as that of other established software products -- making sure
it can be gathered and reported over the Internet.
• Systems that determine how failures affect business. Firms like Micromuse
made names for themselves by discovering how to figure out that the 12,000
failures being reported by a monitoring system resulted from a single power
outage -- not 12,000 separate failures. They and firms like Aprisma will extend
this event correlation facility to relate events to business impact -- if the power
failure brought down the networks that finance uses, the system knows that
accounts payable functions aren’t available -- and also knows who to tell.
Firms Must Plan To Put Tools On Life Support When Services Arrive
By the end of 2004, companies that have aggressively deconstructed their companies
for dynamic trade will awaken to a harsh reality: They need to keep their tools alive even
after services evolve. Why?
• Companies still need technical views into external systems. While transaction
management will tell a firm that its transaction processing processes are falling
behind those of its competitors, it won’t tell them why. If the problem is with your
infrastructure partners, you’ll still need legacy management tools to figure out the
root causes of the problem.
ACTION 15
Dynamic trade may seem a long way off. But preparing for it can make today’s
operations more effective. Here’s how:
16
W H AT I T M E A N S
R E L AT E D M AT E R I A L 17
Related Research
October 1999 Forrester Report “Organizing For eCommerce”
October 1999 Forrester Report “Sizing eCommerce Services”
October 1999 Forrester Report “The Digital Business”
September 1, 1999 Forrester Brief “Engine Rooms Of The Internet Economy”
June 1999 Forrester Report “Dynamic Trade Voyage”
April 1999 Forrester Report “Outsourcing’s Future”
April 1999 Forrester Report “A Rational Approach To XML”
January 1999 Forrester Report “Driving IT’s Externalization”
January 1999 Forrester Report “Dynamic Trading Networks”
March 1998 Forrester Report “Making Outsourcing Work”
18
GRAPEVINE
Big honkin’ server. No reserve.
Earlier this month, Sun announced that it had begun selling brand-new servers on eBay,
an auction site better known for peddling Beanie Babies and Elvis figurines. What was
the server giant thinking? Apparently, the firm was just testing the waters -- and has no
plans to use the site as a major distribution channel. Good call. Selling complex, high-
end hardware via eBay is like pitching new BMWs at the local flea market -- you may
sell a few, but most buyers will balk at writing a huge check to an anonymous seller.
……
……
……
R
E
S
JANUARY 2000
E
Beyond Management Tools
A
P E R F O R AT I O N
R
C
By Frank Prince
H
With Carl D. Howe
O
Meaghan Cussen
N
A LO N G
T
O
T E A R
A
C
QUICK VIEW
O
L
L
Today’s system management tools will hit the wall when
E
A
G
companies reinvent themselves for dynamic trade. Firms
U
E
should plan for new Net-native management services
starting in 2005.
I N T E RV I E W S
• IT is busy with the basics.
• Managing dynamic trade isn’t on the radar.
A N A LY S I S
• Today’s management tools will fall short of requirements
for managing dynamic trade.
• Transaction management services will eclipse today’s
management tools by 2005.
ACTION
• Prepare for cross-company transactions.
W H AT I T M E A N S
• Management services companies won’t buy tools from
traditional management vendors.
Forrester Research, Inc. 400 Technology Square, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA 617/497-7090 Fax 617/613-5000
Forrester Research B.V. Emmaplein 5, 1075 AW Amsterdam, Netherlands +31 (0) 20 305 43 00 Fax +31 (0) 20 305 43 33
www.forrester.com
ACTION
Dynamic trade may seem a long way off. But preparing for it can make today’s
operations more effective. Here’s how: