RTE Key Technologies and Applications Hype Cycle

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1 Research Publication Date: 6 March 2003 ID Number: COM RTE Key Technologies and Applications Hype Cycle Mark Raskino There are many real-time enterprise technologies. Their maturity and relevance to your organization should guide your choice. Reproduction of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Gartner shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof. The reader assumes sole responsibility for the selection of these materials to achieve its intended results. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.

2 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW RTE is a business change competency, for integrating, streamlining and automating information and process flows. Select only those RTE-enabling technologies and applications appropriate to your enterprise risk attitude and directly relevant to the strategically chosen critical end-to-end processes. ANALYSIS The real-time enterprise (RTE) will use a variety of technologies and applications to speed up key business processes and to receive earlier warning of key events from its business environment, so the organization can act on it if needed. No two enterprises will use the same combination of technologies because each will have a unique business strategy and should apply the RTE approach to accelerate progress in appropriate areas (see "The RTE 'Cyclones' Model Changes the View"). Some technologies and applications stand out from others because they speed up business processes, or because they enable high-frequency event monitoring. Figure 1 maps out the key RTE technologies on a Gartner Hype Cycle maturity curve. Publication Date: 6 March 2003/ID Number: COM Page 2 of 8

3 Figure 1. Key Technologies and Applications of the RTE Worldwide Viewpoint, 1Q03 Visibility Business process management languages Smart enterprise suites Contract life cycle management Technology Trigger Infant Adolescent Mature Mass RFID tagging RTE Real-time analytics Business process Peak of Inflated Expectations Enterprise instant messaging Web services MEMS fusion sensors Self-healing infrastructure Event management Wireless Web Commercial grid infrastructure Mobile phone locationbased services Daily close dashboards Home broadband Webcasting Enterprise portals Trough of Disillusionment E-learning Rules engines Wireless messaging Business process analysis and modeling tools ERP II Data warehouse Content management RT integration brokers response management systems Supply chain planning Automatic text categorization Slope of Enlightenment Technology Application category Business competency Wireless LAN Plateau of Productivity Business intelligence platforms Acronym Key ERP: Enterprise resource planning MEMS: Microelectromechanical systems RFID: Radio frequency identification Source: Gartner Research Maturity At or Near the Technology Trigger Commercial Grid Infrastructure Grid technology distributes computing jobs and databases across multiple servers, harnessing their combined processing power and dedicating it to a single computational superprocess. Though very immature, this could make it possible to solve certain computational problems in analytics that are otherwise too time consuming or expensive, such as in R&D, design and optimization. This would speed up end-to-end business processes. Specific vertical scientific or technical grid computing applications will evolve during the next three to five years, leading to Publication Date: 6 March 2003/ID Number: COM Page 3 of 8

4 more widespread commercial grid computing applications (see "IBM Shows Future of Grid Computing"). Event Management Event management middleware provides real-time filtering, correlation and alerts from data streams. Together with real-time analytics, these provide the foundations of business activity monitoring. As event management middleware matures, they will support the RTE quest for earlier warning of major business threats or opportunities (see "Middleware for Business Activity Monitoring"). Business Process Fusion This is Gartner's initial term for newly emerging integrated business applications and supporting architectures that will enable the RTE to speed up end-to-end business processes and information flows across traditional business application silos. By fusing together transactions, analytics, rich content and collaboration through services-oriented architecture business process fusion is likely to change the economics and flexibility of the RTE's progress. Contract Life Cycle Management The RTE must manage complex event-to-response processes that extend across multiple organizations. Business rules and service levels that determine what is agreed are enshrined in contracts. But contracts remain vast unstructured text documents, sometimes still on paper. Contract life cycle management systems will store contracts as structured data and business rules, enabling faster search, interpretation and action. Progress in this area will be vital to the real-time extended enterprise (see "Contract Life-Cycle Management: A $20 Billion Market"). Real-Time Analytics These technologies enable rapid analysis, interpretation and pattern matching on mass data flows from transactional systems so that action can be taken quickly enough to affect business activities before they complete. Some of the specialist vendors are new and their offerings immature. The RTE will benefit if analysis that previously ran on batch delayed data, can instead be attached directly to live data feeds at reasonable cost (see "Real-Time Analytics Techniques to Support CRM"). Toward the Peak Smart Enterprise Suites This emerging type of software suite integrates content management, knowledge management and collaboration in and between enterprises. If smart enterprise suite offerings fulfill their promise, the RTE will benefit by streamlining disjointed knowledge worker processes and information flows (see "CM, Portals and Collaboration Fading: Enter 'Smart' Suite"). Business Process Management Languages Business process modeling language and BPEL4WS (Business Process Execution Language for Web Services) are emerging XML-based languages that describe business processes as executable flows. We expect to see limited adoption during A diagrammatic BPMN (business process modeling notation) is also in development. These technologies present the RTE with the prospect of more direct business involvement in reshaping systems and faster response to changing business needs (see "Business Process Modeling Notation Looks Promising"). RTE Publication Date: 6 March 2003/ID Number: COM Page 4 of 8

