Tech Storms for the Enterprise, 2004

Research agencies, analyst firms, and strategic consultants–all are

essential power-brokers in today’s global knowledge economy. These companies

crunch numbers that quantify the unquantifiable, project the way markets would

behave, and give unique insights into the way business works–all adding to the

body of business knowledge. Forrester Research is one such analyst organization

delivering a unique combination of data and analysis that provides unified

guidance on customers, business strategies, and technology investments.

Forrester’s arsenal has also been enhanced with its recent acquisition of the

Giga Research Group.

Therefore, when George F Colony, the founder CEO of Forrester Research was in

Mumbai recently for a seminar organized by Dataquest and Cyber India Online for

a select CIO group, there was much excitement among the audience. Forrester’s

presentation was interspersed with insights and colorful analogies, and provided

a perspective on the future relationship between business and technology.

“Most organizations today face the problem of a fragmented infrastructure, which makes their technology frameworks unnecessarily expensive and terribly underutilized” George F Colony, CEO, Forrester Research

Impending Thunderstorms



Disseminating on the technology evolution cycle down the ages, Colony

described different landmarks like the growth of PCs, workstations and the

Internet as technology thunderstorms. So what would be the next set of

thunderstorms? "Extended Internet, executable Internet, organic IT, and

lastly Web services," Colony said. While he gave 2004 as the coming of age

for extended Internet and Web services, Colony said that executable Internet and

organic IT would come into full fruition as chosen enterprise technologies by

2005.

Though the Forrester predictions on executable and extended Internet sound

revolutionary, going by current trends they seem to be more or less on track.

Executable Internet would work on the premise of a dynamic, interactive Web

instead of its current static, non-interactive environment. Marc Andressen, one

of the founders of the Internet even calls Web a dead technology. "Today,

most power sits on the server and not on the PC, but in tomorrow’s scenario,

both server and PC will have a very high IQ. Even Microsoft’s .Net really

looks very much like executable Internet." The principle of executable

Internet, opines Colony, has already been adopted by AOL and even the infamous

Napster.

As regards extended Internet, Colony predicts that different devices like

handhelds, vehicles, machines, home appliances, consumer items will become

Web-enabled. In fact, by 2010 there could be 14 billion devices connected to the

Net and $2.7 trillion worth of total investments would have been made on this

extended Internet. Organizations like Michelin (chip in tyres), Delta Airlines

(instrumentation devices) and University of Alabama (medical devices) have

already implemented the initial concept of extended Internet.

However, the two areas where Forrester predictions cause certain skepticism,

especially in the Indian scenario, are Web services and organic IT. While the

advantages of Web services are now widely acknowledged, many still see it as

Microsoft hype: Redmond selling its .Net services. This is a view that Colony

too subscribes to. But he suggests that successful implementations will happen

ignoring all such hype. Unfortunately, not many players in India have adopted it

beyond some showcase pilot projects. Which is indeed a pity when one considers

that Web services can become tomorrow’s digital language for easy

communication between companies or divisions and organizations like Amazon and

UPS have already taken a lead in it.

Even organic IT looks a non-starter for now in India. Typically, most

organizations today face the problem of a fragmented infrastructure, which makes

their technology frameworks unnecessarily expensive and terribly under-utilized.

Technologies like IBM’s on-demand computing are forms of organic IT, but going

by the speed of their adoption, a date of 2005 looks highly optimistic even from

the global point of view, forget India.

Know your Nakedness



Though Colony’s emphasis on ‘Naked Technologies’ holds lots of

relevance for Indian companies, it is now an oft-repeated prediction and there

is no novelty left about it. Basically, this reiterates that it is crucial to

invest only in a technology that’s imperative and compatible with the business

and process changes in the organization. This, however, is a grim reality that

most Indian companies have also understood after the dot-com bloodbath and the

subsequent slump. That companies not following this pattern will be lower on RoI

is no rocket science to understand.

Colony’s assertion that TCS, Infosys and Wipro are the three Indian

companies best countering the ‘Naked Technologies’ phenomenon is nothing new–the

year-on-year increasing bottomlines of these companies are enough testimonial to

this. What is more interesting is his statement that Wipro is strategically

best-placed amongst these three, especially after its acquisition of the

Boston-based tech consultant American Management Systems.

Understanding Corporate Relevance



Even Forrester’s recommendations on corporate governance and well-run IT

companies might be slightly unrealistic to implement for Indian standards,

though in no way it should denigrate their efficacies. Colony talks about ‘managing

the IT iceberg’ wherein he recommends that a company should standardize the

processes across its operations. "It should at least standardize basics

like e-mail and workstations." He cites an example to bolster his point:

Chrysler earlier had 15 e-mail systems but after acquisition by Daimler it has

only one, which has led to much higher RoI. However, most Indian companies,

including even the biggies, who purely rely on offshoring, can hardly implement

such a standardized system. This is because most of the outsourcing clients from

developed First World nations are reluctant to do so.

Regarding corporate governance, Colony stresses the need for awareness about

the business process of the company and that too across all the tiers. To

illustrate this, Colony uses colorful anologies about ties (the top management),

turtlenecks (the marketing people) and tee-shirts (the tech department) working

together.

And it is no more a secret among even Indian companies that unless the

management, marketing and the technology teams do not work in sync, there is

disaster waiting round the corner. Finally, that it should be a top-down

approach with the CEO driving the exercise, is also known to India Inc. A more

revolutionary recommendation is that if necessary a CIO should overrule the CEO

or the CFO.

Rajneesh De in Mumbai

Forrestor’s Jargon Buster

Technology Thunderstorms: The momentous technology events that

occurred down the ages throughout the technology evolution cycle. Colony

earmarks the coming of PCs, workstations, and the Internet as some of these

thunderstorms.

XInternet: Stands for extended Internet–when not only computers, but

other devices like handhelds, vehicles, machines, people, home appliances,

pallets, cases, and consumer items will be connected to the Internet. Colony

estimates that from today’s figures of 50 million by 2010, 14 billion devices

would be Net-enabled.

Xcutable Internet: Stands for executable Internet. Here, the web

represents a dynamic, interactive environment unlike today’s static,

non-interactive nature. While today most power sits on the server, in future, it

would be concentrated on the PC.

Organic IT: A typical scenario, where an enterprise does not suffer

from fragmented infrastructure but is able to optimally utilize each and every

resource just and when it is required.

Naked Technology: A technology that is not compatible with the

business processes of an organization and therefore leads to excessive and

unnecessary spending. A typical phenomenon experienced by organizations during

the dot-com days.

Managing the IT iceberg: Colony calls standardizing different

technologies and processes across organizations as lowering the iceberg below

water level. Once new technology resources are added or when technology

thunderstorms occur, the iceberg level goes above water. Ideally, organizations

should try and maintainin the iceberg level below water.