Your wish list for packaged applications

All I want for Christmas is....

By Dale Vile, Freeform Dynamics, 24th November 2009

Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Backup/Recovery

Mini Poll Following our discussions this week on the importance of evaluating application packages from a technology perspective, we're interested in gathering some more information from you on the things that really matter.

So, if you have a couple of minutes, please give us your feedback in the short poll below:

READER POLL: APPLICATION WISH LIST

1. How important or attractive would you regard the following attributes when evaluating a business application package?

	Mandatory	Desirable	Useful	Not relevant
Based on mainstream application server environment
Support for running in a virtualised environment
Based on mainstream database management system
Well documented data model
Extendable data model
Modular or component based design
Full-blown service oriented architecture (SOA)
Support of open integration standards (e.g. web services)
Comprehensive tools for config/customisation
Ability to customise extend with more standard dev tools
Integrated BI/analytics capability/option
Integrated mobile access capability/option
Integrated collaboration capability/option
Integrated monitoring/management capability/option
Hooks to allow monitoring/management via standard tools
Hooks to synchronise security policy with other systems

2. Anything we have missed in terms of significant technology related attributes?

3. How important are these more general considerations when evaluating application packages?

	Highly important				Not important
	5	4	3	2	1
Commitment of vendor to keeping technology foundation current
Good 'out of the box' third party software integration
'Integration friendly' support model (not finger pointing culture)
Existence of programmes and forums for IT professionals
Comprehensive and clear technical documentation
Open philosophy with regard to documenting bugs, fixes, etc
Availability of IT oriented best practice guidelines

4. Anything we have missed in terms of other significant considerations from an IT perspective?

5. Coming back to the real world, to what degree is IT actually involved in packaged application selection in your organisation?

Always, regardless of the size and nature of the solution
In most case, but some slip through the net or under the radar
Selectively, for particularly large or important decisions
Rarely, we tend to get told what will be implemented after the fact
Other (please state)

6. Do you have any examples of where IT’s lack of involvement has led to issues or where IT avoided a costly mistake being made?

7. How many employees are there in your organisation?

More than 5,000
1,000 to 5,000
250 to 1,000
50 to 250
10 to 50
Less than 10

8. Which of the following best describes your role?

Business management
Business professional
IT management
IT practitioner: Systems architecture/design
IT practitioner: Operations/management
IT practitioner: Software development
IT practitioner: Multi-disciplined
Other (please state)