Of course, the value proposition only works if the underlying technology landscape is highly heterogeneous: if a de jure or de facto standard emerges the value of the middleware technology diminishes quickly.
One of our US clients, in manufacturing, echoes a sentiment felt by many when she says: "Middleware was supposed to hide the complexity created by heterogeneous systems, not expose my developers to more complexity of a different kind!
But if I met such a customer, I would tell him that over time he will spend more money because it's very difficult to manage such a heterogeneous environment of point solutions - even if it's on top of an open platform.
The report added: "Organised leadership is needed to optimise the exploitation of ICT but it must balance inspiration and positive intervention without the risk of being over prescriptive or stifling innovation.
The key business priorities for 2007 are improving processes and workforce performance, attracting new customers and reducing costs, the Gartner survey found. Innovation is seen by enterprises as critical to building new capabilities that will...
For example, it will force consolidation in payment infrastructures and this is changing the traditional business model. As a result, consolidation is already happening with the creation of Equens, the merger of Dutch, German and Italian processors.