For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Trends 2009: Master Data Management

Findings From Forrester's August 2009 Global Master Data Management/Data Quality Online Survey

by Rob Karel, October 23, 2009

Forrester continues to witness growing enthusiasm for master data management (MDM) initiatives across all industries, and in many cases those visions are slowly becoming reality. Yet while many large organizations work to either improve an existing MDM . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Trends In Data Quality  (582 KB PPT)

by Rob Karel, October 23, 2009

This set of data charts will examine key trends in data quality gleaned from Forrester's August 2009 Global Master Data Management/Data Quality Online Survey.

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Selecting A Comprehensive Integration Solution  (1.6 MB PPT)

by Ken Vollmer, July 7, 2009

This presentation discusses the factors that should be considered when choosing a comprehensive integration solution. Refer to the recent Forrester document entitled "Create An Enterprise Integration Strategy To Lower Your Costs" for additional information . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Create An Enterprise Integration Strategy To Lower Your Costs

A Methodology For Effectively Addressing Today's Business Integration Challenges

by Ken Vollmer, June 12, 2009

Enterprises have traditionally tackled integration challenges as an offshoot of their application development activities, but this approach's effectiveness is waning rapidly. As business challenges become more complex and involve more intricate interactions . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Topic Overview: How BPM Can Help The Bottom Line In Difficult Financial Times

BPM-Enabled Improvements In Business Agility Flow To The Bottom Line

by Ken Vollmer, March 17, 2009

The current global economic crisis is putting increasing pressure on enterprise architects to find new — and more cost-effective — ways of meeting business needs. One software category in particular offers proven solutions to help increase operational . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

2009 Update: Evaluating Integration Alternatives

Scenario-Based Guidance For Choosing Products That Provide Application, Process, And Data Integration Features

by Ken Vollmer, Rob Karel, Larry Fulton, Noel Yuhanna, January 26, 2009

Technical innovation and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity continue to drive the evolution of the integration marketplace, leading to a market with a significantly different array of features and tools than what existed just 18 months ago. In . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

The Forrester Wave™: Integration-Centric Business Process Management Suites, Q4 2008

Software AG, IBM, And TIBCO Software Lead

by Ken Vollmer, October 6, 2008

Forrester evaluated leading integration-centric business process management suite (IC-BPMS) vendors across 109 criteria and found that Software AG, IBM, TIBCO Software, Vitria Technology, Oracle , SAP, and Cordys Software achieved leadership status based . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Use A Comprehensive Set Of Criteria When Selecting An IC-BPMS Tool

Targeting Products That Support Integration, BPM, And SOA Efforts

by Ken Vollmer, Henry Peyret, June 25, 2008

Integration-centric business process management suites (IC-BPMSes) are the most comprehensive tools available to assist enterprises with their service-oriented-architecture-based (SOA-based) business process management (BPM), business-to-business integration . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Evaluating Integration Technology Options

Scenario-Based Guidance For Application, Process, And Data Integration

by Ken Vollmer, Rob Karel, March 19, 2007

The wide range of packaged integration alternatives, and resulting significant overlap of features and functions among the various product categories, make it difficult for enterprise architects to select the best alternative to meet their integration . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Open Solutions Alliance Pursues Application Integration

by Michael Goulde, March 12, 2007

On February 13, 2007, several service and integration companies working with open source software formed a new consortium, the Open Solution Alliance, to facilitate integration and foster adoption of open-source-based solutions. A few years ago, several . . .

