Software Development and Deployment

Authors

Fern Halper, Partner

Judith Hurwitz, President and CEO

Marcia Kaufman, COO and Principal Analyst

Sponsored by Apigee Corporation

This report presents the results of a Hurwitz & Associates Web Application Programming Interface (API) study, “The Benefits of APIs in the App Economy.” This study examined how early adopters of Web APIs were able to gain significant business value by utilizing APIs across multiple platforms and devices. Hurwitz & Associates surveyed more than two dozen leading edge companies that are using APIs to transform their businesses. The results were significant. The research indicates that companies that took advantage of APIs experienced benefits in the following areas:

• Significant Improvement in Partner/Customer Reach. There was a greater than 70% increase in connecting to important customers and partners to build more profitable relationships.
• Increase in Web Traffic. There was 70% increase in web traffic and a 50% increase in web service usage by customers once the Web API was implemented.
• Faster Time to Onboard Partners. Early adopters discovered that there was a 30% decrease in the amount of time required to onboard partners. At the same time there was a 30% increase in the ability to bring new innovative ideas to market quickly.

Authors

Judith Hurwitz, President
Fern Halper, Ph.D, Partner
Marcia Kaufman, COO and Principal Analyst

Sponsored by IBM

Solution focus: IBM Rational Build Forge and IBM Rational Automation Framework for WebSphere (RAFW)

Software is a strategic asset that helps companies differentiate themselves from competitors, improve service, and optimize performance results. Business applications are pivotal in determining a company’s ability to grow and change in light of competitive threats and opportunities. Successful organizations have the infrastructure in place to automate processes that ensure consistency, predictability, and manageability of their applications environments. Consider that, only a few years ago, a typical application was changed no more than a few times a year. In contrast, software development, deployment, and operations are now in a constant state of change. It is now quite common for organizations to require weekly or even daily modification to software releases in order to remain competitive. Additionally, development and delivery groups are being asked to deliver new software at an increasing rate.

Authors

Judith Hurwitz, President

Marcia Kaufman, COO

Sponsored by IBM

IT Procurement managers often find a discrepancy between the number of software licenses purchased by the organization and the number actually in use.

You want to pay for the just the right number of software licenses, not too few or too many. This goal is not as simple as it sounds; over procurement continues to be an on-going problem in many businesses. Maintaining dynamic insight into the availability and management of all IT assets, including software, has become increasingly challenging as these assets are recognized as a vital component of the business fabric. An IT Procurement manager who doesn’t have an accurate picture of software assets usage, is likely to buy more software licenses than the company needs. On the other hand, if there are not enough licenses, the company may be hampered in being able to complete a project on time. Software contracts are complex because they take into account the version of software, the maintenance of that software platform, the costs associated with the hardware configuration, and the number of users authorized to use that software. As the number of licenses and the complexity of those licenses increases, the traditional methods of manually keeping track of software licenses becomes unwieldy. Improving the management of your IT assets can help ensure your company is in compliance with contract requirements and that you are optimizing the use of the IT assets you are paying for.

Authors

Judith Hurwitz, President

Marcia Kaufman, COO

Sponsored by IBM

IT Financial managers are accountable for an organization’s contractual obligations for licensed software.

The increasing prevalence of software audits places the IT Financial manager in a difficult position, unless he has immediate access to accurate information about software license usage at the organization. Often it takes a long time to compile the information required to gain a complete view of software license usage across the organization. Once the compilation is complete the IT Financial Manager is not always confident in the accuracy of this information. Software contracts are very complex because they must take into account the version of software, the maintenance of that software platform, the costs associated with the hardware configuration and the number of users authorized to use that software. As the number of licenses and the complexity of those licenses increases, the traditional manual methods of keeping track of software licenses becomes unwieldy. Improving the management of your IT assets can help ensure your company is in compliance with contract requirements and optimizing the use of the IT assets you are paying for.

Authors

Judith Hurwitz, President

Marcia Kaufman, COO

Sponsored by IBM

CIO’s want to ensure that all IT assets across the organization are well-managed in order to operate efficiently, control costs and comply with contract requirements and regulations.

However, as IT software contracts have become more complex and varied, many organizations recognize that they need a more automated approach to effectively manage software licenses. Software contracts are complex because they take into account the version of software, the maintenance of that software platform, the costs associated with the hardware configuration and the number of users authorized to use that software. In addition, it can be very challenging for organizations to understand how many licenses of a software product they have and how, where, and by whom these software products are being used. The CIO wants to ensure that the IT team has all the information it needs regarding how software is used and how the licenses are managed so the company is not at risk of failing an audit. The many variations in software license models and the increasing use of virtualization have added complexity to what should be a straightforward problem.