Enterprise journey - managing the transition to enterprise systems - Open Files - column

Have you noticed how the term "enterprise-wide systems" is being used with increasing frequency in the trade press these days? If you have, then you have probably also noted that it is like the first stirring before a storm . . . a prevailing sense of something happening but you can't quite put your finger on what it is.

We are seeing many signs that something big, in fact something "enterprise-wide," is brewing in the realm of information management.

Two definitions seem to capture the concept's spirit. First, an enterprisewide information system ("enterprise system" for short) enables everyone in an organization to share the same information. Second, an enterprise system allows all computing resources to operate as one integrated system. The focus is on integration of the information system with the enterprise itself.

The integrated enterprise--regions, departments, sections and workgroups, suppliers and customers--can operate more effectively as a single entity. The parts cooperate closely to further the whole. Goals, instructions and feedback about performance and progress toward goals must be effectively communicated. The system itself must aid this communication.

Individuals and units with the organization must have access to the same information and services. The enterprise system provides the mechanism for cooperative work. As a result, the enterprise benefits from a unified system, available to all employees, ensuring uniform access to information services.

THE REALITY TODAY

This may--make that will--require new technologies. Lots of work still needs to be done. Today, only the very beginnings of enterprise systems are real.

Beneath the surface of information systems today are six key points:

* The pace of globalization in the world of business is accelerating.

* Enterprises need better information about markets, customers, competitors, technologies, quality and performance.

* Enterprises need to integrate through information and communication systems.

* The evolution of hardware, networks and software is providing the technical means to meet the business requirements.

* IS professionals tend to focus on pieces--Case tools, relational databases, or specific development projects--rather than the big picture of how to manage information resources strategically.

* IS professionals face the following major problem: how to develop reliable, integrated systems quickly.

Enterprisewide systems have not yet begun to be widely implemented, and have not emerged as a clearly focused subject of interest, because no one knows how to manage them.

Technology is becoming more powerful, but systems that support the distribution of resources and the integration of people are substantially more complex than anything we have had in the past.

Partial answers are being explored: computer-aided software engineering, information engineering, software reuse, rapid application development, open systems interoperability, client/server processing, new internetworking schemes, strategic planning and new ways of managing organization change. These must be managed on the whole.

The practice of understanding the information assets, and aligning them with the business goals, is what I refer to as information strategy.

Most organizations have three basic types of information resources:

* information services, which provide applications for processing, storage, retrieval, transmission and presentation;

* information infrastructure--the hardware, software, networks, people, facilities and underlying capabilities that support the delivery of information services; and

* information itself, which is communicated as goals, instructions, feedback and other facts written, spoken or visually presented.

These resources are different in their purpose and life cycle, so each must be managed differently through the information systems architecture.

The architecture sets expectations for users and staff. It controls the technical direction of the enterprise, and aims to solve problems of systems integration and faster systems development. The architecture provides a purposeful way of thinking about information resources.

Applications developed for the information infrastructure must plug into the mechanisms for information exchange and consistency of operation. And they must work cooperatively with systems management applications.

MORE WORK TO DO

The movement to open systems, through the adoption of standards such as OSI and methods such as information engineering, is heading in the right direction. Much more work needs to be done, though. It will be many years before off-the-shelf products are available, and robust and proven enough to provide the underlying services for a highly integrated, complete enterprise-wide infrastructure.

In the information age, business is totally dependent on the quality of its information resources. The management of these resources must be integral to business management, and business strategy must include information strategy.

Strategic information planning must include choices in technical direction. The implementation plan has to allow for a transition from today's base of nonintegrated legacy systems and limited, proprietary infrastructures.

Producing the ultimate information system will require us tolearn, grow, solve, create, build, teach manage and evolve. The journey to enterprise systems will be a story of managing change, managing technology and making business better at what it does.

Posch is on the technical staff of Covia Technologies, Englewood, Colo. He has more than 20 years experience in all aspects of information management, and he is the chairman of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Society for Information Management (SIM), which recently hosted an "Enterprise-wide Systems" conference.

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