Most UK IT directors do not consider integration tasks at the
planning stages of IT projects, according to a survey published
last week.
Only 10% of the 100 UK IT directors questioned by Van Bourne for
BEA Systems said they consider integration at the planning stages
of application development. And 38% of those questioned said they
waited until projects were under way before considering integrating
them with the rest of the organisation.
Integration is a key task for businesses that want to draw on data
from multiple sources in order to use it for applications such as
customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning or
portal systems.
Gary Barnett, an analyst with Ovum, recognised the lack of
enthusiasm for integration but pointed out the pitfalls of ignoring
it. "Integration is of perennial importance and though it is not a
very appealing subject it is an essential component of IT projects.
"With the economic downturn it is even more important to be able to
adopt new processes and technologies with minimal effort. If you
have got an integrated back office then it is much easier to put
new applications on top of it," he said.
Exposing a lack of depth of inter-enterprise e-business links, only
14% of respondents cited improving relationships with external
bodies as a high priority.