Enterprise Applications--The Genesis and Future, Revisited
Part Six: Looking to the Future
P.J. Jakovljevic - April 6, 2004

Looking to the Future

Today's enterprise applications are required as a matter of course to address more than the processes taking place within the walls of an enterprise. While Web-enablement and collaborative e-business will continue to be a major direction, easier enterprise applications integration and interconnectivity; more flexible pricing; embracement of "plug-and-play" applications that support commonly accepted standards (reflecting a reduced need to heavily customize multi-vendor solutions), embedding analytical applications; knowledge management (KM); and workflow and business process management (BPM) are some of the best prospects among the ongoing wave of enterprise applications hot-buttons. It is needless to say that almost all traditional ERP vendors (small and big alike) had to experience a "wake up call" and have long been trying to expand their product offering in tune with the ever-changing trends and requirements of the new collaborative economy. Multinational capabilities, product data management (PDM), APS, warehouse management, Web-based product configurators, and component (modularized) architecture might still be the order winners, but, we believe these functional and technological features are becoming demoted into commodities (order qualifiers)...