Industry Context

CIOs of B2B companies are faced with many challenges. They are to build more applications, at a faster pace with fewer resources. They have to integrate broader and deeper sets of data. All while being compliant and ensuring security. Employees must be enabled on the road; suppliers have to be brought closer to the organization. Communication channels have vastly expanded. Architecture models have proliferated, modernized and evolved.

Value Proposition

The solution: agile applications, delivered in a hybrid way, with end-to-end methodology delivered via measurable ROI. Software AG Live is a platform with 3 interlinked capabilities that deliver business agility and time-to-value, precisely addressing the challenges in the B2B space. The platform allows for the rapid development of applications that adjust to evolving business needs, their integration with legacy ground or cloud based systems and the business process documentation thereof.

Target audience

Focus for Software AG remains the Global 2000 and governmental audience. However, due to the lower barrier of entry that cloud represents, aspiring mid-sized companies will now also be able take advantage of Software AGs’ history of innovation. Beyond its traditional IT base, Software AG Live is particularly attractive for the business analyst profession and subject matter experts. Not only will they be able to design processes unique to their business area with Process Live (available Q3 2013), but they will also be able to implement them with AgileApps Live (available now). Finally corporate IT will be able to integrate these with existing systems using Integration Live (available Q1 2014).

As-a-Service

In developing our cloud proposition, Software AG paid particular attention to getting the service experience right. Amongst others, AgileApps Live, based on the recent LongJump acquisition, comes with self-service purchasing, automatic on-boarding and zero delay to deployment. This service orientation will be extended to the rest of the suite, a unique experience in the PaaS sector.

Differentiation

Three things allow Software AG Live to stand out. Firstly, on-premise, private cloud and public cloud are treated as equals. In other words 40+ years of on-premise innovation are now also available in the hybrid cloud. Second, data privacy and security are at the forefront of the service delivery experience. Diligence is given to ensure data is treated according to the world’s most comprehensive data protection laws and standards, which are further supported by leading security processes and technology. Finally, Software AG live is a unified platform with integration between its various sub-components.

Market promise

Software AG Live will …

1. Allow Capex to Opex transformation
2. Have returns measured in agility and time-to-market
3. Protect investments through high information security and data privacy

The post Introducing Software AG Live! A different approach to cloud computing that will stir up the PaaS market appeared first on Reality Check.

Here’s a summary of the highlights:

The new ARIS release provides social collaboration capabilities that leverage the wisdom of the crowd for process improvement and increased awareness and buy-in for your process excellence initiative.  Smarter analysis functions get more out of your existing process content and most notably  impact analysis has made a huge step forward. You want to see which IT system is supporting which process? This analysis is done in seconds and beautifully visualized. Cutting-edge user experience and self-explaining process visualizations will increase the process improvement footprint in your organization while central configuration, document management and license management/distribution will lower administration efforts. The new scalable private cloud architecture combines performance with maximum data security.

Process publication without the need to read a process model

ARIS Connect is a new product in the ARIS portfolio.  ARIS Connect generates process publication without the need to read an actual process model. With this anybody is now able to understand and improve processes.

Process modeling and social collaboration in ARIS Connect

In a process publication portal you can directly modify an existing process or design a new one. Need help? No problem, just start social collaborating to make the process better.

BPMN model in ARIS Architect

BPMN 2.0 is a first-class citizen in the new ARIS release. You can simulate, analyze, publish and export BPMN models.

Smart ad-hoc analysis in ARIS Architect

Let’s say you want to know which functions in a process are perfromed by Maria Lopez? Just use the ad-hoc analysis to find the answers in only a few seconds. Use the results to create output screens to share them in your organization.

Easy calculations and attribute maintenance

Spreadsheet is a new model type which looks simple but has a lot of power. Just drag and drop objects/processes on the grid and you can easily do calculations as you know it from Excel. If you change an attribute, it will also be changed in the models. You can directly create an ARIS MashZone dashboard on top of the grid.

I have been working with ARIS for more than 13 years now and I must say that this is by far the biggest step forward in ARIS history. So are you interested in finding out more?

- Visit our ARIS 9 website

- Attend our webinar series to see ARIS 9 in action

- Follow our ARIS blog on ARIS Community and read our post series focusing on the hottest ARIS features in the coming weeks.

The post ARIS 9 – The future of process is out now appeared first on Reality Check.

Today, there are four approaches when it comes to cloud integration. Let us look at them one-by-one and understand the pros and cons of each approach.

