In Part I (Vol. 10, No. 3) of this two-part Executive Update series, we put forward the argument that integration in enterprise resource planning (ERP)-based environments can be achieved in ways other than adopting a software configuration-only approach.

In Part I (Vol. 10, No. 4) of this two-part series on service-oriented architecture (SOA), we provided a high-level review of SOA features, discussed some difficulties with a process-oriented SOA, and mentioned the need for unification of information and process in a SOA. In this Executive Update, we examine how this unification can be achieved.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) has been a headache for many public companies, but the discipline and transparency it forced on them produced an unexpected benefit -- better control of their business information (most of it electronic) and higher market valuations. The new electronic discovery (e-discovery) amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure that went into effect on 1 December 2006 promise a similar headache -- and similar benefits.

In the first two Executive Updates (Vol. 9, No. 24; Vol. 10, No. 2) of this three-part series, I explained why many companies are implementing the best practices service model IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and described a case study of its implementation at one company.

A service-oriented architecture (SOA) strives to provide an information infrastructure that is highly responsive to rapidly changing business requirements, including new competition, mergers, acquisitions, business models, and regulatory requirements. SOA has shown great promise in reaching these goals and is rapidly gaining widespread interest and acceptance.

This is the first in a three-part series of Executive Updates on data management and analysis.

Over the last several years, one of the most common questions I've been asked is how to handle the fact that there are too many projects and too few people.

A few months ago, a client asked me about the wisdom of moving toward a more centralized organization. Since I've been known in the past to sing the praises of just such an organization, I was surprised to find myself strongly recommending against it.

One of the myths about software-as-a-service (SaaS) is that it is primarily suited to address a narrow range of customer-facing or end-user-oriented horizontal applications.

In my last Executive Update, "What to Expect in 2007 -- and Beyond" (Vol. 8, No. 1), I looked at 10 things likely to come true in 2007. Here, I revisit those issues, forecasting how these trends will unfold and focusing on specific steps companies should take to prepare for them.

It is time for a new framework for enterprise architecture (EA). It has been exactly 20 years since John Zachman published his first article on information systems architecture in IBM Systems Journal [1]. Since that time, Zachman's model has evolved to become what is known today as the Zachman Framework.

Businesses are required to comply with a significant number of laws and regulations governing everything from human resources to environmental matters. As if these laws and regulations were not enough, businesses also have to comply with a new industry standard affecting the security of credit card data -- the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI, for short). The goal of PCI is to create a security standard that businesses must follow in their handling of credit cardholder data.

It had been nearly 20 years since a new electronic stock exchange had been built, and the community needed new technology. The Swiss Stock Exchange took up the challenge, hoping to sell the system to other exchanges. Two previous attempts had been made to move the traders from the floor to electronic trading, but these attempts failed. The third attempt finally worked.

The increase in the proportion of a company's value that stems from its intellectual assets has become a fact of business in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. As companies use, create, and license more and more intellectual property (IP), they are forced to draft, review, and negotiate agreements on a daily basis that contain clauses concerning the licensing, purchase, or protection of IP rights.

This Executive Update is the fourth in a series that examines information and communications technology (ICT) outsourcing and its various configuration options. The series is based on a recent Cutter Consortium survey of 73 organizations in 25 countries across the globe. 1

According to an ancient Bedouin saying, you don't see the meat until you stir the soup -- the point being that sometimes important matters aren't noticed until someone stirs them up.

Achieving business and IT integration is a strategic goal for many organizations -- it has almost become the "holy grail" of organizational success. In this environment, enterprise resource planning (ERP) packages have become the de facto option for addressing this issue. Integration has come to mean adopting ERP -- through configuration and without customization -- but this all-or-nothing approach has proved difficult for many organizations.

Demonstrating real benefits from the organization's investment in information technology is a task faced by the majority of IT departments. In response to this challenge, many IT departments have chosen to implement a best practices service model to deliver real outcomes to the organization.

This is the final segment of the four-part Executive Update series on running your EA practice like a business.

In November 2006, Cutter Consortium conducted a survey that asked 102 end-user organizations worldwide about their use of text mining and analysis software for analyzing unstructured information.

The ability to bring bad tidings and make unpopular decisions is a desirable, if not entirely common, part of an organization's culture.

As security becomes an increasing concern, techniques for risk analysis are again rising to the fore. The IT department faces risk in several different areas. Although widely associated with backup and recovery strategies, risk is also incurred in a variety of other business decisions, particularly in activities such as development, outsourcing, and implementation of new technologies or new services, where there is a defined satisfactory outcome and potential penalties in the event of failure.

India is poised to become the world's most populated country, and doing business there can be messy, chaotic, and thrilling. It is a nation that is creating its global future at a breathtaking pace, and it is taking the rest of the world along with it. The Indian communication style reflects its own culture: it can dart quickly in a new direction during negotiations and weave artfully through numerous ways of indirectly saying no. Indians see language not just as a means of communicating but as an ongoing process that builds relationships, gleans new ideas, and fosters trust.

Return on investment (ROI) is a fundamental concept in finance that, until a few years, was all but alien to IT organizations. With the infusion of financial literacy into IT planning and decision making, a number of vendors emerged with ROI calculation software packages. As these programs have evolved, managers shopping for such a utility today must ask whether the software adequately speaks to the complexities of IT investment and the nuances of risk and other elements that can drastically affect investment outcomes?

This is the last of a series of four Executive Updates in which I examine the results of a Cutter Consortium survey on service-oriented architecture (SOA). In this final Update, we shall be looking at the favorite products and vendors for SOA development, security, mainframe connectivity, and Enterprise Service Buses (ESBs). We shall also find which dynamic lookup techniques are preferred and see how organizations allocate and share responsibility for the administration of SOAs.