Wising up to web services
Softworld 2003 is now underway, but research carried conducted on over 200 visitors to the October 2002 Softworld Accounting & Finance show, reveal that finance professionals predict a surge in web services investment.
A staggering 95% of respondents are planning to invest in the technology within the next twelve months. This is compared to a similar survey at last years Spring event when a mere 55% said they were planning to invest.
The figures highlight a change in attitude from finance departments which seem more willing than ever to invest in technology. Research also revealed that organisations have already linked finance functions with other parts of their business – in some cases, customers and partners.
64% of those companies interviewed have integrated their systems, compared to 34% from earlier in the year. Of the 36% that have not yet done so, 26% intend to.
‘At the beginning of the year when we conducted the first round of research, it was clear that many organisations were just starting to realise the benefits of integrating systems in order to streamline their business processes,’ said Justin Opie, portfolio director at Softworld organisers, Imark Communications. ‘It is only now that we can see businesses actually putting this into practice.’
James Neophytou, a consultant at IBM Business Consulting Services erred on the side of caution and said that careful planning is required. ‘As with the web itself, it will pay to solve problems incrementally rather than waiting for a magic wand that will dispel all reservations,’ he said.