1. Point-to-point integration – This is the quickest and dirtiest approach in the book. This is when your developers have an all-night hackathon to create scripts and code snippets to connect one application with another (cloud or not). This model may work with a small company where only two or three applications need to be tied together. As is obvious, this approach is not scalable at all by any means. Code maintenance, upgrades and future development soon become nightmares. You can forget about IT agility to business needs as the company starts to expand.
2. On-premise integration solution – This approach can be easily adopted by companies that already have an integration infrastructure / Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) in place. They can just leverage the existing integration platform to connect with on-premise applications as well as SaaS applications. This is provided that the integration solution that you are using has such capabilities and framework to connect with any SaaS application seamlessly. Otherwise, you will end up having more developers coding their way out of this. The other point to also consider is that this is not a cloud solution.
3. iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) – In the last couple of years, this model has been gaining some maturity and attention amongst small companies. Enterprises that do not want to spend much on their infrastructure but still be more agile, adopt SaaS applications as needed. As an extension to the same methodology, the same enterprise also adopts an integration solution hosted by the solution provider themselves. This is called an iPaaS. This allows companies to not worry about setting up, maintaining and managing a complex integration infrastructure to integrate with SaaS applications. On the same note, I should also emphasize that an iPaaS is not a replacement for an ESB. As a matter of fact, Gartner predicts that more and more companies are going to adopt a hybrid integration infrastructure comprising of both an on-premise ESB and an on-cloud iPaaS.
4. Cloud Services Brokerage – This is very similar to the iPaaS except that in this case, even the development and maintenance of the integration maps and services are done by the solution provider themselves. Only very few small vendors offer this type of solution. This model has not caught on to the mainstream market yet. Not a lot of companies are willing to trust outsourcing their entire integration development to a third-party. So, for the sake of this conversation here, I am not going to spend any time on this topic.

There is no such thing as the “ideal way” of how you should integrate with the cloud but there are definitely right and wrong ways of doing so. Given the four approaches above, you are better off with either option 2 or 3 based on the size of your IT department, your application infrastructure, your existing integration architecture and future growth plans. iPaaS will definitely give you greater flexibility in scaling up your integration infrastructure based on how your business grows. But, in the interim, as you step up to adopt an iPaaS, a hybrid architecture of option 2 and 3 together might be more beneficial for various reasons. We will discuss this in a later post in more detail.

Software AG launches Integration LIVE (iPaaS)

With the acquisition of LongJump, Software AG has positioned itself in a very strategic position to guide its 4000+ customers in addressing the cloud integration challenges. As a part of its most exciting launch of version 9.0 set of products in June 2013, it will be releasing webMethods CloudStreams, which addresses bullet #2 in the above list of approaches. For more information on that product, you can click on this link.

Today, Software AG announced an even more exciting future plan for our cloud strategy – Software AG Live, the first cloud-based Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) suite. Amongst the three components that make up Software AG Live, the one that is of interest in this particular scope of conversation is Integration Live. This is an integration PaaS which enables cloud-to-cloud integration and seamlessly connects with private cloud or on-premise Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) installations. Integration Live will offer an unmatched combination of ease-of-use and enterprise-strength and will be compatible with webMethods Integration Server, the market leading ESB from Software AG. Availability is scheduled for Q1 of 2014.

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Whether you’re focused on improving business processes and integration, or looking for new strategies around Big Data or transactions, this one global event will inspire you with groundbreaking innovation and insights.

• Learn how you can transform your organization into a Digital Enterprise that acts faster in ever-changing market

• Discover how to capitalize on mobile, social, cloud and big data while leveraging your current IT investments

• Visit product-specific Innovation Worlds on ARIS, webMethods, Terracotta and Adabas-Natural

• Engage with hundreds of peers, valued industry experts, and inspiring digital leaders

This one international event is for everyone interested in IT-driven innovation centered around delivering business value and solutions people never thought possible. Register today and take advantage of the early bird savings.

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For example, we have customers embedding OneData portlets in some of their applications. This provides read-only access to data, but it’s just like being there. Actually it IS being there, with anonymous user privileges.

We have other customers granting permissions to view only specific data for the intended user through direct links into OneData Objects. Yes, you can actually filter this data which might be useful for sensitive data, or to comply with privacy or other regulatory mandates.

Some of our customers are accessing data in the field using their iPads. This becomes quite handy when you’re on the go and can’t wait until you get to a computer to obtain needed information.

We even have customers who have placed OneData in the cloud, providing data and services to THEIR customers!

As companies scale up, they find that they may need additional database licenses, which can quickly add to their TCO. But we have a solution. Using Terracotta, you can load your MDM repository contents into memory. Not only do you get better performance, but you save the cost of additional database licenses. You only need a small database to persist this data.

