EAI Planning: Points to Consider

Integration makes sense at a time when companies are looking to control their costs and get more ROI from their previous investments. There are substantial up-front costs associated with integration, however. Companies can expect to spend up to 35 percent of project budgets on integration, but success is well worth the cost.

The biggest benefits are speed, cost savings and flexibility. By using EAI, big companies can save as much as 80 percent of the cost of doing a custom integration project. But ROI depends on volume; IT executives need many such projects to offset the EAI implementation costs, which can run half a million dollars.

Enterprise application integration (EAI) software connects applications through a central message-routing hub, similar to middleware tools like IBM's MQSeries. However, EAI tools are also equipped to parse and translate data, and automatically route information according to business processes.

Where does a CIO start with an integration project?

CIOs should meet with the CEO and CFO to determine which systems are mission critical and what data in those systems is the most valuable. Finding a vendor to meet those needs is the next challenge.

Aggressive vendor marketing has created a perception that EAI is off-the-shelf and plug-and-play, but there are unavoidable and significant consulting, customization and maintenance costs. Resolving data definition incompatibilities drives up the price tag as well. As an alternative, it is possible to buy lower-cost EAI tools to achieve more targeted, less broad-based systems integration.

CIOs should decide what’s more important—the better technology versus good-enough technology from a vendor that might be around a long time. On the vendor side the market is big enough for the big, enterprise application vendors to step in. In fact, many are already offering integration products because they are selling fewer enterprise packages. At the lower end of the market, infrastructure vendors are moving into a competitive position with software vendors by offering integration products as well. Successful vendors will clearly demonstrate the value of their products with strong ROI arguments.

Vendors should help determine how to get ROI by providing case studies and ROI models to help their customers justify their products to management.

The No. 1 initiative for CIOs is to get more efficiency out of what they’ve already bought and get better ROI.

Planning to adopt an integration tool for your large organization? Consider these points first.

Scalability

Replacing point-to-point interfaces with a tool becomes senseless if the tool can only easily manage a small percentage of those interfaces.

Performance

The tool must have a high throughput of data.

Ease of Deployment

The ability to change certain parameters (source name, target name and so on) is essential.

Centralized Administration

Interfaces must be able to be administered automatically and from a central place.

Straight Through Processing/Zero Latency

The ability to deliver target data as soon as possible after reading the source data is important for many applications.

Heterogeneous Sources

To turn data into information, you must be able to join data from heterogeneous sources.

Security

Support for various security standards is required. Good, hard-to-reverse standards at the moment include Secure Sockets Layer, IPSec and Pretty Good Privacy.

Partners

For large enterprise wide projects, a company must have good partnerships with respectable systems integrators, with a base staff already trained in the product.

Training

The better the training program the quicker the enterprise will realize its return on investment.

Support

A good, tiered support function (offering up to 24/7 telephone support and a knowledge base) will help alleviate inevitable problems.

User Group

An organized user base—to share experiences, good practices, tips and tricks—is invaluable in heightening the ROI of the project.

References

Before investing in a tool, always check references from well-respected companies that have that tool in production.

Glossary

Enterprise application integration

(EAI) Software that acts as a central command center for integration within a corporate system.

Integration

The process of tying together—usually with software—two or more computer systems so that they can exchange information and functionality.

Middleware

A layer of intermediating software that exists to exchange data among different incompatible systems.

Point-to-point integration

Hand-coded programs that integrate two specific systems so that they can talk to each other but not to other systems within a corporate infrastructure.

To learn how to make BI project successful contact by e Mail or call +919898209526.

A Look into Banking Trends for 2005        

For over a couple decades, IT has been an integral part of a financial institution's competitive advantage. Throughout the 1990s, efficiency and cost-cutting were the primary objectives of IT. Thanks to relatively strong performance during the economic downturn, banks have been able to increasingly apply a strategic approach to their IT decision process. Consequently, in the IT ROI equation, revenue enhancement will be gaining equal weight to cost-cutting.