5 RTE is not a technology, but a business competency that exploits IT to speed up process and information flows, and quicken progress in the unique business strategy of the enterprise. Though awareness of it is increasing, it will remain an immature discipline throughout 2003 (see "The Real-Time Enterprise: The Quest for Strategic Gains"). Mass RFID Tagging RFID (radio frequency identification) tags are used in niche applications but use has been limited by cost and physical constraints. However, cheaper mass-produced tags are now deployed experimentally in retail, logistics, passenger airlines, consumer packaged goods and individual items (a microwave meal, for example). The RTE can benefit through higher-frequency tracking and faster search and retrieval processes (see "Maturing Open RFID Applications Will Reshape SCM"). Sliding Off the Peak Enterprise Instant Messaging Instant messaging can speed many RTE business dialogues between remotely located individuals because it exploits presence information and allows conversational interchange. Emerging enterprise-class products attempt to secure and record these dialogues and some vendors propose integration to enterprise applications for alerts, but offerings lack maturity (see "Instant Messaging in the Enterprise Will Remain a Puzzle"). Daily Close Cisco System's apparent delay in spotting a sales downturn in 2001 sparked interest in daily reporting of key business performance and financial indicators. This was one of the characteristic "demand drivers" of RTE thinking, and, in early 2002, Oracle announced its "daily business close" offering (see "Daily Business Close, Oracle.com and Pricing at AppsWorld"). But, so far, few companies have moved toward this level of management information provision. Mobile Phone Location-Based Services Mobile phone location-based services are maturing, but do not meet the hype of the past two years. Delivering reliable location data feeds to enterprise applications cost-effectively is not enough. These must be integrated with geographical information systems for useful analysis and interpretation. Though some enterprises (for example, roadside assistance organizations) have developed real-time location based services applications, they have been complex custom-built projects. Real-time location information is not yet a packaged service. Web Services Web services technologies (such as XML, SOAP, UDDI and WSDL) increase the rate at which applications can be built and reformed from collections of pre-built software objects, enabling new forms of application suites and services offerings. Across value chains, industry-specific pre-built and more quickly reusable software components will power RTE endeavors, but these must mature before their impact on business can be realized. Home Broadband Home broadband is useful to the RTE because it allows more advanced home and remote working arrangements. In home-based call center working, for example, it becomes easier to quickly match labor supply to variable demand. Access to managers at short notice, or outside office hours, is easier and cheaper. However, home broadband is suffering from slower than hyped market uptake. Publication Date: 6 March 2003/ID Number: COM Page 5 of 8