To summarize, we have portlets to access mastered data, direct database links to specific data, iPad access, cloud access and in-memory access to trusted data.

In addition, OneData has a unique capability to centrally master data in the enterprise which is external to it’s own repository! It can manage this data as if it were it’s own. Really!

So when I started thinking about the many places where master data can be accessed and managed, I came up with the idea that webMethods OneData is the trusted data everywhere MDM platform. And there you have it.

The post webMethods OneData – The Trusted Data Everywhere MDM Platform appeared first on Reality Check.

According to IDC, for “the past several years, the IT industry’s transition to the 3rd Platform, built on mobile computing, cloud services, social networking, and big data analytics technologies, has dominated the annual Predictions… For 2013, IDC predicts the transition to the 3rd Platform will shift into high gear as the industry accelerates past the exploration phase and into full-blown, high stakes competition.”

Yes folks, the time is now. Gartner echoes the same beliefs. “Mr. Cearley said these strategic technologies are emerging amidst a nexus of converging forces – social, mobile, cloud and information. Although these forces are innovative and disruptive on their own, together they are revolutionizing business and society, disrupting old business models and creating new leaders. As such, the Nexus of Forces is the basis of the technology platform of the future.”

And our customers are ready for change too. We recently polled over 800 ProcessWorld attendees and the survey confirms that Big Data, Cloud, Mobile and Collaborative technologies will show adoption rates of over 20% in the next 24 months. The simultaneous adoption of these technologies is significantly changing the way enterprises do business and accelerating the reaction of enterprises to changing customer and market behavior. Asked to identify technologies that will open major business opportunities, over 20% of responders see the management of Big Data and collaborative work practices as important technologies, over 30% see Cloud and mobile applications driving new business and over 40% see BPM as the key technology in the digital enterprise.

At ProcessWorld 2012 Software AG announced a major update to its webMethods and ARIS business process product suites focusing on integrating Big Data with Business Processes and the Cloud. The validity of this strategy has been fully confirmed by this survey. “Driving the adoption of these technologies is the need for faster, better informed business decisions”, stated Software AG CTO, Wolfram Jost. “But the real-time data, rapid scalability and fast decision making enabled by these technologies are of little use if companies still take months or years to implement business process change. The market will not wait, By integrating business processes with Big Data, the Cloud and both Mobile and Collaborative applications we are giving enterprises an uninterrupted rapid response service to changing market conditions”.

ProcessWorld attendees primarily saw the integration of on and off premise application integration as the main driver for Cloud adoption. “Rapid scalability is key in the light of the survey’s findings”, said Wolfram Jost. “And rapid integration of existing on-premise infrastructure with Cloud based applications is a significant feature of webMethods 9.0. We developed both webMethods 9.0 and ARIS 9.0 in close cooperation with major customers and this survey shows that we are right on track”.

The impact of these technologies is huge. Organizations can save billions of dollars a year and dramatically increase their operating profit by adopting and implementing these strategic technologies. Is your enterprise ready for the new wave of cloud, mobile, social and big data? Where does your organization see the most value in the 4 forces?

The post Big Data, Cloud, and Process Management Are Driving the Digital Enterprise appeared first on Reality Check.

What I found interesting about this study done by Forrester, Research Now and Linkedin was that it proves IT decision makers are influenced by social media and peer networks when it comes to making real buying decisions. Something we’ve believed in for years at Software AG, which is why we’ve created 100+ social channels and new innovative social media programs for you to learn from. Here are a just few ways our social channels are valuable for IT decision makers.

• 58% of IT decision makers leverage social networks to learn from peers. We recognize it’s not always us you want to hear from. Which is why the ‘you’ in youtube allows you to share a technical tip or talk about a Software AG project you’re proud of and win $500. Peers want to hear from peers so share a story with others and get rewarded.
• 40% of technology professionals use social networks to connect with vendors and learn from industry experts. Whether you’re looking to learn about customer case studies, best practices or the latest industry innovations and trends be sure to bookmark Reality Check as a social destination for knowledge gold.
• 40% of technology professionals use social media to quickly find relevant information. And who wouldn’t. Don’t be the person who misses out on the latest infographics like ‘Innovation Sucks’ or ‘The True Cost of Bad Data’. Valuable statistics are only a click away with social media.

And if you’re really just trying to find out if this social stuff works for you, than start by following some of our social channels and see if the content meets your needs. My guess is, it will. Good luck getting social in 2013!