Given this trend, it is expected that the majority of the 4 percent of growth in banks' IT spending in 2005 will be invested in "what can be" rather than "what is."

The Branch Renaissance Continues

More banks are recognizing that the branch is still the cornerstone of retail banking. As banks focus their efforts on growing revenues through sales of more complex higher-margin services and products, they are finding that the branch is the most effective delivery channel. The direct personal interaction provided at the branch creates the best environment for selling these products. Banks' ability to leverage the branch, however, has been impeded by legacy systems and outdated applications that are no longer sufficient to support innovative delivery strategies.

Consequently, in order to successfully harness the branch's sales potential, banks will increasingly implement upgrades in branch technology.

Multi-channel Integration Is Moving off the Drawing Board

Multi-channel integration is garnering the attention of a growing number of banks. Although it is far from becoming a mainstream exercise, it is moving away from the early-adopter phase to being a feasible initiative for most banks to undertake. The question is not if but when. Second-wave adopters are moving gradually, due to the complexity and cost of integration. Many of these banks are gaining additional fortitude to move forward by relying on third-party solution providers. Internet banking and call center platforms are proving to be ripe targets for integration.

A Few Intrepid Banks Will Undertake a Core Banking Replacement Project

Faced with the high costs and integration challenges associated with running the antiquated core banking systems, banks are beginning to consider replacing these vital systems. A core system replacement is perhaps the most risky, as well as costly IT project a bank can take on, however, causing many banks to move cautiously. We expect that over the next few years, an increasing number of banks around the globe will begin to take on such projects. Many of these will consider for the first time a third-party solution, as opposed to building new proprietary solutions, which are believed to be too costly and risky. Once the world's largest banks successfully complete these projects, setting an example for the industry, other smaller banks are likely to follow.

The Payment Czars Will Gain Authority

By 2005, most of the top 50 US banks will have a senior executive appointed to the role of Payment Czar or head of a payments council. Payment Czars will play an increasing role in shaping banks' strategies in the changing payment space. The vast majority will not be able, however, to supersede business lines, and will still lack P&L responsibility. A few organizations, mostly very large banks, will be strengthening or building up a distinct payment business line across retail and wholesale payments.

Check Imaging's Potential Is Unleashed

With the signing of Check 21 into law, the full potential of check imaging technology can be realized. Check processing in the U.S. is at an historical watershed. Check imaging, which had an ignominious start in the 1990s, has been staging an incredible comeback driven by economic and technological factors. It began generating ripples in the late 1990s with re-pass image capture and is currently propelling a tidal wave, which will sweep in check truncation and image exchange.

Improvements in Internet Banking Will Forge Ahead

Banks are increasingly convinced that Internet banking's ROI can extend beyond simple cost-to-serve equations and direct revenue models. Driven by enhancements in Internet banking's user-friendliness, Internet banking's ROI now encompasses generating revenues indirectly by improving customer satisfaction with Internet banking, which in turn, has proven to translate into greater customer retention and higher balances. Banks' demands also include lowering cost-to-serve through self-service features with broad appeal (e.g., check image access and e-statements) and customer support features that not only improve customer service representatives' effectiveness but also their efficiency (e.g., online chat).

Automation of the Loan Process Will Expand

As interest rates inch up, banks are scrambling to develop marketing and IT strategies geared towards maintaining strong growth in originations. Next-generation solutions will provide users with greater work process automation capabilities and better integration with third parties, thereby eliminating many of the manual processes still in place today. A large portion of the typical loan process is still conducted via phones and faxes, creating bottlenecks and unhappy customers, who expect greater speed. New solutions will also be better integrated with the front end, creating greater straight-through processing.

Small Business Need Not Be the Underserved

Until recently, small businesses have been chronically underserved by banks. The classic example is the application of a retail Internet banking solution to serve these businesses, which has been the leading cause of low adoption to date. Banks, however, are increasingly recognizing they could garner a larger share of small businesses' financial services spending if they implement appropriate technology. In an effort to better serve them and attract their business, banks will deploy at an increasing rate Internet banking solutions built specifically for small businesses. Small business online banking adoption is therefore expected to grow beyond its current 12 percent level to reach over 20 percent by 2005.

