The Stage

In today's fast moving market environment COM systems are becoming an essential component for allowing organisations to react in real-time to meet their customers needs. There is often only a narrow window of opportunity to service these customer needs and this requires COM systems to be flexible and easy to use.

The challenge facing organisations is not, 'if to invest', but rather 'when to invest', in COM systems. However, the integration of COM systems across an enterprise is a costly exercise, and because developments are taking place at a very rapid rate this is creating the risk of possible early obsolescence. These factors i.e. costs, complexity, and competitive forces, generate the need for careful and considered planning of proposed COM implementations.

The growing requirement for the provision of customised products, while at the same time maintaining existing prices and levels of support, is escalating the need for organisations to implement more efficient COM systems. A balance needs to be struck concerning the services which can be profitably offered in a given market, versus the competitive nature of that market, and the growing customer demands for improved services..