Push suppliers to provide greater interoperability, says
Graham Bird
There are few open standards that enable
interoperability - and hence free flow of information - between
business applications.
For the open systems platform, and some of the middleware, a
large body of work has been done that has minimised the problem of
common IT standards. But for organisations striving to have access
to integrated information - providing information when it is
required, in the form it is required, on the device of choice - the
story is different.
Declaration of independence
The Open Group has established a "declaration of independence"
to address this lack of interoperable standards. This online
petition is designed to demonstrate to companies in the IT supply
industry that there is a groundswell of opinion in support of the
development and use of open standards.
A proprietary IT system may be a cheaper and easier way to
deploy applications. Indeed, it should be - but only if the
organisation deploying it has no need to interact electronically
with suppliers, partners and customers.
Also, if the organisation’s business is relatively stable, does
not need to evolve, and is unlikely to need to get data into and
out of the proprietary product, a proprietary system may suffice.
But if your business is evolving, what was OK yesterday does not
meet today’s challenges.
So we need to change our processes to support the business, and
our information systems must change and evolve in step.
Businesses need information to flow in a secure, reliable and
timely manner, which means that we need to be able to extract,
massage, integrate, and use the data we stored in the past, when we
had little or no knowledge of how we might need to use it in the
future. The only way to do that cost effectively is for systems to
be easier to integrate; the only way to do that is to use open
standards.
The smart software providers are now engineering their
applications and providing open mechanisms for data exchange.
They provide integration points for their systems and
applications. They make it easier for information systems to
respond and evolve to meet changing business needs. They are active
in delivering systems that are built on open standards - the very
best of these suppliers will certify that their products are open
and stand behind them in the event of problems. They are focused on
solving the problems of their customers. They compete on quality of
implementation, on performance, on functionality.
Clininging to the old ways
But some companies cling to the old ways - proprietary systems -
in the mistaken belief that it is the best way to gain and retain
customers. Differentiation, as used in their business model, locks
in customers, generating higher revenues and profits, making life
easier for the IT supplier.
IT is one of the few remaining industries to believe that
differentiation on price or on proprietary solutions are the only
ways to compete.
As the buyer, the choice is yours, and IT suppliers - at least
the ones of the old ways - will only change their behaviour when
you demand that they do so. And there is only one way to make your
demands real: redirect your money to products, services and
suppliers which demonstrate that they support open standards.
Graham Bird is vice-president, marketing,
at the Open Group
www.opengroup.org/declaration