It sounds so simple, yet it's one of the most difficult and costly things to achieve in business today. In the early '90s, brilliant technologists devised complex interfaces to connect the systems deemed critical to the organization's success. This created a tangle of technology that was nearly impossible to manage. Unfortunately, even the biggest of the big systems still don't do it all.
Data goes to a central spot, where it gets translated to the format of the requesting application.
And the technologists have a focal point for their integration efforts. However one goes about integrating data, it's still a bloody nightmare to manage, and the costs are ghastly. Even the best solutions have traps and hidden costs. Systems complexity is not the only form of chaos CIOs worry about these days. In this issue, we also conclude our Great Expectations series, which has followed the fortunes of three CIOs during the past two years.