The post Why Getting Social Improves IT Decision Making appeared first on Reality Check.

“In this Magic Quadrant, the Leaders have a broad range of capabilities to support EA, combined with the ability to deliver these capabilities to a diverse group of stakeholders. Although each of the Leaders has different strengths, they all provide good capabilities to assist the EA mission to translate business vision and strategy into effective enterprise change. In addition, they have a clear vision of the direction and maturation of the EA discipline.”

Gartner recognizes there are increasing challenges that enterprise architects are facing. “Enterprise architects, beyond the getting-started stage, are eventually challenged with a number of problems beyond the capabilities of office productivity tools to support. These challenges include managing a large number of artifacts; capturing the complex relationships between many elements across those artifacts; conducting gap analysis, impact analysis, scenario planning and modeling; and presenting information to stakeholders. The enterprise architecture (EA) tool market has evolved to produce professional-grade tools designed to address these challenges.”

Software AG has continued its commitment to the enterprise architecture market by ensuring a portfolio of products that complement the base ARIS EA tool. The Software AG ARIS Platform offers value to a variety of  stakeholders both business and IT, extending the value of EA across departments and roles. “Core to our strategy of providing customers with maximum business value is to establish an agile enterprise architecture which allows IT in alignment with business goals and strategies,” said Dr. Wolfram Jost, Chief Technology Officer and member of the Group Executive Board, Software AG. “We are proud to be named in the Leaders Quadrant for Enterprise Architecture Tools in this latest Magic Quadrant. Considering that EA matures into a strategic planning discipline that must be operationalized, ARIS facilitates support for this discipline with its enterprise-class performance, ease-of-use, comprehensive feature set and support for cross-enterprise collaboration. Our customers acknowledge the consistent evolution of ARIS towards social, cloud, mobile and big data/analytics.”

With our upcoming ARIS 9.0 release, our customers will be able to provide every stakeholder with the right tool environment, product perspective, information, data and user interface to address his or her role-specific skills and needs. You can adapt the tool to project-specific requirements, from metamodel to UI configurations. We want to thank our customers for driving continuous innovations that make our product platforms technology market leaders. For more information about ARIS 9.0, download the ARIS 9.0 Innovations Brochure. Share what you think makes our ARIS platform a market leader in the Enterprise Architecture space.

The post How a Complete Vision Makes You a Market Leader appeared first on Reality Check.

The ProcessWorld mobile app was a big hit used by 578 attendees. The app was used 12,959 times to choose songs for the general session, download collateral, provide feedback and much more. The LinkedIn group had 352 members, and the Twitter #PW12 hashtag had about 150,000 impressions. Our customers appreciated a new and different way to network and engage with their peers.

The new “Meet the experts” program generated 119 one-on-one meetings with attendees and Software product experts. There were also 61 “executive exchange” meetings scheduled between attendees and Software AG board members.

Attendees were enthused about ways the new 9.0 releases address the cloud – a big topic of interest among nearly all attendees.

CTO, Dr. Wolfram Jost unveils the BIG news about ARIS and webMethods 9.0 in his General Session keynote. Attendees are ready, eager and waiting for cloud, social, big data and mobile in our new releases.

John Rymer, Forrester; Ivo Totev, CMO; Robin Gilthorpe, CEO Terracotta; and Cheryl Hawkins host a press roundtable on the ARIS and webMethods 9.0 release. The journalists represented CIO Magazine, Information Week, ComputerWorld Hungary, IT in Canada and many publications.

Accordingly to the on-site ProcessWorld survey 90% of attendees would recommend ProcessWorld to others and 85% plan to return again. The two biggest reasons customers attend are to learn new approaches to solutions (75%) and see successful project examples (67%).

The new “Quotation Station” video testimonial booth enticed 36 customers to record video comments about Software AG and our products. The video booth was a fun attraction throughout the day and customers were excited to share their stories on camera. Watch some of the videos on youtube.

And the fun and learning didn’t stop there. Check out more photos on our Software AG Facebook page. We look forward to seeing you again next year.

The post ProcessWorld 2012 Highlights: If a Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words, Let’s Show Pictures! appeared first on Reality Check.

Do you know iKnow?

iKnow is:

“a process visibility solution featuring real-time performance and cycle-time monitoring with ‘right-time’ alerts when transactions and trends are outside measured norms”

In smaller words, it’s a way to know what’s happening in your supply chain with enough information and context to fix problems and then prevent them from recurring.

Need even smaller words? Watch this 2 minute video to see if iKnow is for you.

The post 2 Minutes to Know iKnow appeared first on Reality Check.