Moderator:
Tony Baer (TB), principal, onStrategies; formerly an analyst with Datamonitor/Computerwire

Panelists:
Barry Vandevier (BV), CTO, Travelocity
Sandeep Gupta (SG), Vice President, Strategic Software Development, Equifax
Chris French (CF), Partner, Deloitte Consulting
Sam Paper (SP), Senior Vice President, Client Management and Credit Technology, Strategy and Service Orientation, Bank of America

TB: What is your strategy on .NET?

SP: We’re pleased with the responsiveness of ILOG in bringing .NET products to market. Particularly the Microsoft integration. We look forward to seeing this in JRules.

TB: How is the economic environment effecting your product development?

BV: We’re currently assessing our view of spend. But we do need to continue to innovate. We’re still focussed on our strategy on services. Our global development team is also important to us. Whether or not there’s a recession we still have to do our core business.
SG: We are proceeding with caution. We’re seeing some strain in the retail sector. From an innovation point of view you need to be in the right place if the recession does hit. We will still need to meet our customer’s requirements tomorrow, hence we need to continue planning and spending.
CF: We still expect to grow over the next year, although we have seen a slowdown in the FSI industry.
SP: From the IT side, paradoxically there is more opportunity for IT investment to help streamline operations and make processes more efficient.

TB: On a related note, the dollar is not as strong as it has been. How has this affected your global picture?

BV: We find talent across the globe - albeit India or Argentina. Development and marketing in a global realm makes a lot of sense for us.
SG: On the supply side, we have not seen any major drop as a result of the change in exchange rate.
SP: We have a global model - even the work we’re doing with ILOG is coming out of Shanghai. You need to have flexibility from where you deliver your solutions.
SP: All of our BRMS development is here in the US. This has not had a major effect on us.

TB: There has always been a gap between the C* suite and IT. How do you deal with this?

SG: The divide is growing wider. It’s becoming more difficult for the C* suite to understand the strategic level: an example being which technologies will survive the current proliferation. IT wants to be oblivious to what the business imperatives are. Technical teams need to make sure they do take on the needs of the C* suite.
BV: IT is always pushed to develop faster. BRMS is a key element to help us achieve this. If we get to the points where we need to quickly change suppliers, we can do so with a BRMS. Better, faster, cheaper.
SP: A BRMS capability gives the business more transparency, flexibility.

TB: As a profession, are we getting too infatuated with open source?

BV: We’re big fans of open source but we do use commercial applications as well. It depends on the application -it’s a balance. We are also intersted in standards and make sure that we don’t just jump on the latest technologies.
SG: What has happened with open source is a phenomenon. But it does depend on the business use. Open source particularly benefits the new entrants into the market.
CF: This area is more driven by our clients needs.
SP: It’s a balance - we have to look at each case closely.

TB: Can we overdo process?

BV: If you’re not careful, you can go overboard. Particularly if you over-adopt SOX. You have to make sure you have a happy medium.
SG: As far as the BRMS is concerned, it depends where you are. Eg. government needs due diligence. If the process is heavier, you need more people. If you are leaner, you can get greater ROI from your workforce. Google is a great case in point. We need to make sure we have the right balance.
CF: One problem we have is how we rationalise and limit the redundancy where many systems are concerned. You have to make sure you don’t just layer on top of legacy systems as this will lead to problems in the future.

TB: How do you avoid the technical/political tug of war with the adoption of a BRMS?

CF: We had to look at what a rule was and where we should apply them. Rules are everywhere but you need to concentrate on the core rules. What is actually impacted? You need to get into the science of what rules are about and where they should be applied.
SP: We need to focus on our core applications to redeploy a BPM/SOA. We haven’t talked about our packaged applications.