Information applications enable easy search for and access to information by employees, partners and customers, both individually and collaboratively. The platform must serve as an effective foundation element of the organization’s information architecture, supporting discovery, interactive decision-making and collaboration.
"Information applications are in large part about getting IT to run at the pace of business to provide a better, unified approach for making information available,” says Mark Smith, CEO and EVP, Ventana Research. “It's about finding a faster, better cheaper way for the analyst teams on the business side to assemble and deploy information within the business process that's being looked at."
Survey responses show that in more than half (56 percent) of organizations, the lines of business and IT share responsibility for improving information availability; such collaboration increases the likelihood that a project will succeed. As well, nearly half of participants said they are confident that the business has people and resources to improve availability of information within the organization, and nearly one-fourth said they are very confident of this.
Ventana offers the following key insights in the report:
Organizations are maturing in their support for information applications. In making information available and collecting it in information applications, 22 percent of participating organizations have reached the highest maturity level on Ventana’s scale, Innovative.
Business demands improvement in information availability. Fifty-eight percent of research participants said it is very important to improve information availability and readiness
Many organizations plan improvements. Fifty-one percent of organizations are planning to change the way they make information available in the next 12 to 18 months.
Business and IT must join forces to achieve improvement. Ventana sees it as a positive sign that this research found that the responsibility of both business and IT to collaborate and share resources in 56 percent of participating organizations.
On July 1, 2010, Mark Smith will host a Web seminar to discuss more of the research findings and share additional insights. Register at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/709149656.
Julie Langenkamp is editor-in-chief of Information Management. She can be reached at julie.langenkamp@sourcemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JulieLangenkamp.
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