Organizations are turning to Packaged Applications

Enterprises love to work with packaged solutions mostly due to shorter implementation cycles as well as due to the proven capability of the packaged solution. Yet seldom any packaged solution provides the exact solution that an enterprise seeks for its business operations as a result the need for enhancements and customizations arise.

Today, IT organizations are increasingly concerned about aligning their technology investments with corporate strategies and business objectives. Most business application development projects arise from the realization that there is a misalignment between the needs of the business and the technologies intended to support these needs. There may be new business goals or opportunities, the technology may be aging or growing unreliably, or the current automation might just be inadequate.

Once the business goals are specified, application development organizations turn to packaged applications to provide part of their overall solution. A packaged application provides a predefined solution within a well-defined business area. Underlying this solution is the package framework — the architectural foundation that determines the general behavior and extent of the out-of-the-box functionality. The framework includes some key elements:

•Built-in processes and rules implementing a vendor’s recommended practices within the business function.

•The major abstractions representing the business objects, such as Accounts, Contacts, Orders; the user interface elements that allow you to create, modify, and relate objects to each other; and the elements that provide process and communication control.

•A set of mechanisms that control the interaction and exchange of information with other systems and applications; this allows you to integrate functionality to provide a broader set of capabilities

When using a packaged application, there should be a good alignment between the package’s core processes and the organizations desired business practices. This helps to reduce effort compared to traditional custom development projects. If there are differences that go beyond configuration, the organization should be prepared to adapt its business practices to the package in order to minimize risk and reduce the cost of implementation. To minimize this risk, you must conduct a well-defined package evaluation and selection process. To do this effectively, you must have a detailed description of the desired business environment so that you can evaluate all aspects of the package’s functionality and framework in relation to each business goal.

Tags: Packaged Application Services, Packaged Application Software Development, Packaged Application Solution

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 31st, 2009 at 9:45 AM and is filed under Packaged Applications. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.