What is the most useful technological
development for smoothing out the IT integration process? The advent
and use of service oriented architectures (SOA) and Web services has
certainly been the most exciting development in the IT integration
arena. The ability to create standardized interfaces on top of
legacy systems can greatly simplify the overall integration effort.
Building and integrating systems using XML based Web services
interfaces is one of the challenging IT integration processes, but
it is the ultimate approach during any organizational integration
projects.
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in a solution – no matter what platforms, languages, data models,
storage architectures, network protocols, or other technologies
those underlying parts use. Ensemble reduces the complexity
typically associated with integration projects, incorporates
services and data as needed into different business processes, and
drastically reduces time to solution.
IT CONSULTING:
Business Intelligence (BI) Solutions:
Organizations need BI solutions that are easy to use
for the entire user population, especially those in
the bottom portion of the usability pyramid. In
addition, they need a solution that mitigates
multiple versions of the truth by providing access
to a common source of enterprise information and
standardized report generation methods. A BI
platform is the answer to all of these requirements.
A
BI platform leverages BI tools along with other
technologies, including databases, data integration,
and portals to provide an end-to-end solution for a
defined business problem or set of business problems
that can be termed a BI application. While BI
platforms are implemented by IT professionals, their
end result, the BI application, is designed for
business users.
Organizations have been led to believe that BI
platforms are too complex for their needs. This
couldn’t be further from the truth. When you
consider the data integration, warehousing, and
end-user training costs associated with BI tools, a
BI application built on a BI platform has about the
same time to market as a BI tool. And end users
embrace easy-to-use BI applications as part of their
day-to-day routine, which is arguably the most
critical success factor of any application.
This is why BI platforms have far greater success
than BI tools. The fact is that most non-technical
business users can and will access information
through BI applications, which are much simpler to
use than BI tools. BI applications leverage
reporting technology, Web browsers, and e-mail to
make information more accessible to these business
users in a comfortable, easy-to-use environment.
For example, today’s parameter-driven BI
applications provide users a simple Web interface to
navigate to the report they want, much the same way
they would find an item on eBay or a book on Amazon.
BI applications allow users to easily customize the
report by selecting options from pull-down menus the
same way they would fill in their address and select
their home state or a shipping option from a
drop-down list.
Information Builders’
WebFOCUS, a business intelligence platform, is
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exactly these types of applications. Click
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