The TiE-Boston met on Monday, September 29th at the Burlington Marriott to discuss Enterprise Technology Demand: What's Hot, What's Not, And Why. The panel consisted of Niraj Patel, CIO, GMAC Commercial Holdings; Carl Ascenzo, CIO, BCBS MA; and Paul Donovan, CIO, ING North America. There were about 175 people in attendance at this event.

The session started with an overview of the Enterprise Technology market. Even though the market grew from an estimated $66B in 1980 to $500B in 2002, the profits fell from $100B in 2000 to a loss of $150B in 2002. The VC investment has also been hit hard. In 1Q2000 the investment was roughly $40B and 1786 deals. The comparable numbers in 2Q2003 were $4B and 442 deals. However, everyone agreed that the worst is behind us and the future looks brighter. One always asks the question 'Is IT good for the company?' According to him only 6 fields have gained competitive advantage as a result of use of IT including semiconductors, wholesale, securities and retail distribution.

The panel discussion was organized in the NPR format where the panelists talked about a given issue, followed by questions from the audience, before proceeding to the next issue. The topics discussed dealt with Knowledge Management, Metrics, Data Explosion, Security, Web Services, Outsourcing and Open Source.

Knowledge Management: Knowledge management by itself no longer gives a competitive edge. The focus needs to be on its 'personalization'. For example, an ATM which just gives cash will no longer provide the edge for the bank as compared to another ATM which reminds the customers that his/her mortgage payment is soon due etc. In five years, the IT organizations will be different and IT and Business organizations will merge. Currently majority of the IT organizations are internally funded. However, according to Paul, in the future IT organizations can expect to the following revenue model: 25% R&D, 25% Vendors, 25% Technology Companies and 25% Internal.

Metrics: Today gimmicks usually don't work. It is important to build Contacts and Networks. These are built around Relationships, which are in turn built on Trust and Creditability. It has to be 'Earned Piece By Piece,' says Paul.

Data Explosion: There is a tremendous amount of data explosion. In the next two years, we will have more information than we had in the entire history of mankind and will total about 57B GB. According to Carl, it is a major issue at small companies and at ones with little resources to do it.

Security: Internal security is now well-established and external treats today are a big issue. For vendors, it is now essential that they abide by certain standards in order to continue to do business with large corporations.

Web Services: In order to succeed, it is important to work hand in hand with the developers. Setting standards for web service will only prove beneficial when it is implementable and implemented.

Outsourcing: It is now considered a mature industry as far as large corporations are concerned. Previously the outsourcing of non-core operations was limited to domestic companies. What has changed is that now it includes international companies too. According to Carl, in order to maximize returns, one should consider multiple ventors and not limit all outsourcing to a single company.

Open Source: In order to be competitive, every company should consider the option of buy software before committing valuable resources to developing their own proprietary software.

Overall, it is clear that enterprise solutions need to be customized, companies need to build trust and relationships over time and work hand in hand with vendors in order to succeed in today's market.

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