So here it is: the start of 2004. Probably not as important as the start of the new financial year, but it is still a good time to begin thinking about your business's IT strategy for the year.
In a time of IT consolidation and retrenchment, it is surprising how much change has happened over the past two years. Perhaps the most important development - and one that will mean the most change for IT departments - is the concept of "service-oriented architectures". Instead of looking at discrete applications, service-oriented architectures see applications as collections of discrete communicating services that can be wrapped up in a workflow to support a business process.
If there is one thing you should do this year, it is to seriously consider how this approach can help your business. It is the process view that is the key to the success of the service model, as it means a much closer relationship between a business and its IT functions. Don't just dive in head first, though. It is important to have as accurate a model of your company's business processes as possible before you start to define the services your systems can offer. Process modelling is a complex procedure and can take time, especially when you have to deal with tortuous information flows. Diagram tools such as Microsoft Visio and the eponymous SmartDraw will help capture and display the details of your business process.
Like most good IT ideas, service-oriented architectures are a refinement of tools and technologies that have been around for some time. Software components aren't a new idea, and neither are workflow systems. Service models come from the combination of these ideas with a common data format in the shape of XML and XML schemas, along with open web service standards. It is wise to be careful, as development tools are still in their early stages, and it will be some time before the standards bodies come up with a way of describing services and service platforms, along with delivering the management tools they will need.
Machine room consolidation may have made some tasks easier, but it has also brought to the fore the number of different systems businesses use. There's no such thing as a single platform - especially when you take into account the increasing number of storage appliances in use. Any consolidation plan should also be seen as an opportunity to roll out a new set of management tools. If you haven't invested in a single management tool, now is as good a time as any. Industry standards are starting to deliver the tools needed for cross-platform management.
At the very least, a management suite should make it easier to control and manage the many security patches and updates you will need to deliver over the next year. It should also help you keep more control of your IT assets - from licences to storage and processing power. Reporting tools should also help you link IT decisions to business needs, by identifying critical systems, and helping prioritise services, and determine investment returns for upgrades and new development projects. It is a big help when asking the board for new hardware and software if you can tell them exactly what effects upgrades will have on company cash flow!
IT strategy is about more than the machine room and your servers, and a significant portion of any spend is going to be on your desktop systems. This year is likely to be a year when many companies refresh their desktop hardware, and it is also a year where workhorse operating systems such as Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 98 disappear.
One option is to start planning a migration to Windows 2003 and Windows XP - especially with the arrival of security enhancements in Windows XP Service Pack 2. Windows isn't the only desktop option. Further releases of Sun's Linux-based Java Desktop System will add management features that will make it a plausible alternative to Windows desktops, and will make it possible to extend the life of existing hardware.
There's much more you can do. Think about your storage strategy, especially in light of the current regulatory environment. Then there are your web applications. Are you supporting the browsers everyone is using, or have you missed a sudden change, such as Apple's release of its OS X browser Safari, which could disenfranchise possible customers? It is probably a good idea to take a look at your mobility strategy. Could smartphones and similar devices make it easier for your sales force to stay in contact with your CRM systems?
Too many businesses see IT as a money pit that eats cash and delivers little visible business value. The IT industry trends of the past few years go a long way to changing that view of IT, giving business and IT the tools they need to speak a common language, and to build solutions that support the whole business.
There's a lot happening in the world of IT. Perhaps the best resolution you can make for 2004 is to keep asking questions about how technology can make it easier for your company to do business and to keep making money.