Cash Management Will Jump on the Browser Bandwagon

While most banks already have large corporate banking solutions in place, a large number of transactions are still being completed on Windows-based solutions. Many banks have announced plans to migrate all of their customers over to browser-based solutions now that full functionality is available through this channel. Consequently, the number of transactions completed online is expected to grow steadily over the next year. Cash management solutions themselves are also evolving, with the greatest advancements being made in FX capabilities, loan originations, and trade finance.

Banks Will Continue To Spend on Compliance Solutions

Much confusion regarding the USA PATRIOT Act and its implied affect on the banks has resonated through the banking industry over the past two years. Today, however, the confusion has subsided as final regulations have been posted for many sections of the Act and speculation is no longer needed.

Although a clearly defined roadmap is still missing for financial institutions, we are beginning to see banks revise or implement their compliance procedures. Banks will focus on solutions that will assist them in detecting money laundering both at the account and transaction levels.

Much emphasis will also be placed on ID verification procedures to assist them with correctly identifying and authenticating their customers across channels.

Top

Business is a dogfight. Your job as a leader: Outmaneuver the competition, respond decisively to fast-changing conditions, and defeat your rivals.

That's why the OODA loop, the brainchild of "40 Second" Boyd, an unconventional fighter pilot, is one of today's most important ideas in battle or in business.

The F-16 fighter jet is, as supersonic military aircraft go, a modest machine. It measures just 49 feet long and 31 feet wide from wingtip to missile-capped wingtip, and it weighs about half as much as its U.S. Air Force predecessor, the F-15. With a top speed of 1,350 MPH, it lags the F-15 and other big planes.  It can't fly as high or as far. But in battle, the F-16 defies physics. Its design allows extreme maneuvers, even at low speeds. It dumps and regains energy in an instant, and despite its light weight, it can withstand nine times the force of gravity -- which enables some serious twisting and rolling. Pilots jag and flip with subtle nudges to a sensitive electronic flight-control system. The plane is unthinkably agile. Picture a young Michael Jordan with 29,100 pounds of thrust.

Now think of your company: Is it an F-16 or an Aeroflot turboprop? In business, success isn't simply a matter of being quickest to market, of spending the most, or of selling the highest-quality products. You can win by using any of those methods but only if you do one thing more: Outmaneuver the other guy. You have to decode the environment before he does, act decisively, and then capitalize on his initial confusion by confusing him some more. Agility is the essence of strategy in war and in business.

OODA loop: Observation; orientation; decision; action.

The concept is just as powerful when applied to business. The convergence of rapidly globalizing competition, real-time communication, and smarter information technology has led to a reinvention of the meaning and practice of strategy.

What do you do in the semiconductor industry and other sectors where the time advantage of proprietary technology is collapsing even as the cost of developing it explodes? Companies in manufacturing, telecommunications, retail -- in nearly every business -- are discovering that fashion, fad, and fickle customers require constant vigilance and adjustment. We operate in a video-game world where time is compressing, information goes everywhere, and the rules of the game change abruptly and continuously.

All of which makes the OODA loop more powerful than ever. Want to outthink and out-execute the competition in the air or on the ground, in combat or in business? Want to test out new ideas, get feedback from your customers, adjust your product accordingly, and launch a new version -- before your competition even senses the opportunity?

To learn how to make the OODA loop the centerpiece of your strategy process contact by e Mail or call +919898209526.

9 things you must know about “Getting Noticed by Search Engines”

In constantly changing world of WWW one thing is not changing that is rules of getting noticed by search engines. Unfortunately, many times the spam of easy listings and top 10 positions drowns out the truth of what is required to gain and maintain relevant positions.

