In business, no two challenges are the same. To be effective now and in the future, organizations must be able to adapt with speed and agility. Read this white paper to learn how enterprise mashups can help you use existing IT assets and projects to solve situational problems and take advantage of business opportunities.
Web 2.0 technology solutionsWhite paperAugust 2008
The business case for enterprise
mashups.
Nicole Carrier, product manager, IBM Lotus Mashups, IBM Software Group
Tom Deutsch, product marketing, customer advocate, IBM Information Management, IBM Software Group
Chris Gruber, product manager, IBM InfoSphere MashupHub, IBM Software Group
Mark Heid, enterprise mashups market manager, IBM Information Management, IBM Software Group
Lisa Lucadamo Jarrett, offering manager, IBM Lotus Mashups, IBM Software GroupThe business case for enterprise mashups.Page 2
Why mashups matterContents In business, organizational responsiveness and effectiveness are moving targets. No situation or challenge is the same as the last one. To be effective now and in 2 Why mashups matter the future, organizations must be able to adapt existing ways of working to new 3 The promise of enterprise challenges with speed and agility that was unimaginable even five years prior. mashups-the long tail Technology needs to allow companies to act appropriately and competitively 6 What are the business drivers regardless of the situation-without long lead times or high incremental expense.for enterprise mashups?10 How are enterprise mashups More and more companies are turning to enterprise mashups, which combine created and who is involved? information and capabilities from more than one source to deliver new func-13 The technology behind tions and insights. Businesses can remix information from inside and outside enterprise mashups: IBM the enterprise to solve situational problems quickly. Individual users can create Mashup Center and IBM these situational applications themselves, by "mashing" together multiple infor-WebSphere sMash software mation sources into a lightweight Web application that is "good enough" to solve 23 Enterprise mashups extend the reach of SOA and information a situational problem that pops up.in new ways Enterprise mashups complement existing IT assets and projects that address 25 Conclusion and next steps strategic business processes-they help individuals create applications to solve a situational problem versus mission-critical, strategic IT-created assets that support the entire enterprise. Enabling business users in this way can reduce application backlog, development time and costs and can lower the cost of cus-tomizing information so individuals can adapt information easily into exactly the form they need it-increasing the reuse of existing assets to reach new audiences more cost-effectively. Research indicates that the average IT shop spends 63% or more of its budget on ongoing expenses, leaving precious few dollars for new proj-1ects or custom applications. There is clear value in using enterprise mashups to enable business users to fulfill their own requests and to focus scarce IT resources on strategic business applications for core business processes.
The value of enterprise mashups is measured not only through cost reduction and productivity, but also in terms of innovation and growth. In 2008, 8 out of 10 CEO's indicated their organizations were facing substantial change in the next 3 years and rated their ability to manage change 22% lower than their expected 2need for change. A successful strategy for adapting to rapidly changing business needs includes providing more people with the tools and information they need to look at situational problems differently, develop insights into solving them, The business case for enterprise mashups.Page 3
and take advantage of new business opportunities. Enterprise mashups help Highlights accomplish this goal cost-effectively in a compelling interface. Forrester expects that a fully implemented mashup platform will garner licenses from somewhere 3With enterprise mashups, employ- between 55-95% of all employees. Imagine the level of innovation that can be ees can create applications that achieved by enabling more than 50 percent of your employees to create simple help them solve situational applications that help them solve a situational problem or take advantage of a problems and take advantage new business opportunity. The economics of reaching more people, engaging of business opportunities. them with the right information effectively and letting them collaborate is a core principle of Web 2.0 technology. Enterprise mashups bring together many elements of Web 2.0 principles and technologie... [download for more]