6 MEMS Sensors MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) are microprocessor devices that interact with the physical world (see "MEMS Future Application Directions: A Convergence of Old and New Technologies"). Though niche today, these devices are maturing. They could provide inexpensive, widespread physical world sensing of acceleration, vibration, chemical presence, flow, pressure, temperature and humidity. MEMS will allow the RTE to monitor combinations of events and to receive earlier warning of situations that need action. Around the Trough Self-Healing Infrastructure Within systems management, the concept of self-healing systems had high attention during 2002, partly because of vendor announcements, such as IBM's "Autonomic Computing" initiative. Progress has not met the hype, so this element of what Gartner calls "policy-based computing services" is close to the Trough of Disillusionment. But when they mature, these capabilities will be important to the RTE as they improve the reliability, availability and cost of systems that must be both real-time and flexible. These improvements will lower entry-cost barriers, permitting a wider range of business processes to be addressed (see "Policy-Based Computing Services: The Vision, The Reality"). Wireless Web These are various mobile phone-based technologies that provide some form of Web access. In most cases, progress has disappointed, but evolving technology and market models will make this capability an increasingly important option for the RTE. Enterprise Portals These will be crucial to the RTE, providing a window on its systems and processes that employees can use in many more places, and at more times of day. However, until the RTE speeds up information and process flows, the portal will remain a live window on a dead information landscape. Climbing the Slope Automatic Text Categorization This can expedite a variety of information-handling process bottlenecks where slow and expensive manual labor is sorting and tagging unstructured content (see "Technology Update: Automatic Text Categorization"). Wireless Messaging Short Message Service (SMS) text messaging in Europe and to devices like Research In Motion's BlackBerry in the United States can be attached to enterprise applications for realtime event messages, as well as person-to-person communications. Supply Chain Planning Used collaboratively between the RTE and its suppliers, this offers faster, more effective stock replenishment at lower inventory levels. The RTE will progress by connecting demand information flows more directly to supply chain planning. Webcasting Publication Date: 6 March 2003/ID Number: COM Page 6 of 8

7 Live Webcasting is increasingly used for rapid communications, especially to large, dispersed workforces and to broadcast company announcements to shareholders and analysts. This has become more reliable and economical as edge caching services have matured (see "Internet Webcast Tutorial"). From Slope to Plateau Response Management Systems The RTE will need these maturing applications to improve customer responsiveness and service levels. Integration Brokers The solution set the market provides is strengthening, especially in areas critical to the RTE, such as linking legacy systems to application server architectures (see "Integration Brokers, Application Servers and APSs"). Rules Engines These are important to the RTE for speeding up processes by automating or partially automating decisions (see "Rules: Adding Intelligence to the Enterprise Architecture"). E-Learning Used on a just-in-time basis, this can be aimed at more rapid, rather than just cheaper, training (see "Train for the Real-Time Enterprise With JIT E-Learning"). ERP II The extension of conventional ERP (enterprise resource planning) toward new functional areas such as CRM and taking a multienterprise view encompassing elements of SCM (supply chain management), is progressing. This creates opportunities for the RTE to streamline and "through connect" processes (see "Real-Time Enterprises Need ERP II and Other Applications"). Business Process Analysis and Modeling Use of these tools is growing. The RTE will seek to remodel processes and remove time wastage through tools like these. Eventually, it will look to connect their use to the emerging BPML technologies (see the section "Toward the Peak"). For more detail, see "Business Modeling Is the Quality Connection to BPM." Content Management Systems These systems speed up both access and editorial workflow for unstructured information. Wireless LAN Provides untethered PC communications that enable flexible working and rapid deployment of connectivity in temporary workspaces. BI Tools and Data Warehouses Used in combination, these can help analyze and measure elapsed times in the cross-enterprise processes that the RTE seeks to improve. Choosing Wisely Publication Date: 6 March 2003/ID Number: COM Page 7 of 8

8 A given end-to-end process time reduction could be achieved through a range of these technologies. The choice can be narrowed by aligning the nature of the enterprise IT spend and the risks it is willing to take to the maturity of the technology. Ordinarily, only "Type A" enterprises should entertain technologies described as "infant." "Type B" enterprises should avoid the high costs and risks of emerging technology, and stick to the adolescent and mature. "Type C" enterprises should only involve themselves with mature technologies. In each portfolio there will be exceptions to these guidelines, because most enterprises commit limited funds to higher risk or return options. But the RTE endeavor does not excuse loss of discipline in IT risk management. Key Issues What tools and technologies will enable enterprises to operate in real time? REGIONAL HEADQUARTERS Corporate Headquarters 56 Top Gallant Road Stamford, CT U.S.A European Headquarters Tamesis The Glanty Egham Surrey, TW20 9AW UNITED KINGDOM Asia/Pacific Headquarters Level 7, 40 Miller Street North Sydney New South Wales 2060 AUSTRALIA Latin America Headquarters Av. das Nações Unidas andar WTC São Paulo SP BRAZIL Publication Date: 6 March 2003/ID Number: COM Page 8 of 8