Needless to say, these issues have evolved consistently for the past several years as Search Engines struggle to offer even more relevant results. This necessitates professionals such as myself to study and become proficient in how the various search sites and services operate so that I may assist clients in acquiring the listings they desire - if they are willing to approach this effort from a business point of view.

This article is continually updated by continious review and update, test and provides every possible insight and bit or byte of information critical to acquiring relevant Search Engine listings. This information is not just opinion or viewpoint. This information is an accurate representation of the way the Search Engine environment operates and what is required to get found.

Unlike what is common belief and like anything else to do with your Web Program your listings have to be worked at - consistently to produce results. They don't just happen by osmosis or for perpetuity or by changing a few things here or there on your site.

The nine things you must know about getting noticed by Search Engine:

1. One must not expect that Search Engines will drive massive amounts of traffic to their site immediately based on the initial registration with free services upon the launch of your site. Listings take time to solidify. Although many engines state anticipated time frames (many also clearly offering no guarantees when or if) as to when your listing may be added to their database, many times it is much longer due to the massive volume of new submissions submitted daily. And, as you tweak your site for better placement you can expect a certain level of latency in any changes your tweaks may ultimately reflect.

2. One must not expect that Search Engines will drive massive amounts of traffic to their site immediately after you pay for reviews. Ongoing tweaking of your site based on the competitiveness of your particular online market will then be required to get optimum visibility above your competitors. Yes, even after paying for reviews you still have to keep working at this! There are no guarantees. If you are in a industry with little competition getting relevant listings is much easier than one saturated by 100's or possibly 1000's of sites fighting for the same top page listings.

3. One must understand that if you don't track your listings and keep your site date "fresh" and current with technology, those competitors that do will be listed before you and your listings will begin to deteriorate.

4. One must know that those companies that offer you "top of page" listings for $500+ dollars per month are simply signing you up for "Sponsored", "Paid" or "Featured Listings" that the Search Engines or PPC services offer. These listings are purchased and have nothing to do with your site or "keywords". You can sign up for these services yourself and save thousands of dollars by visiting the Search Engines and reviewing their programs.

5. One must realize that some of the top scammers on the Net are those who promise unbelievable results with little effort, touting all that is stated in this article to not be necessary. Many using tactics that do not work or could even get your site banned. As a matter of fact, Google has added a warning on their site about these "services":

http://www.google.com/webmasters/seo.html

6. One must not sit back and think that without participating, networking and taking advantage of on and off-line opportunities to get exposure for your "dot com" that you will get traffic anyway. You won't. Site and link popularity are big part of getting found. Quality, relational links to your site can boost your listings tremendously - but that won't happen unless you are out there working at getting other sites to link to you. Why would any site link to you unless you have quality content worth linking to? The answer is they won't. Valuable content, articles and white papers - that's information worth linking to!

7. One must understand that this is not a "build it and they will come" environment. With literally billions of Web pages online how do you realistically think your potential customers will find you without ongoing reactive and proactive efforts? They won't. You need to look at your stats, see where you are currently listed and then determine an ongoing plan on how to improve upon your listings if you want to place higher than you currently are. Simply changing your keywords or adding more keywords won't make much of a difference if other issues are not seriously considered.

8. One must not believe that by simply running around and resubmitting your old stale site, every day, every week, every moment will be all it takes. Some engines consider resubmitting, if not done within established guidelines, as spamming them and you can be dropped or worse yet banned. Software that automatically submits your site for you is ignored and can also identify you as a Search Engine spammer causing your site to be removed and blocked entirely from future submission efforts. No way around doing the hard work!

9. One must understand that only unwavering commitment and ongoing investment, which includes a rabid aggressive, proactive marketing campaign both on and off-line, including Search Engine/PPC monitoring, tracking and resubmission is necessary to have consistently relevant listings. You also need to plan on adding and growing your site with content rich topical information to compliment these efforts or your efforts will not meet their full potential.

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive nor the most intelligent, but those most adaptive to change."

~ Charles Darwin

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