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December 30, 2005

IBM Reshapes The SOA Platform Market

This past September, IBM reshaped the service-oriented architecture (SOA) platform market with a bang with its announcements of WebSphere ESB, WebSphere Process Server, and a new version of the WebSphere Message Broker. Then in October, IBM announced the acquisition of DataPower Technology, adding an XML infrastructure appliance to its SOA platform. Although IBM was already an SOA powerhouse, these moves expand its capabilities and market presence as well as offer customers important new options for implementing SOA. IBM's moves also validate these emerging markets and will accelerate the consolidation of SOA application infrastructure.

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December 27, 2005

Topic Overview: Service-Oriented Architecture

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is a style of design, deployment, and management of software infrastructure and applications to create a more flexible digital embodiment of your business. Characteristics of SOA include a standards-based environment, loosely coupled connections to ease change, shared services, and federated control. SOA evolved as a solution for complex and inflexible application infrastructure; by managing standards, protocols, information delivery, and application integration, IT organizations found that they could save money and increase flexibility through reducing architecture complexity and duplication.

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December 26, 2005

Forrester Partners With ITAA To Measure The Health Of The US IT Industry

The News Is . . . OK Forrester and the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) have created a quarterly index to measure the health of the US technology sector in terms of demand forces like CIO spending outlooks, supply factors like the health of venture capital (VC) funding, and the strength of US-based technology vendors based on revenues, profits, and market valuations. Since we began tracking these data in 2003, the index rose steadily through Q4 2004 and then dipped in early 2005. In Q3, the health of the US tech sector rose 3.9 points to nearly match its three-year high. The largest gains for the quarter occurred in the demand component of the index, and nearly all forward-looking measures were up. While the third quarter's results are reason for optimism about the US tech sector, the saw-tooth pattern for the index over the past year suggests a mix of moderate declines and moderate increases over the coming year.

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December 22, 2005

Trends 2006: Enterprise Risk And Compliance

Today's organizations are moving from the "considering" stage to the "definition" stage of an enterprise risk and compliance program. What are the key drivers of these programs? They include multiple risks and regulations, distributed operations and relationships, interdependency of risk, increased accountability, and awareness of both fragmentation and duplication of efforts. In 2006, firms will establish risk and compliance architectures, develop risk intelligence, and implement GRC platforms, as well as centralized communication and training on corporate policies and procedures. Next year will also see continued evolution of the enterprise role that is responsible for GRC.

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December 20, 2005

Trends In IT Performance Management

An increasing focus on IT governance by boards of directors and executive management puts IT management and the performance of the IT organization under a magnifying glass. IT organizations are increasingly asked to demonstrate the value of IT, vouch for the integrity of the systems and data under their control, simultaneously improve the quality of existing services while reducing their cost, and become a source of enterprise innovation. It is virtually impossible today to meet one of these objectives, let alone all of them, without an effective IT performance measurement and management system in place. Yet many continue to try. In 2006, we will see an increasing number of IT organizations adopt strategic IT performance management frameworks; there really is no other choice.

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December 5, 2005

SAP Acquisition Of Khimetrics Heralds The End Of The Retail Best-Of-Breed Solutions Era

SAP announced the acquisition of Khimetrics, the Arizona-based best-of-breed vendor known for its base pricing solutions. This acquisition sends retailers a strong message regarding SAP's commitment to the retail space. And while it fills in a gap in SAP's retail pricing offering and client base, the ERP vendor will need further augmentation to its retail offering through additional acquisition or in-house development investments. What does this mean for the retail pricing solution market? Does this create a better competitive position for SAP against Oracle, a chance for survival for Khimetrics, the kiss of death for DemandTec and yet another setback for i2 and Manugistics?

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December 3, 2005

IT Strategy Maps: A Tool For Strategic Alignment

Aligning IT and business strategy remains the No. 1 or No. 2 business IT issue year after year. But no matter how much focus and attention this subject receives, little progress seems to be made. Forrester recommends that 1) firms start measuring strategic alignment as part of the "you can't manage what you don't measure" philosophy, and 2) start using strategy maps to build consensus around strategic objectives and communicate this strategy to all stakeholders. By creating a picture of strategic objectives, making strategy visible in a strategy map makes it easier to communicate and drive alignment, thus embodying another familiar philosophy — a picture is worth 1,000 words.

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December 1, 2005

CP Manufacturers' IT Priorities For 2006

Fifty percent of consumer products (CP) manufacturers will increase their IT spending in 2006. More important, manufacturers that spent the past few years reducing fixed IT costs can now afford to prioritize technologies that support top-line growth and customer relationships, including demand management, customer relationship management (CRM), and data-driven collaboration.

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