For Information & Knowledge Management Professionals

Turning Transactions Into Decisions

Data Integration Optimization For Operational BI

by Rob Karel, Keith Gile, September 25, 2006

Data integration techniques such as extract, transform, and load (ETL); enterprise information integration (EII); change data capture (CDC); and even custom-coding play a significant and perhaps the most critical role in delivering operational business . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Microsoft Announces BPM Enhancements For BizTalk Server 2006

BizTalk R2 Will Include Office Server Adapters And Native Support For EDI And RFID

by Ken Vollmer, Colin Teubner, July 5, 2006

Microsoft has been a popular choice in the integration space for some time, but BizTalk Server has lagged in its direct support for electronic data interchange (EDI) and its human-centric business process management (BPM) features as compared with most . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Topic Overview: Application Integration Solutions

by Ken Vollmer, Henry Peyret, December 23, 2005

Integration of enterprise applications is the new direction of application development. Rather than create new, separate programs, vendors are starting to integrate existing applications to better use, share, and allocate resources within an organization. . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Metastorm Adds Integration To Business Process Management By Acquiring CommerceQuest

by Connie Moore, October 31, 2005

Metastorm, a human-centric business process management (BPM) provider offering a Microsoft-based product, just announced the acquisition of CommerceQuest, a pure-play BPM vendor with an enterprise application integration focus. While this is a financial . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Integration Suites Scorecard Summary: Microsoft

Key Findings From "The Forrester Wave™: Integration Suites, Q3 2005"

by Ken Vollmer, Henry Peyret, July 28, 2005

The big improvements provided in the third release of BizTalk Server 2004 pushed Microsoft close to the leaders in our evaluation of integration suite vendors. BizTalk represents a good choice for enterprises with basic integration needs. The drawback . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Rationalizing Your Integration Infrastructure

Saving Money And Reducing Risk

by Henry Peyret, Ken Vollmer, August 10, 2004

No single integration solution has been able to solve all enterprise integration requirements; this limitation has led to the need for organizations to implement numerous integration products from multiple vendors. Moving forward, technology convergence . . .

Integration In A Service-Oriented World

by Ken Vollmer, Mike Gilpin, July 6, 2004

The cost and complexity of integration projects can be significantly reduced through the use of a service-oriented architecture (SOA) that facilitates efficient reuse of system and application components by defining them as services that can be requested . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

ESB Usage Will Grow As Standards Mature

But A Hybrid Approach Is Currently Required For Most Companies

by Ken Vollmer, Mike Gilpin, Jost Hoppermann, June 7, 2004

An enterprise service bus (ESB) can be a flexible, low-cost alternative for meeting basic integration requirements, but at this time there are limits to what can be accomplished with a commercial ESB product without custom-developed extensions. However, . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Criteria for Selection: EAI and EAI/BPM Solutions

by Ken Vollmer, Henry Peyret, February 2, 2004

Enterprise Information Integration and Enterprise Application Integration: Both Real-Time, but Satisfy Different Requ

by Philip Russom, December 23, 2003

Although EII and EAI share characteristics, especially real-time operation, they are fundamentally different, because EII is a form of data integration, whereas EAI is a form of application integration.

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

IT Trends 2003, Midyear Update: Enterprise Application Security Integration (EASI)

by Randy Heffner, May 27, 2003

EASI is easier to envision and achieve as standards develop and security is driven from the CEO down. Services firms emerge as a viable path to EASI, while XML/application firewalls emerge as an "easy out" for secure Web Services without EASI.

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

The Application Integration Software Vendor ScoreCard™

by Jost Hoppermann, Ken Vollmer, April 15, 2003

Evaluating integration software vendors will be less problematic in the future as the dual forces of market consolidation and vendor product enhancement gradually lead to a higher level standardization in this space.

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Market Overview: Connectors and Adapters for Application Integration

February 11, 2003

Users need a coherent strategy for adapters as part of their broader strategy for integration to help them decide when to buy adapters from independent suppliers and when to buy dedicated adapters from infrastructure providers.

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Integration Alternatives: Positioning Application Integration

by Henry Peyret, January 23, 2003

Despite the maturation of application integration products that provide faster time-to-market application-to-application integration, these solutions still do not cover, and may never cover, all of the integration needs of complex information systems.

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Integration Decisions: What to Ask an Application Integration Reference Account

by Ken Vollmer, December 4, 2002

Clients should approach the process of gaining information related to a vendor's application integration product via discussions with reference accounts with a skeptical attitude. Having a list of questions prior to the discussion will help.