Research

Coverage. We cover (mostly) enterprise applications — ERP, CRM, SRM, and SCM. Because they are crucial to the value one gets from business applications, we also cover information technologies, such as EAI, Web Services, portals, OLAP tools, and reporting tools,(which we call infrastructure).

Both the companies and the applications are covered.

We don't cover really deep infrastructure, like security, databases, or app servers. We only cover integration applications and Web Services when they are material to making business applications more effective.

We like to characterize the space as shown at left. The circle is the universe of business applications.

Applications that provide value only to internal operations (like traditional ERP, but including PDM/PLM and MES) are put at the center.

Applications that touch both the company and its immediate business relationships (like SRM, CRM, or B2B-I) are in a ring around the core applications. And the B—>B applications provide pure connectivity and support across an entire network of business interactions.

Because we are staffed only by very experienced people, we are able to give informed and considered opinions on applications and vendors in all these spaces—despite our small size.

We try to bring you what we know in a form that is suitable to you. We have different publication programs for different audiences.

Research Agenda. Our new research is always focused on innovative technologies that have the potential to produce significant value.

For 2003, our focus was Profit Optimization. This report is available only to customers. In 2004, we will be focusing on areas like Sarbanes-Oxley and analytics.

In 2002, our focus was SRM. Our report on Strategic Sourcing is no longer available, but you can see still-useful material from it on this web site.

For a view of some of our research reports, please look through the material in the research portion of this site. If this work interests you, you might consider subscribing to Short Takes or contacting us about becoming a sponsor of our current research.