BizEng
February Feature
[G] Most people who work for -- or with -- large global businesses should know a little bit about their large information systems, often called Enterprise Solutions. If you are inside such a company, you may help decide the continuing nature of this huge task. If you are a customer or smaller company employed by that large company, knowing about their overall Enterprise Solutions may be useful to you in doing business. Also, if you are a small company, seeing how Enterprise Solutions are employed may help you select programs that cooperate in business with many others.Enterprise Solutions usually involve programs that serve a large part of a large company, often across the world. The problem is always how to quickly provide information to just those people we want to have it, and receive information from them as well. The solution comes in five words, each very important to the large global business. A good Enterprise Solution must be:
1
This means that a small activity can grow to a large size holding many more customers, files, and directories later than when it began. Perhaps the system must soon operate during all hours of the day and across the world. Often those programs which make large companies effective can also be scaled down to help smaller businesses use them to be more effective as well.
2
Large companies want to be sure that only people inside the company, and certain customers and vendors can get important information. However, a secure Enterprise Solution will also keep out 1000s of bad programs and unwanted sales messages. Security has many fast growing areas for better programs, such as secure money transfer, and ever more encryption to keep development plans and products from competitors.
3
A company has to project understandable costs for additions it makes to programs and systems, so they must be easy to program again for other needs. Also, the Enterprise Solution programs need to be tested in their early usage, and carefully maintained all during their expanded usage. The investment is huge, and the systems and servers which provide the Enterprise Solutions must continually be maintained and improved.
4
Selecting which information goes to what persons and making sure that information is as new as it needs to be, is a management job. Programs must have good entering and reporting tools so they won’t be difficult to manage. The management of Enterprise Solutions is one of the more important jobs in a modern large business, because they create productivity and effectiveness.
5
Often new machines and new services are added to the large company systems. A complete Enterprise Solution must then have programs that are portable to transfer the value they have enjoyed over to new systems and servers. Careful decisions when you are buying programs, or careful planning when creating programs, can give them the best chance of being portable to the new environment.
Note: BizEng will deliver certain articles in Globish [G] to assure their common understandability across many dialects and levels of English usage. See the 1500-word Globish dictionary or another article on Globish.
