Only recently have most companies started to seriously consider the changes they must make to their core information systems in order to successfully deploy major applications on the Internet, intranet, and related forms of open distributed computing. Companies were largely caught flat-footed by the rapid rise of the Internet and are having a tough time playing catch-up.

In 1997, IMA, a well-known independent software vendor of large-scale, high-volume customer interaction center (call center) applications, made a conscious decision to re-architect its entire software line and its software development organization around component technology and open distributed computing.

As most readers know, reengineering was a popular management concern at the beginning of the 1990s. Reengineering was largely a response to data that indicated that companies had spent vast amounts of money on computers yet received little back in the way of increased productivity.

With the Y2000 crisis behind us (keep your fingers crossed), most IT departments will now turn their attention to two serious issues: integrating the legacy systems that have been mostly neglected over the past five years and building an e-business component of the enterprise. Ideally, you could do both with the use of a new breed of software called enterprise application integration (EAI).

I am sure many of you have heard people say that "no one is using object database management systems [ODBMSs] in serious applications," or that "they are slow," or that "they cannot support large databases." Well, that is all bunk. In fact, the inverse of these myths is actually the truth.

Acta Technology has introduced new components that extend its ActaWorks data warehouse extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) tools to provide an architecture that lets companies externalize data from their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, making it available to customers, suppliers, an

Brio Technology has introduced a packaged analytical application designed specifically for revenue optimization.

Internet retailer Outpost.com is using Sagent Technology's data mart platform to analyze customer data and perform clickstream management in order to identify online customer cross-sell and up-sell opportunities.

This issue of BIA covers a number of important topics, including Web mining, data warehousing and e-commerce, and revenue optimization.

Those who make, apply, and support information technology cannot adequately respond to the pace of technology change.

Those who make, apply, and support information technology cannot adequately respond to the pace of technology change.

Seeking order in a sea of chaos? Chaos, in the case of an IT project, means being caught up in the miscommunications, politicking, competing agendas, and confusion inherent in many large-scale initiatives. Better tools, methods, training, and technology have not improved our ability to deliver high-quality, on-time projects.

If we have virtual corporations operating over the Internet, they will be using software. If we have household appliances that you control from your office or car, your control will be implemented by software. If e-business is a mega trend, as indeed its position on the covers of leading business magazines declares it to be, it, too, will depend upon software.

Work is changing. The classic definition of work is radically shifting. We all know it; we can taste it and feel it in many experiences of our daily life. Think of a department store in the '50s and '60s. It consisted of a building, bricks and mortar, with people inside who bought goods from well-established firms, often in exactly the same way they had for years.

Work is changing. The classic definition of work is radically shifting. We all know it; we can taste it and feel it in many experiences of our daily life. Think of a department store in the '50s and '60s. It consisted of a building, bricks and mortar, with people inside who bought goods from well-established firms, often in exactly the same way they had for years.

Work is changing. The classic definition of work is radically shifting. We all know it; we can taste it and feel it in many experiences of our daily life. Think of a department store in the '50s and '60s. It consisted of a building, bricks and mortar, with people inside who bought goods from well-established firms, often in exactly the same way they had for years.

At the beginning of every decade, it's customary to peer into the future and make bold predictions about the likely developments in virtually every aspect of human endeavor. Given the rapid rate of progress in the computer field, it's particularly common to see such periodic predictions about the future of hardware, programming languages, and other aspects of the IT profession.

Today, there are very few five-year development projects. Development projects, mirroring business needs, are now more often than not measured in months, even weeks.

Those who make, apply, and support information technology cannot adequately respond to the pace of technology change.

Those who make, apply, and support information technology cannot adequately respond to the pace of technology change.

Work is changing. The classic definition of work is radically shifting. We all know it; we can taste it and feel it in many experiences of our daily life. Think of a department store in the '50s and '60s.

Work is changing. The classic definition of work is radically shifting. We all know it; we can taste it and feel it in many experiences of our daily life. Think of a department store in the '50s and '60s.